A successful weight loss involves much more than diet and moving more. Equally important is none tangible emotional stuff that act as pillars of support to your weight loss structure.

These pillars are interdependent. Just like nutrition, you may lose weight by cutting calories, but your macros, vitamins and minerals are all important pillars that will hold your diet structure together and lead you to a successful weight loss. They make your diet whole.

The following are some of the important pillars that support your overall weight loss structure. Let’s walk through them together.

1. Desire.

Successful weight loss requires complete desire from your part. This desire will lead you to make the right decisions, choices, and actions to achieve your goal. It is difficult to commit to these changes in the absence of desire.

It is not just about wanting to lose weight. It is rather how much weight loss is worth to you. How strongly do you desire to lose weight? That is, what will you benefit from it and are you willing to do what is required to get that which you desire?

Like so many things we want in life, without desire to act, we can’t get them. Why? Because commitment without desire is short lived, especially when faced with challenges. Having a desire, a hunger for something will help you make and stick with the right food and exercises choices to feed/support that desire.

However, no matter how burning your desire is, that alone does not guarantee success. You need to make a promise to yourself and back it up with action.

2. Commitment. Don’t let procrastination steal your time.

Ok, you have set a strong foundation and SMART goals, your weight loss plan is well mapped out and a new shiny calorie counting App set up and all ready to go. Or maybe you have figured out a way of eyeballing food portions to ensure you stay in a calorie deficit. All good stuff to give you a solid start.

However, 3 weeks down the line, you are still accumulating “knowledge” or waiting for a perfect time. Maybe you want to start on a Monday, or the first day of the month. Fair enough if that helps with mindset. However, you must draw a line. Give yourself a start date and stick with it.

The reality is that you will never know enough and there is never a perfect time. Life always gets it the way. Avoid letting your goal become another wish. Now is the time to start. Taking the moment you have now and making it perfect will bring you closer to your goal.

You have shown desire by putting all the right things in place. You have all those motivational and inspirational stories of real people you can relate to. So, what’s holding you back? Fear of failure?

No matter how perfect your setup plan is, without commitment you can never start.

You can never learn to drive, ride a bicycle, fly, or cook by reading about it. Commit today by taking action, then start building and maintaining……

3. Consistency.

For this is what will get you to the finishing line. Without consistency, you run the risk of shuffling forwards and backwards, going round and round in circles or yoyoing all over the place.

Once you have committed and taken action, don’t take your foot off the pedal. Make small changes, adhere to your plan, and keep going.

It is constantly learning and practising those habits you have adopted that will move you forward and take you to your weight loss goal. Staying consistent with your diet and exercise regime is key to a successful weight loss.

Equally important is consistency in reviewing your plan and measuring progress. This will ensure you stay in the right direction for achieving successful weight loss.

Of course, there are other accessories that come into play and help us along the way to keep us moving forward. These include…

Motivation. 

Motivation is a great thing to start you off and keep you going. It comes in many forms and from different sources. It could be family support and encouragement, your trainer cheering you on and passing positive comments, or listening to motivational stories.

Or, maybe you are beginning to see positive results such as lessening of your health problems or the numbers on the scales gradually decreasing. Or perhaps the ability to do something you have never done before.

That said, motivation that starts from within you is much more effective than the one that comes from outside. For example, motivation for change of habits comes from within. This is what helps you to set your goals.This is because you will be “linking weight loss to your own values”. Glenn Livingston explains it all here. 

Motivation that comes from outside can only last for so long and take you so far. Hiring a trainer with the hope that they will “make you” you do something will not make you desire it. Taking a horse to a river is the easy bit. Making it drink is a different thing altogether.

You need more than motivation. Why? Because motivation is unreliable. Sometimes it’s high, sometimes it’s low, and other times it is absent. When this happens, there is nothing to hold on to. That’s when you are most vulnerable to food and alcohol binges.

How about inspiration? Let’s take a brief look.

Inspiration. 

You have witnessed a colleague gradually shrink before your very own eyes. Now they have lost a ridiculous amount of weight, kept it off and are looking great as hell. They have told you they went on a healthy sustainable calorie deficit. They did all the right things. So, you too can not wait to start the same!

Inspirational stories are powerful in the sense that they make us realise the possibility of our dreams coming true. More so if the stories are from real people who faced the same problems as you are facing now and went on to successfully lose and maintain weight.

So, you decide to give it a go, but after a while it’s all starting to feel like hard work. Sounds familiar? Unfortunately, this is a common scenario. Whatever was motivating and inspiring you does not seem to work anymore.

Relying heavily on inspiration and motivation to persuade you to take the right action, with not much else will not be a solution to your weight loss problems. When all these go or are low, you will begin to struggle.

