What's it gonna take? What's really stopping you from achieving?

There are so many people in the world with weight issues who "desire" to reduce it, increase it or maintain, but for one reason or another lack motivation to attempt it. They may have all the right tools, support, accessibility to information, a gym, a great kitchen, great grocery stores, etc., yet there's still something deterring them from achieving success. So what could it be?
From my experience here are a couple:

Fear of actually succeeding- success is tough. Once you get there, many get the greatest feeling from accomplishment that they may have been at a long time. But STAYING successful may even be more difficult. Why? Because the expectation from others is that once you succeed, they secretly are looking for you to fail and then say "see I knew you couldn't do it forever". So even if a small set back happens, detractors will be on you immediately. To many, having to possibly hear the "I told ya so" comment can be so demotivating, that it's EASIER to not even start at all.

No belief that they can actually do it- this is especially for people who are well over 100lbs + overweight. The daunting task of uptaking a long long commitment to lose that weight makes is very easy to not even take on the task. For many 6 months may be long enough to see significant results, but for the very overweight and obese, that amount of time may only see a small dent in the overall weight they need to lose. And at that point belief in actually seeing success at the end of the tunnel isn't strong in their vision.

So I don't sugar coat it for clients. I let them know that success happens for everyone when they make the decision, commit to it, and apply the right strategies to reach them. Obstacles and setbacks are going to happen, but one can have a bad day, a bad week and even a bad month, BUT if we are diligent and consistent we're NOT going to have a bad year. Belief in oneself is where it has to start. Gotta like yourself unconditionally to get stuff to happen. Hating yourself does nothing to help you achieve success. You can hate the current behavior, but don't hate on yourself. Behavior can be changed.

Here's hoping that this helps some who feel hopelessly lost in all this. It's not hopeless. It's just gonna be tough along the way.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition