Breaking habits and making new ones is never easy. This is especially true for people working on major changes like losing weight and getting healthier. Even when you know this, it’s easy to become discouraged when the old habits creep back into your life. You may feel like you’ve failed and there’s no way to get back on track. Read on to learn about what you can do when this happens.
Building new habits is hard. Brains prefer familiar pathways, especially when they’re under stress. This is one reason why starting out with healthy habits can be easy, especially when things are moving in the right direction, but sticking with them is challenging. If you feel overwhelmed by setting goals that are too aggressive or trying to change too many things at once, you may find yourself reverting back to your old ways. When this happens, you may get discouraged, but remember: you can always get back on track.
When you find yourself going back to an old habit, like overeating at a restaurant or staying on the couch when you meant to go for a walk, give yourself grace. Consider how you can pick back up and move on from this moment. Shame does not create sustainable weight loss, so it’s important to try and break the shame cycle. Rather than lecturing yourself, speak to yourself as if you were a supportive coach or a close friend. This is a journey, and mistakes are part of the process.
You may be tempted to dive straight into judgment, but instead, ask yourself what changed. What made it harder to stick to the routine today? Did something stressful happen? Did you restrict too much too quickly? Do you need support, or do you need to change your plans? Taking a moment to ask yourself these questions and recalibrate as needed can turn your short-term goals into more sustainable long-term goals.
One thing that can make weight loss more difficult is being told simple phrases like “calories in; calories out.” While a calorie deficit can help you lose weight, making up a calorie deficit by skipping the next meal or overexercising is more likely to lead to burnout than results. If you have determined that you’ve started everything too fast, consider how you can go at a more manageable pace. Maybe you need to add in a healthy afternoon snack to carry you over until dinner time. Your 30-minute walk could be scaled back to a 20-minute walk until you feel like you can increase the time again. Set a pace that will help you stay consistent.
Long-term success comes from returning to supportive habits more often, not from never slipping. A single meal is not going to destroy the progress you’ve made so far or eliminate hope for the future. One hard day or even one hard week does not define your entire health journey. Keep measuring daily so you can find trends over time, looking at factors like energy levels, sleep patterns, lab markers and self-confidence. Remember to review your progress occasionally to see how far you have come.
No one builds new habits overnight, but in some cases, getting healthy habits to stick feels impossible. If this is the case for you, consider reaching out to a professional, like a mental health therapist or weight loss doctor, for support. They can help you get to the core of the issue so you can live a sustainably healthier life. Remember, you can do this, but you don’t have to figure it out on your own.
