Avoid the greatest destroyer of weight loss & health goals

Don’t see the weight on the scale budging yet, Mom? Don’t throw in the towel just yet!

You might still be making really great progress towards your health goals, and you don’t realize it.

The biggest predictor of never losing that weight, never improving your habits, never regaining control of your health and your life… is when you’ve thrown in the towel. When you’ve quit too soon. So we’re not going to do that!

Today I want to talk about 10 things to look at (other than the scale!) that are great evidence you’re heading in the right direction and your efforts are paying off.

Okay so you’re in this chapter of early motherhood, your 30s and 40s, and you want to lose the weight once and for all. You want to be more consistent with your diet and exercise, feel more in control of your habits and actions, and actually love the way you look and feel.

The good news? You can get there!

But it doesn’t necessarily happen:

• quickly

• by trying to force yourself to “be good” and “follow the rules” day in and day out

• by gluing your eyes to the scale to see evidence of your hard work and a reason to keep going

If health were this straightforward all of the time, we’d all have reached our goals by now, right?

So maybe you’re thinking, okay fine, it’s going to take time... but when can I at least see some more progress?! Oof Mom, I have personally felt this so many times:

• after I was diagnosed with postpartum depression, and I was waiting for my new anxiety medication to “kick in” and make me feel better, happier (hint: it was not so simple)

• after I was making a conscious effort to work out and eat better consistently, and I was waiting for the weight to fall off (hint: it still wasn’t budging yet)

• after I went to the doctor for debilitating fatigue, and was prescribed a medication for my thyroid - waiting to have energy again (hint: it was more complicated than that)

• after I was diagnosed with autoimmunity, Celiac Disease, and I permanently removed gluten from my diet as I was told. I was waiting for my body to look and feel amazing now (hint: there was more to it!)

I needed to see that progress! So I understand what this frustration and impatience feels like.

Evidence shows that the ability to measure and track our progress is an important part of achieving our goals. We want to see positive changes from the work and effort that we’re putting in, right?

But progress is tricky. Because here’s the thing - progress won’t always feel clear and tangible (like stepping on that scale each morning and seeing the number beautifully decrease more and more every day)

…and it won’t always feel linear (like just getting skinner and feeling happier by the day!)

…and it won’t always happen quickly.

But that doesn’t mean we’re not making progress towards our goals.

In all of those examples I mentioned, none of it happened as clearly or as quickly as I would have wanted it to. It took some time and some patience. But there was progress brewing in the in-between - and the more I noticed it, the more it kept me motivated to continue and keep taking the next right step.

So I wanted to talk about all of the ways “progress” could be showing up for us, so we have a better sense that we’re getting somewhere! That we’re gaining momentum. That our choices and actions DO matter.

1) Stumbling upon a new perspective that changes your outlook and your direction

For the majority of my life, I thought that healthy eating was simply “eat less,” “watch your calories,” “everything in moderation” - that type of thing. Until I came across this idea that what you eat is just as important (if not more) than how much. And this was a game changer! It would completely change the way I approached my health, and would ultimately lead to resolving so much of my health issues.

Coming across a new perspective, a new angle, a new way of looking at things, a possibility or opportunity that you didn’t even know existed - this can literally change your life. Don’t underestimate this type of progress along your journey.

2) Gravitating towards more helpful sources of information

Your inputs matter just as much as your outputs. Just like our bodies are adjusting to what we eat, our minds are adjusting to what we consume. Is everyone around you fairly unhealthy, struggling with their habits? Are all of the moms you know putting themselves absolutely last? Is everything you see online negative, or scary, or polarizing? This isn’t necessarily YOUR fault - you can’t control what other people do. But the information you consume, the conversations you have, and the interactions you take part in are all constructing your reality.

When I made the choice to intentionally expose myself to new information, new ideas, new people, who were actively accomplishing the things I wanted for myself - this changed my entire perception of what was “normal” or what was possible for me, for my health, in motherhood. And it changed the way I thought and operated in my own life. THAT is amazing progress that will bring you to new levels.

3) Ditching a belief that’s been holding you back

I absolutely believed that to be a good mom was to be this selfless, highly nurturing, self-sacrificing, superwoman creature that did all the things for her kids and family and household, without ever complaining - and just loving it. I believed it, that is… until my health and my well-being was on the line. In order to turn things around for myself, I had to choose to believe something different - that I could make choices that were in my best interest (rather than everyone else’s) and still be an incredible mom.

