Four Negative Thoughts That Are Hindering Your Weight-loss Goals

by | Sep 29, 2022

toxic body storage

You might be holding yourself back when it comes to building healthy habits, because that’s just it— habits are built over time.

My favourite part of nutrition counselling is helping my clients see how their thinking patterns and assumptions are actually sabotaging their hard work, and then how to reframe.

Here are four ways you might be digging your own pitfalls.

  1. Perfectionism

When you let go of perfectionism, you open yourself to the possibility of improvement, and any improvement is worth making. Sustainable change does not happen by flipping a switch. I didn’t learn how to plan, implement and prepare a healthy meal plan in a single one-hour class. Why would you expect yourself to?

  1. All or nothing attitude

Often, by the time a client gets to me, they’ve already cycled through many rounds of different diets alternating with eating whatever they want. They may have lost and regained weight more than once. When we talk over their history, they typically say that they were “doing really well” and then hit a wall, and they feel like they’ve failed.

  1. Magical thinking

All of us fall for this one from time to time, and make no mistake — health food and supplement marketers know it. They’re well aware we will pay a lot of money for the fairy tale that will let us eat whatever we want, so that’s what they try to sell us. It’s not just pills, either —there’s always some super food fad that takes a grain of truth and balloons it out of proportion.

Science doesn’t know everything, so sometimes advice changes over time, but it’s clinically proven to be more reliable than magic beans!

  1. Shaming

Maybe the thing about feeling your new lifestyle is “broken” when you’ve had a bad week rings a bell. What do you remember telling yourself at times like that? For many of us, it’s a real shame spiral, progressing from “I’m bad at healthy living” to “I’m bad at everything.” Not only is this untrue, it’s also counterproductive.

There are even studies showing that people who are shamed by those around them have higher cortisol levels and are less likely to find a healthy medium. These thinking patterns are natural, and that’s why they’re hard to change. The techniques to counteract them take a long time to develop, and sometimes they can be really difficult or painful to process.

Just start where you are, maybe take a few notes, and talk to some friends who are trying to make changes themselves.

Better yet, seek out professional help, even if you don’t think you are in great pain about anything. Everyone needs support. You may be the expert on your own life, but other people are sometimes the experts on how to change it.

I always say there is no one size fits all and it could take weeks or months to find out exactly what works for you.

Lifestyle and goals, unfortunately there is no quick fix.

This tool does not provide medical advice, it is intended for information purposed only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never ignore professional medical advice in seeking treatment because of something you have read on the Coach The Colleen website. If you suspect you may have a medical emergency, immediately call your doctor or dial 911.

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