Dieting Self Sabotage: How to Know & Manage
It’s Friday, you’ve been working hard on your weight loss goals all week and you’re so excited, you can’t wait to see what the scale says. You step on the scale and you see that it’s two pounds down for the week!
You’re so excited that you decide to take the entire weekend off from eating healthy only to step on the scale Monday and see that you’ve gained three pounds over the weekend.
You tell yourself, “this keeps happening every time I try to follow a diet! I treat myself over the weekend only to find that I’m the same exact weight or even heavier Monday morning. I guess I’m just destined to be overweight I’m not cut out for this weight-loss thing.”
This would happen to me ALL THE TIME when I was trying to lose weight as a teenager. Even though I obsessed about my weight constantly I was familiar with the body I lived in. I felt afraid of reaching my goal weight, I was afraid of trying and not succeeding, and I was afraid of failing.
Self sabotaging behaviors are thought patterns that hold you back and prevent you from doing what you want to do. This can include blaming others when things go wrong, choosing to walk away when things don’t go smoothly, procrastination, and putting yourself down.
These thought patterns can go all the way back to childhood, past relationship dynamics, fear of failure, or need for control.
“I might having hanging skin if I achieve a lower weight.”
“My friends might not like it if I’m thinner.”
“I will have to buy all new clothes and it’s too much money.”
“I’m destined to be overweight.”
“My body doesn’t like to lose weight.”
“I never see progress so why try?”
“My friends might think I’m lame if I start too eating healthy.”
“What if it’s too hard, or I fail?”
“I said I would start dating when I lose the weight, I don’t feel ready!”
Fear of failure or the unknown can hold us back from achieving weight loss goals. The hardest part of self sabotage is actually recognizing that you’re talking to yourself in a negative way and questioning whether things these things are true.
Three questions to ask yourself when self sabotaging:
Are my feelings based on facts?
If a friend wanted to lose weight would I say the same things?
Is my reaction reasonable given what happened?
you are capable of more than you know and the best way to beat self sabotage is to face your fears head on and get used to failure.
Here’s how to fix it:
Write five ways your life will be better when you achieve your goals!
I’ll be able to feel confident in my clothes
I won’t be constantly thinking about food every day
I never have to feel that overly full, bloated stomach feel again
I won’t be sooo tired
I’ll actually like the way I look in photos!
Once you have your five things post them somewhere where you can see them every day! You got this!
~Emily