The emotional up & downs of the weight loss journey

So.. let’s take a quick look at an example of a long term trend & how most people feel during (if they don’t quit before the end that is)

lets use 12 weeks for an example:

For this example, we’re going to say that the target is just 1lb per week, and we’re weighing ourselves every day, then taking the average weight for the week for week to week comparisions.

WEEK 1: Weight is up & down every day (due to normal changes in water weight), and the end of week avg is 200lbs

WEEK 2: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 198lbs.

( Self talk – “That’s a 2lb drop from last week, yay!!!” )

WEEK 3: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is again 198lbs.

( Self talk – “No change this week, BOOOO!!” )

WEEK 4: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 197lbs

( Self talk – “Only 1lb loss, that’s ok-ish”)

WEEK 5: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 196lbs

(Self talk – that’s another 1lbs,… I’m happy with that! )

WEEK 6: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 196lbs

(Self talk – no change, I’m doing something wrong, its not working, I might quit if it doesn’t work again next week!)

WEEK 7: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 194lbs

(Self talk – thats 2lb loss, whoop! I’m happy but I WISH weight loss was more consistent!)

WEEK 8: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 193lbs

(Self talk – 1lbs loss, ok I suppose, but I want more, so again I’m privately disappointed)

WEEK 9: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 192lbs

(Self talk – only 1lb again, I don’t even look at 1lb as a good achievement anymore at this stage)

WEEK 10: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 191.5

(Self talk – Barley any change, definitely something wrong, I’m really pissed off & I’m thinking about quitting)

WEEK 11: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 189

(Self talk – That’s a 2.5lb loss, yay! I wish every week was like this! )

WEEK 12: As always, weight is up & down everyday, and the end of week avg is 187

(Self talk – That’s another 2lb loss, awsome, I’m really happy with that! )

Now let’s take a step back from the week to week up & down short term results,
& let’s look at the long term trend:

Reality = 13lbs of weight loss!

(Self talk – wow I wasn’t looking at the big picture, maybe I should have focused on that and avoided all the stress and up and down emotions… yay!!!)

Unfortunately most people won’t reach the end of their journey, as they’ll get way too caught up on the day to day & week to week results (or rather, DATA) and will quit out of frustration & lack of patience and go looking for something else…. which they won’t finish or stick to… and will spend the rest of their lives repeating this pattern.

Consider this… if it’s taken YEARS of abuse to get your body into it’s current state, you’re not going to undo all those years worth of damage in just a week or two.

PATIENCE!