Sincerenity

Staying consistent with anything – especially weight loss – can be a challenge. Weight Loss journeys are difficult. I’ve been on so many I’ve lost count, and I’m sure you have to.

The mechanics of weight loss are actually very basic: eat less and move more.

We all know it isn’t that simple.

The thing that makes or breaks weight loss is what happens in between. The every day, day to day aspect of it.

Staying consistent over long periods of time can be very draining, particularly when results aren’t showing up as quickly as we want. It feels like we’re doing this for no reason, so it’s easier to give up.

If you’re like me and have a lot of weight to lose, this can be discouraging at times, because we are going to be in this journey for a very long time: as in a couple years to lose the weight, and the rest of our lives to maintain it. I’ve been on a weight loss journey for over a year now, and I’ve learned so much.

What I’m going to talk about today regarding consistency has to do about weight loss, but I feel like it could be applied to many other topics. I have learned a lot (you can read more in my previous post: Consistency Really is Key) and am still learning. However, I’ve lost 35 pounds, and here’s what I’ve learned about being consistent and how to do it:

1. Just today

Tomorrow doesn’t exist yet. Next week doesn’t exist yet. Next month, 6 months from now, and next year doesn’t exist yet. All that exists is today. That’s all we have to work with.

This is difficult for me because I am a planner. I love to have things planned out. I’m that friend in the group that has the itinerary, reservation numbers, schedule, etc. I need to know what, where, and when things are.

Just focusing on today has been so hard, because as much as I want to plan for next week, month and year, it’s really hard to avoid planning too much.

It’s still important to set goals for the future, but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I mean is focusing on today’s decisions, because that’s all we have is today. Keep it simple. Ask yourself questions like:

⁃ What is 1 thing I need to get done today?

⁃ What is 1 thing I want to get done today?

⁃ What are 3 things I can do today to reach my goals?

If you focus on just today 5 times, you’ve been consistent for 5 days! Or 10 days, or 100 days! It’s so much easier to break it down. And those “just today’s” are going to add up very quickly.

2. This moment

Breaking it down even more: just focus on this moment. This moment right now, in a way, is all we truly have. A moment is not a specific amount of time, it’s just happening right now.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming just to think about today’s tasks and everything going on. Take your days one moment at a time. Ground yourself, plant your feet, take a deep breath and ask yourself:

⁃ What can I do for myself right now?

⁃ What can I do for my goals right now?

⁃ How am I feeling right now?

3. Habit Building

In any personal transformation journey – including weight loss – it’s necessary to change a lot of aspects of our lives. It may be tempting to change everything at once. Save yourself energy and time and avoid doing this.

Instead, change 1-2 things. Once you feel like those 1-2 things are incorporated as habits, now add 1-2 more things.

For example, you could get into the habit of tracking calories. After a week or two (or however long you need) now incorporate tracking calories within a certain calorie limit. By doing it this way, it’s less stressful to begin a new habit of tracking and trying to stay within a limit and going through the learning curve this both bring.

Another example, you could get into the habit of drinking water by always carrying a water bottle with you wherever you go. Once your used to keeping a bottle with you, now try drinking a certain amount of water every day.

4. Habit Replacing

People are overweight because of their habits. So, they lose weight also because of habits. For many, including myself, it will be very difficult for me to change a lot of my “overweight” habits because they are, well, habits. And stopping them cold turkey won’t be easy or even sometimes useful.

I have a habit of emotional eating. It was the main contributer to my weight gain. But I can’t just stop emotional eating, because it’s how I coped with my emotions. I need to cope with my emotions in a different way now, not just tell myself “no”. I need to replace it with something else. When I feel bored, instead of turning to emotional eating, I can turn to a craft I’ve been working on, a movie, I can journal, I can play a game instead, I have many options at my disposal.

By habit Replacing, I am able to stay consistent by having less “fallbacks”.

5. Track progress

On the day I’m writing this post, its the one month mark since the last time I had an emotional eating binge. Honestly, I didn’t even realize I had gone a whole month!

Sometimes, it’s better to look backwards rather than forwards.

What I mean is, what if I had told myself to go one month without emotional eating. Honestly, knowing myself, I would have had a hard time achieving this goal. Thinking about taking on a whole month’s work of progress at once can feel really intimidating. Instead, I stayed consistent one moment at a time, one day at a time, built good habits and replaced other habits, and before I knew it, I had gone a whole month without emotional eating and didn’t even realize it!

You can read more about my emotional eating journey in my previous post: Recovering From a Binge.

If I hadn’t tracked my progress, I probably would have had no idea. But because I track, I can look backwards and see how far I’ve come, which is more efficient to me than looking forwards and getting intimidated by a large daunting task.

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As I mentioned before, I am still learning, but I have learned a lot about being consistent, and wanted to share some things I’ve experienced throughout this. Follow along as I continue on my journey of losing half my weight!

-Tana ☺️