And this changed everything for me! This changed the trajectory of how I approached motherhood and life in general, and ultimately helped me put in the work to reclaim my health.

4) Forming new, higher standards for yourself

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, said “Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity, you will fail to put them into action.”

I never saw myself as someone who ate healthy, or could cook! I actually prided myself on not eating healthy - being able to eat a Big Mac for lunch and then Lucky Charms for an easy dinner. But after I became a mom and my health went to crap, I had to think differently about myself. I had to now think of myself as someone who did care about what I was eating, who did care about preparing and cooking food.

You have to raise the bar for how you see yourself - sometimes, even before you’ve necessarily proven it to yourself. And this is amazing progress that will lead to being able to maintain the types of habits and lifestyle that someone who is healthy has.

5) Feeling more prepared and set up for success

This is so important, especially if you’ve struggled to be consistent (always starting, and then stopping, and then starting over next month) - I encourage you to pause, and really take the time to understand where your health is at. Ask yourself the tough questions about how you may have gotten here. Ask, what might I be missing? Rally different types of support that will help you reach your goals.

All of this prepwork (which so many of us just skip right over!) will make you feel more prepared, more supported, more strategic, and ultimately, more set up for success.

6) Leaving your comfort zone

I’m sure you’ve heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and somehow expecting different results. Well, so many of us are forever living in our comfort zone, doing the same things over and over, or even just operating completely on autopilot (same routine, same behavior, same choices, some struggles, every single day) and yet we want to believe that somehow things will change.

Mom, if you are making an effort to switch things up or try something new - for example, seeing a new kind of doctor, reading a new book on health, learning, experimenting - this willingness to explore outside of your regular, familiar comfort zone is incredible! It’s essential to finding new solutions and breaking new ground with your health.

7) Reframing “failure” as a lesson to be learned

One of the biggest things that stops us from ever achieving our health goals is this repeated feeling of failure - we try, and we fail. We assume that if we try again, we’ll likely fail again. We get discouraged, and we quit.

But things change when we start to view a “failure” as an opportunity to learn something:

• WHAT went wrong?

• WHAT information was I missing?

• WHY didn’t this work?

• HOW can I make this different next time?

• HOW could I better set myself up for success?

The goal of a healthy lifestyle isn’t to never mess up or never fail - the goal is to stay in the game! By seeing your experiences as lessons to be learned and data to use, you can simply alter your approach as needed. When you adopt this mindset, this is such great progress that will ultimately keep you in the game, and keep you moving forward through whatever new challenge or situation you come across.

8) Experiencing little wins on a consistent basis

For example: you finally made that doctor’s appointment that you’ve been pushing off forever. You went for a walk on your lunch break. You had a conversation with your partner about needing more support.

In isolation, none of these feel like monumental progress, but every little win matters as they stack up over time and keep you moving in the right direction.

9) Gaining confidence

No one likes to feel incompetent! No one likes to feel like a failure. Progress with your habits and your health can look like consistently achieving those small wins, and slowly gaining more and more confidence in yourself.

The more confident you are, the more likely you are to keep trying more things, to not give up, to persevere through a challenge. Why? Because you’ll start to trust in yourself to find the answer, or to bounce back after a setback. You’ll start to feel good about yourself! You’ll start feeling less stressed during this whole process. And so noticing that you’re kinda feeling more confident as you go along, like, huh, I can do this, I got this — this is evidence of progress, Mom!

10) taking actions that feel more meaningful and connected to a greater vision

When you take the time to envision your most ideal version of your health and your life, you figure out what “health” means for you, you know what you want to look and feel like, and you know what motivates and excites you — eventually, all of your actions and habits start to make sense! They connect, and they tie back to this greater vision you have for yourself and your life. Your days are no longer a tiring list of random responsibilities and burdensome tasks, but rather, the opportunity to do things that matter. It feels like you’re doing life on purpose. This is amazing progress that will continue leading you in the direction of your choosing.

So Mom, none of these ten things can be easily measured, or found on a scale, or crossed off a to-do list - yet all of it is incredible progress that creates momentum (like a snowball getting bigger and faster as it rolls down the hill!)

Which one of these have you seen yourself doing? Are there any that you want to really focus on?

And remember that the number on the scale is NOT the only indication of progress, or the only evidence that your actions are paying off. All of these other things matter, and contribute to the creation of a lifestyle that will support your health longterm.

Here for you, Mom.

If you’re in a place where you could really use more personalized support, I encourage you to check out my Healthy Mom Kickstarter 3-month coaching program. I offer free consultation calls to see if it’s the right fit!