7 Limiting Beliefs That Can Stall Your Weight Loss

Most experts agree that weight loss is not just a physical endeavor - there are a whole bunch of emotional and mental issues that tie in to the size and state of your body.

While weight loss is largely a result of calories in, calories out, there are also plenty of mental “stumbling blocks” that could slow you down or even keep you from reaching your goal weight at all.

Below are 7 common beliefs that could cause problems while you are trying to lose weight:

1. “I can’t do it.”

If you have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight many times before, you may find yourself struggling with a strong belief that you can’t lose weight.  Maybe you believe that you can only lose so much weight, or you may believe that you can’t lose any at all.  Either way, this kind of belief will override your desire to eat healthy and exercise, so that it seems like a constant battle to keep going and making any progress at all.

Overcoming this belief is as simple as reminding yourself that you can do anything if you simply take the right action steps.  Keep telling yourself that millions of people successfully lose weight and keep it off, and you can too. 2. “I don’t deserve it.”

Low self-esteem can leave you feeling like a failure, even if you try to make the right moves toward a healthy body weight.  If you commonly feel like you don’t deserve to have a slender, healthy body, be sure to keep building up your self-esteem by saying daily, “I deserve to live a happy, healthy life, and the actions I take today will make that happen for me.” 

See: Make a List of Reasons to Stick to Your Goals

3. “I’m doomed to stay this way.”

Sometimes it’s easy to feel like the entire universe is against you, and no matter what you do you will stay stuck where you are.  It’s possible to feel this way even if you don’t have any logical evidence to support such a belief, but it’s even easier to feel this way if you consistently feel stuck in other areas of your life too.  Keep reminding yourself that YOU are the only one in charge of your life.  The universe is not conspiring against you - you simply need to take different actions to get different results.

See: 7 Ways to Boost Your Weight Loss Willpower

4. “My family is overweight.”

On some level you may know that just because your family is overweight does not mean you have to be too, but you may feel as if your genes are working against you.  The problem with this perception is that you won’t feel strong enough to even try losing weight - you’ll just assume that because much of your family is heavy, you will remain heavy too.  To overcome this belief, remind yourself that plenty of overweight families have one or two members that do not struggle with weight.  Also remind yourself that more often than not, HABITS are passed down through generations, and those habits contribute to overweight problems much more than genes do.  Change your habits and you will also change your body size and weight.

5. “No matter what I do . . .”

Do you ever say to people, “No matter what I do, I can’t lose weight”?  This is a sure way to create a self-fulfilling prophecy because you are essentially failing yourself before you even allow yourself a chance to succeed.  Turn this around by saying, “I choose to be successful at everything I do from now on.”  At first you may not really believe it, but eventually you’ll see the proof with your own eyes.  Also be sure to turn each day into a success.  At the end of the day, say to yourself, “Wow, I intended to eat healthier today, and I did!  That’s success.  I intended to work out, and I did.  More success!”  Just change the way you see success and failure, and you’ll realize that they are nothing more than perceptions that serve you or work against you.

See: How to be a Weight Loss Success

6. “It’s too hard.”

Even though most of us know that losing weight and changing our lifestyle habits isn’t going to be easy, we try to convince ourselves that it will be easy so we don’t lose motivation.  Once we get going, however, we realize that it’s harder than we thought it would be, and we begin to doubt our ability to keep going.  At this point you just have to say to yourself, “So what if it’s hard?  I’m going to keep going anyway.  I’m going to do my best, even if I stumble now and then, I’ll still be making progress.”

7. “I feel vulnerable.”

Many people don’t realize that they aren’t overweight JUST because of their eating habits.  More often than not, there are some emotional fears and traumas that cause them to put on the weight as a defense mechanism.  They feel safer or more protected with the extra pounds on their bodies, and when they start to lose weight they end up feeling very vulnerable and exposed.  If this is a problem for you too, keep reminding yourself that extra weight doesn’t really protect you from anything.  If anything, it makes your life more difficult, physically, mentally and emotionally!  Be willing to let go of the weight and be more vulnerable, and you’ll likely discover a hidden well of strength you didn’t know you had.

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