Oh, hang on. Maybe you can still manage. You still have something left in the tank in the form of …….

Willpower.

Willpower can help you get through obstacles and temptations in the short term. Regularly relying on it is impossible to sustain long term. It is one of the reasons why overly restrictive diets will not result in successful weight loss. It is a temporary fix to a permanent problem.

When you regularly rely on willpower to soldier on, your weight loss journey will end up feeling like one long punishment. A never ending war resulting in frequent and long diet slip-ups, lack of or no progress and eventually giving up.

While motivation, inspiration and willpower are important and helpful in beefing up your weight loss structure, they are feelers to the main pillars. They are not the solution to your problems.

So, what else?

4. Discipline….”is what separates the winners and the losers” Bum Phillips.

“..Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state”. It is making decisions and following through with them.

When you lack motivation, you need discipline to get things done. No-one is motivated all the time to go to work, go to the gym, or do housework. But we still have the discipline to get things done. The world does not stop because there is no motivation or inspiration. Weight loss is the same.

How does one become disciplined? By learning. Let’s see how.

You need structure or a plan to develop that discipline. You cannot just turn up for work any time you feel like. You have your contract, job description, your working hours and how long your breaks are to be. This is your work plan, your structure. Without it jobs don’t get done. This then becomes part of your life.

A plan will help you in times of obstacles, slip-ups, or during periods of adjustments to new habits. These are the times you will need more than willpower, inspiration or motivation, which will not move you beyond roadblocks. Everything requires a plan. If you constantly practice something it becomes a habit.

Know yourself, your weaknesses, triggers, and downfalls. I have a weakness for nuts. I have figured out a way of having a healthy relationship with them. I don’t eat them as whole.

Instead, I place the unopened packet in a mortar and pestle, and pound them senseless. I then add them in semi powder form to yoghurts, cereal or overnight oats.

I have tried opening the packet before pounding them, but I was eating half of them! I also tried storing them in 25g portions, but I was eating 2 or 3 portions a time. Powder is the only way for me for now.

Plan in advance. Whether it’s meal prep, going out, exercise, special occasions, etc. Your Plan is your structure that will make weight loss successful.  Making decisions that give you instant gratification does not go well with successful weight loss.

The world is full of temptations. That is the real world. Change your habits. Make small changes, repeat them, add more and repeat. Make your choices, stick with them, these will become the way you behave from then on.

When those behaviours are repeated, they will stick and become habits. Then your way of life.

Practice those things that you would do to avoid unhealthy situations. If that is not possible, find ways of dealing with them.

Remove temptations or figure out how to deal with unhealthy situations. You have choices of how you react. That’s your power. You cannot remove all temptations as they are not always physical. You must figure out a way of living with them.

Is avoiding all social gatherings or going out with family or friends in your plan? Or perhaps you are planning on banning certain types of foods and force everyone in your house to be part of your weight loss journey?

Hopefully not. Because if you do, life is going to suck. Instead, focus on yourself and the changes you must make. There will always be things in the way. That is the real world.

“Self-discipline is the centre of all material success. You cannot win the war against the world if you can’t win the war against your own mind” Will Smith. “Your mind has to be stronger than your feelings”. not the other way round.

5. Accountability.

Blaming others and circumstances for your weight gain is not going to help you make the necessary changes required to succeed. It shows lack of responsibility and control. Their life does not have to change because you want to change yours. Life goes on around you. You are the one with the problem not them. They may be overweight, but they are not ready to take that step yet.

Family support is important and a good thing if you can get it. But we come from different family situations. Your attitude towards weight loss is what matters. We don’t choose our families, neither can we always surround ourselves with like-minded people all the time.

So, if changing the situation or environment is not possible what can you do? Change the way you react to it. You are in control of that. Use the power of your thoughts.

“If only my partner could stop bringing in takeaways, my weight loss would be successful”. This is like saying you are not responsible and are not in control of the situation. How about saying “my partner brings in takeaways, but I am in control of what I eat, and I will do such and such so that I do not get tempted”.

Once you adopt the mindset of responsibility and accountability, you have taken the right step towards solving your problems.

That’s it for today!

Don’t forget to take these home!

I suspect you have come this far because deep within you there is desire for a successful weight loss. Yes? Then commit now by acting and following through with your plan and goals. Practicing these consistently will move you towards successful weight loss.

Now that you have made this promise to yourself, it is important you maintain discipline. Allow yourself to be human but maintain the discipline trend.

Also, remember you are accountable for what you eat. Unless of course they knock you out and feed you.

You need all these pillars to support your weight loss structure. Therefore, put necessary measures in place and continue learning and practicing habits that make successful weight loss happen! If you are here, you are in the right direction. Have you got an action plan yet? Click here for ideas.

You have got this!