5 Surprising Ways You Are Killing Your Weight-Loss Progress

So, there’s a fast food wrapper trail of broken promises behind you. Your willpower is missing in action. You’re sinking in the quicksand of guilt and complacency. Your self esteem is shot. 

You’ve tried everything to find diets that work — weight loss supplements, calorie counting, low carb diets, weight loss teas — you name it. It’s not fair! Other people can lose weight. You rationalize that maybe it’s in your genes or maybe it’s your addictive personality.   

Here’s your fork: Continue to wallow, or keep reading.

It’s time to discover what you’ve been doing wrong, so that you can finally learn the best way to lose weight:

1. You're denying yourself the things you want.

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When someone tells you that you can’t have ice cream, you just want it even more. Simple human nature. Willpower…not very powerful. So instead of denying yourself, embrace your desire. Own it.

If you are going to indulge, CHOOSE to indulge. Take the time to eat it slowly and savor every bite. Allow yourself to get the true satisfaction of eating it.  

Sometimes this can be scary. You may be worried if you give yourself permission to have it, you’ll never stop.  

Think of this like a pendulum; it may swing back and forth for a bit, but whatever rhythm it settles in to will be more in tune with your needs than the tune you’re playing now.  

2. You crave instant gratification.

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The taste. The escape. The sin of indulgence. The glory of rebellion. The satisfaction of saying #$@&%*! it. Let’s face it, in that moment you could care less about your weight loss goals — or pretty much anything. 

The funny thing is when you talk to people who do this (and by now I have personally spoken to many hundreds of them), they admit that they usually just gulp the junk down and don’t even pay attention to the taste.  They don’t heed their body’s signals.

Admit it, after binging, your body feels at least as crappy as the guilt and shame. So why not remind yourself of this BEFORE you eat 10 chocolate chip cookies, or a whole pizza or whatever your poison. Then see how tempting it actually is.

3. You eat through your emotions.

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I once had a client whose friend would call her up and say: “Let’s go for ice cream. I want to eat my feelings.”  

At least when kids say, “the dog ate my homework,” they know they are lying. Let’s face it, feelings are not edible. You finish the pint of ice cream, and the momentary high is followed with feeling even crappier.  

Stop conning yourself with a calorie-ridden band-aid. Find healthy ways to deal with your emotions.

4. You're trying too hard to be perfect.

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Diets often play to the all or nothing mentality of perfectionism. They claim to have the magic formula for you to FINALLY be the thin god or goddess you were meant to be. 

Count every calorie. Never again eat even a single sugar crystal. Weigh yourself every time you spot a scale out of the corner of your eye. Follow the diet plan to a tee. All of this divorces you from your body, and from reality — which makes real weight loss a pipe dream.

Let’s face it, to have healthy weight loss, there has to be room for you to be human. You’re going to go out with your friends, go on vacation, celebrate your birthday, enjoy the Christmas season. That’s part of living.  So, ditch perfection and shoot for good enough.

5. You don't give it enough time.

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How many times have you been bummed out that you’ve stuck to your diet plan for a whole WEEK and you STILL don’t look good in that bikini? Then use it as an excuse to say “screw it” and crack open the chips?

I don’t need to tell you that this will take time. Be nice to yourself. Realistic weight loss is your friend. Stick with it. Take small achievable steps. Celebrate taking the actions. Reward yourself along the way. 

Make these 5 changes, and you can get off the diet roller coaster and lay the ground work for sustainable weight loss.

Robbie Spier Miller is an expert in hypnosis and NLP, and a human performance coach helping people with weight loss, smoking habits, stress management, self-esteem, relationships and communication. To get more information about neuro-linguistic programming, read "Heart of Mind."