It’s so frustrating to watch the constant up and down on the scale, isn’t it? You just want to lose weight consistently! Well, on today’s episode of the Get Your GOAL podcast, I’m spilling the tea, with three tips for consistent weight loss.
Hello hello, GOALfriend, and welcome to the podcast. Before we get into the tips, let’s just get something out of the way really quickly. The scale will always go up and down within a few pounds of range because of human physiology.
Your glorious miracle of a body is performing billions of processes every minute of every day, and all of them involve taking in energy, doing whatever it is they do, and then expelling a waste product.
So your weight – even in maintenance – will never be 100% stable. And that’s not really what I’m addressing today, though wrapping your brain around these small, constant fluctuations could certainly be a podcast in and of itself.
What I’m talking about today, though, is how to achieve a continuous, consistent downward trend over time. This trend will absolutely contain variations and upward spikes on the scale, because that’s just how weight loss goes, and those fluctuations aren’t in your direct control.
What you do have control over is your mindset and your inputs. I’ll quickly tell you the inputs here at the start of the podcast, because we’re going to spend the rest of the time talking about your mindset!
The body-based inputs you have direct and complete control over are 1.) eating in a slight caloric deficit over time, 2.) adequate hydration, 3.) adequate rest, and 4.) moderate daily exercise.
These four body-based things, plus managing your mindset, are the only components of weight loss you have total control over, and therefore are the five things that I suggest you focus your attention on. You can learn more about this when you download The 5-0 Method, my free weight loss guide for women over 50. There’s a link near wherever you’re listening to this podcast.
The trick with those body-based inputs, though, is that they are virtually impossible to follow through with consistently, unless you’re managing your mindset first. This is why I’m a mindset coach, and why the three tips I’m offering you today are all about mindset.
When you’ve got mindset, you’ve got everything you need to get your goal. So let’s dig in with three mindset tips for consistent weight loss.
Consistent Weight Loss Tip #1: Stop trusting the process
What?? I know, everybody and their trainer wants you to trust the process and here I am telling you not to. What’s up with that?
Well, here’s what’s up with that: the process isn’t doing diddly-squat, you are! Rather than throwing up your hands, as though it’s all out of your control and telling yourself constantly to “just trust the process,” you will be much better served by learning how to trust yourself, too.
When you only trust the process, you’re putting all of your success eggs in an outside basket. You’ll spend your entire weight loss journey giving credit to the program you’re following or the time of day you’re eating or the number of calories or carbs you’re consuming, and you’ll really truly think that those outside factors created your success.
And then, when you get to your goal weight, you’ll be completely flummoxed. Omg, what should you do now? How many calories should you eat? How many carbs? You’ll be terrified to eat outside your intermittent fasting window or quit counting points.
All because you only trusted the process, instead of learning to trust yourself, too.
Let me be clear here, I’m not saying you should distrust your method or your habits or the foods you’re eating or the things you’re doing! I’m saying that, along the path of your weight loss journey, you’ll want to notice that it’s not the number of calories you’re eating, it’s your decision to eat that number of calories, and your decision to track those calories, and your decision to shave about a third off of that slice of pizza so that you have room for dessert and still meet your calorie target for the day.
The number of calories doesn’t make you lose weight, it’s YOU making decisions about those calories and then following through on those decisions that creates weight loss.
Inside my monthly membership, the Get Your GOAL group, you’ll find Masterclass instruction on simple strategies that emphasize trusting yourself and your own decisions. You’ll also get encouragement to celebrate and take credit for the successes you create, and weekly coaching to help you notice when you’re abdicating responsibility to “the process” instead of taking it on yourself.
From the outside, honestly, so many of your actions and habits will look exactly the same when you trust the process or trust yourself. The difference is how you feel while you’re losing weight and how long you’ll keep it off after you’re done.
When you learn to trust yourself in addition to the process the way I teach inside the Get Your GOAL group, weight loss will feel like freedom and you will have complete certainty that you are losing weight for the last time.
Consistent Weight Loss Tip #2: Stop telling yourself it’s okay
Okay, here's the thing: it is okay. No matter where you are on your journey or how bleak it looks right now or how far from your goal you are, you legitimately are doing okay. It is all going to work out.
And.
Constantly belittling or dismissing your worries and fears and doubts with the phrase “It’s okay, it’s okay…” doesn’t serve you at all for losing weight.
I know it comes from a good place! I know you have been taught your whole life how to look for the silver lining and put a smile on your face and keep your chin up and have a gratitude list and all of that well-meaning advice.
I know you worry about complaining too much or not appearing grateful or being a quote-unquote negative person, and truly, I applaud you for not wanting to just spew negativity into the world.
I get it. But here’s why “It’s okay” is actually a sneaky mindset block.
Have you ever had a conversation with somebody who just absolutely wasn’t listening to you at all? Like, you’re trying to make a valid point, and the other person just keeps cutting you off with “Nope. Not true. Nopity nope nope,” and then they put their fingers in their ears and start chanting, “I can’t hear you, nanner nanner na nah.”
And you know how that doesn’t actually change your point AT ALL? And kinda just makes you want to kick them in the shins?
Yeah. When you step on the scale in the morning and your brain says, “Omg, I am never going to lose this weight,” and you throw an “It’s okay, it’s fine. Tomorrow’s another day!” at yourself… well, my friend, YOU are the one cutting yourself off and sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting “nanner nanner na nah” at yourself.
And your brain kinda wants to kick you in the shins for dismissing it like that.
