What’s the most annoying thing people say when they talk about losing weight and getting healthy?

You Have to Change Your Lifestyle

I know – it’s an awful phrase and it’s been said so many times, it almost feels like it’s lost its meaning.

So, let’s break this whole thing down.

When you look at how we do things, there are generally two approaches to weight loss that many of us take.

One is the all-or-nothing route, like going on a trendy diet.

This is a popular route because when you go on a diet, you eat less food and you lose weight, right? The downside of this is that we simply can’t follow those kinds of diets forever.

There’s too much deprivation and most of these diets just don’t work in the real world. Another thing about dieting is this – When you go back to your normal eating habits, which is kind of inevitable, you usually gain back more weight than you lost.

Worst of all? When you diet, you lose muscle so when you gain back the weight you gain more fat.

Now, let’s talk about the other approach – the changing your lifestyle thing.

Changing how you live. That sounds hard, doesn’t it? And change means getting out of your comfort zone.

And really, the word ‘comfort’ says it all; There’s comfort in that familiar place, even if we’re miserable there. We know that misery, its edges, its seams and its weak places. When we step out of it, we’re suddenly in the unknown with none of the paths we once followed to guide us.

The unknown and our fear of it will often push us to fail and this is particularly true if you’re trying to change how you live.

To do that, you have to change years of habits – How you eat, what you eat, how you spend your time – Exercising, for example, instead of watching TV. That’s a big deal and it’s not easy.

Anytime you try to make these changes, you will fail. We all will!

You’ll start exercising and then you’ll get sick or get an injury. You’ll eat healthy and then you’ll have that pizza or that extra piece of pie. You’ll be on the right track and then something will happen – Something always happens.

And many of us, when we’re trying something new, will revert back to old familiar behaviors when things get scary.

It’s normal for us to go backward sometimes, yet we start to think that, not only did we fail, but we are failures. And if we’re failures, then what’s the point?

But, what if that isn’t true?

What if you could change that around into something that makes more sense?

What Failure Really Is

• Getting to know yourself: If you’re new to exercise, how can you possibly know what you’re capable of? We often set impossible goals, forgetting that we’re not sure what we can handle yet. This is a time to start simple with something you know you can do, whether that’s taking a walk every day or trying a simple weight training workout.
• A learning experience: If you can only workout for 10 minutes, maybe that isn’t a failure, but actual feedback. You now have more information about what your body can do and you can expand on that every workout.
• Experimentation: When you were a kid, you didn’t expect yourself to be perfect at everything you try. As an adult, you probably do, especially if you’ve tried this exercise thing before. The truth is, we can’t know what we can do, what we like, what works if we don’t try it first. There’s a good chance that whatever you try may not work…at least not at first. Giving yourself the freedom to experiment may be what you need to succeed.

What do you think? Do you ever feel like a failure? Is that feeling justified or are you being too hard on yourself? What would you accomplish if you looked at those failures in a different light?