Busting Through Weight Loss Blues

It’s going to happen.  There is going to be a point in your weight loss efforts in which progress slows down a bit.  Progress may even stop completely.  There’s a good chance that you will even regress somewhat.  It’s going to happen.  Plateaus are a part of life.  They are a part of achievement.  How you deal with them will determine the degree of your ultimate success.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.  It is an ancient Chinese proverb: “Our greatest glory comes not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

If you are working on accomplishing something substantial, you must keep this idea in mind.  You are going to trip up and fall somewhere along your journey, but you must get back up.  You must dust yourself off and get right back on that path toward your goals.  If you let the fall keep you down, then you are accepting defeat.  You are accepting momentary failure as an end rather than roadblock.

Some things along your path to success are going to slow you down.  If there wasn’t anything there to slow you down then you would have gotten to where you were going a long time ago.  You must accept these temporary setbacks for what they are and move on.  You must not let them defeat you.

That reminds me of another great quote from the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Hill states, “We are not defeated until defeat becomes accepted as a reality.”

Think about that one.  Defeat is an end.  It means you are never going to succeed at what you are currently trying to accomplish.  It means you are done.  You have given up hope, so there literally is no hope left.  That is defeat.  If there is some hope left and if there is a chance to get back up from your temporary setback and return to your path, then you are not yet defeated.  You are not yet defeated, that is, as long as you recognize that hope still exists.  And if you recognize that hope still exists and are willing to give it another push of effort, then you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality.  If you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality then you cannot yet be defeated.

There are going to be times when you check the scale and notice that your weight loss has stopped.  You may even have times when you see that you have put on a couple pounds.  This is the biggest reason why I recommend only looking at the scale every two weeks or so.  Still, you are going to have minor setbacks.  But that is great because that makes your ultimate success even sweeter.  There are going to be days when working out is a struggle.  There are going to be days when you feel like ditching your nutrition plan.  By not letting your frustrations get the best of you, in the long run, you will be almost guaranteeing great success for yourself.

Keep up the great work!