The real point of mindset work isn’t to force yourself to think positively all the time, it’s actually to acknowledge all of your thoughts and gain self awareness of why you’re getting the results you are. Mindset work isn’t about squashing yourself down or “fixing” your negative thoughts or turning yourself into somebody who’s grateful for every little thing.
Mindset work is about seeing yourself honestly and allowing yourself to be fully human. Perfectly imperfect. Sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Sometimes happy and sometimes sad.
Inside the Get Your GOAL community and on the coaching calls, you’ll have access to the kind of deep, raw honesty that you just don’t find out in the real world. It’s a completely safe space to explore and understand all of your thoughts and feelings.
And the thing that’s really funny about opening up to yourself and allowing your negative thoughts to voice their opinions, is that you’ll actually become more genuinely positive because of it. It sounds so counterintuitive, doesn’t it?
But remember that imaginary conversation with the person who wasn’t listening? You know how, if that happened in real life, you would spend the entire day stewing about it, and telling everybody else who would listen how you were right and they were wrong, and you’d be walking around everywhere with tense shoulders and a sour attitude?
Well, imagine if that other person kept their fingers out of their ears and didn’t argue with you or shut you down. Imagine them staying calm and hearing you out.
There would be no raised voices, no shin-kicking. Just a conversation where both sides got heard and acknowledged and deeply seen.
When you stop “It’s okay”ing yourself, you won’t spend all day with that ratcheted-up, argumentative feeling anymore. You’ll just get on with the business of losing weight.
Consistent Weight Loss Tip #3: Stop focusing on what you’re doing
Hey, speaking of counterintuitive… this tip really is, isn’t it? I mean, 99.9% of weight loss advice is all about “Do this” or “Do that” with regard to when, where, what, and how much to eat, drink, or exercise.
And yes, of course, you absolutely have to do things to lose weight.
But when it comes to weight loss, doing things isn’t the whole picture. You don’t just randomly do things. In order to do something, you first have to have a thought. Then that thought creates a feeling, and it’s that feeling that drives you into action.
And that doesn’t seem like an especially big deal, until you know this one crucial piece of information: your feelings aren’t abstract. They’re hormones in your bloodstream that create physiological sensations and have physical (aka, weight loss) repercussions.
I’m not a scientist, so this is a very, very simplified version of what’s happening inside your body, but let’s say you’ve downloaded The 5-0 Method, you’ve calculated your calories, you’ve decided to weigh yourself, and drink the water, and go to bed at the same time every night, and journal your thoughts, and exercise moderately. It’s all happening.
You get up in the morning and weigh yourself, but you’re thinking “It’s gonna take forever to lose all this weight,” which feels so frustrating. Then you argue back with “It’s okay,” and try to put the whole thing out of your mind.
But that flash of frustration wasn’t nothing, it was a shot of adrenaline and cortisol rushing through your veins. And even though you’re not actively noticing the bickering, all morning long, your subconscious brain is chattering away in the background with “It’s gonna take forever,” “No, it’s okay.” “It’s gonna take forever,” “No, it’s okay.”
Adrenaline. Cortisol. Adrenaline. Cortisol.
Next, you head out to the living room and enjoy a terrific, moderate workout, but the whole time you’re thinking, “This can’t possibly be enough for me to lose weight. I should be doing more.” You feel anxious and unsure. More adrenaline. More cortisol.
You shower and sit down to journal and eat your breakfast. You get out your pen and your calorie app. You’ve got a journal prompt and you’re right on track for your daily calories, but you’re wondering, “Am I doing this right? I’m going to be hungry later. I don’t know what questions to ask myself. This just feels weird. I don’t think I know what I’m doing.”
That’s not just idle chatter in your head and a vaguely unsettled feeling in your body, it’s a steady drip of adrenaline and cortisol flowing through your bloodstream.
You end the day right on target with your calories, all of your water on board, and you’re laying in bed at the exact time you told yourself you would. And as you put your head on the pillow, you’re thinking, “This will never last. I can’t keep it up. Today was good, but I’ll eff it all up tomorrow.” You feel tense and anxious and wish that you could just relax.
But your body doesn’t relax when it’s taking an all-day adrenaline and cortisol bath. In fact, the job of adrenaline and cortisol is to keep your blood pressure and blood sugar elevated (and by the way, they do that by breaking down your muscle tissue).
So here you are, focusing on doing all the right things and hitting your daily targets like it’s your job. But not only are you not losing weight, that non-stop flood of cortisol is creating belly fat, wasting your muscles, disrupting your moods and your sleep, and probably making you insulin resistant.
My friend, weight loss is not a calories thing, it’s a mindset thing. So instead of only focusing on what you’re doing, your much better bet is widening your focus to include noticing how you feel and what you’re thinking.
Which is, not coincidentally, exactly what you’ll learn inside the Get Your GOAL membership. Expanding your field of vision to include your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions will change not just your weight, but your life.
You’ll stop pushing yourself so hard to behave perfectly, and you’ll breathe deeply into understanding yourself. Loving yourself. Trusting yourself. Believing in yourself. And finally losing weight for the last time.
My friend, if you want to lose weight consistently with the lovely added benefit of keeping it off forever, I’ve got these three tips for you:
Stop trusting only the process, and start trusting yourself, too.
Stop telling yourself it’s okay, and start truly listening to what you’re thinking.
And stop focusing on what you’re doing, and start noticing how you feel.
I really hope this one was helpful for you today. Thank you for listening – I’ll talk to you again soon!
