Are you feeling stuck in your diet or weight-loss efforts? When motivation leaves, it’s easy to get stuck and lose hope of things ever being different.
Perhaps you keep promising you’ll change, but you never follow through. Maybe you set goals, but can’t seem to ever get started on them.
When you’re stuck, everything comes to a stand-still. You may even wish for a crisis of some kind, because you’re convinced it’s the only thing that will get you going.
Instead of working on your roadblocks, you blame others for why you don’t take action. Yet, if someone offers you advice, you get defensive and respond, “You don’t know what it’s like for me.”
Stuck is depressing
Everyone gets stuck now and then, especially in areas such as weight loss or regular exercise. But you can also get into a rut with your job, with a relationship, or even with keeping up your home. As you become discouraged or depressed because nothing changes, the rut just gets deeper.
Eventually you can’t see any alternatives to your miserable life. You start believing you have no options and that nothing can overcome your current situation. Instead of taking risks or trying new things, you just stay the way you are.
People who become stuck tend to stay that way for a long time. By holding on to their negative attitudes and beliefs, they continue to reinforce their lack of motivation. Before you can get out of the trap of being stuck, you may have to address the excuses that are keeping you there.
Denial
When you’re in denial, you just ignore the whole picture. “My weight isn’t really so bad. There are other people worse off than I am. Besides, I’m in pretty good health for an overweight person.”
As you explain why you aren’t taking action, you convince yourself that being stuck isn’t your fault. Denial gives you a legitimate reason to avoid looking at your needs and admitting the truth about your life. Instead, you decide something else must be the reason you can’t change.
So you blame work, kids, an insensitive husband, a demanding boss, your back problem, even the weather for keeping you stuck.
Denial lets you pull the shade over your eyes and not even try to work on motivation or other changes in your life. You become so convinced you can’t change that when someone suggests a solution, you quickly explain why it won’t work.
• You just don’t understand my situation
• I tried that and it didn’t work.
• Yes, but…(this becomes your standard response to every suggestion)
Facing the truth
If you’ve been living in denial, look closely at the truth in your life. If you were totally honest about how you feel or what you think about your health, would you approach your excuses differently?
Think about your reasons for not making changes, then decide if they are correct or if you’ve just convinced yourself you can’t do anything about your issues.
Are you too comfortable?
Perhaps you’ve become too comfortable with things as they are and don’t see any reason to live differently. You like being able to eat whatever you want, skip your exercise routine, and use food to cope with your stress.
Because you don’t have to follow any rules or standards, you can enjoy the freedom of not taking responsibility for your health.
When you feel “too comfortable,” you don’t see any reason to change. You might complain about your miserable situation, but it never bothers you enough to do something about it.
But are you really comfortable? Do you actually enjoy feeling so tired or squeezing into pants that don’t fit?
Maybe underneath all your excuses, you’re simply afraid. What if you aren’t strong enough to stay on a diet plan until you reach your goal? What if you fail again, repeating the embarrassing weight gain you’ve experienced in the past?
Worst of all, what if you aren’t happy once you lose the weight. Rather than deal with your fears and insecurities, it’s easier to ignore the them and act like you don’t care.
Hitting bottom
Maybe you’re convinced you have to “hit bottom” before you can change. When do you suppose that will happen? And how will you know when you hit it? In truth, hitting bottom is related to how you define it.
Instead of waiting for a disaster, you can create your own version of the bottom–right at this very moment. Decide you’ve had enough and that you don’t want your situation to continue a minute longer.
Then take any action, even a small one, that indicates you’re doing something about it. Once you make a few changes, use them to build additional motivation and help you climb out of the hole you’ve defined as the “bottom.”
Today—take one step, eat one healthy meal, resist one temptation!
After doing these, you won’t be “stuck” anymore!