Trap 1: I’ll start my weight loss and fitness kick on Monday / next month / on January 1st…

Yep, it sounds like a neat way to approach it – get a nice full week in, or start clean as a new year’s resolution and have a good year…

No! Putting it off is not sensible, it’s just excuses. If you are serious about losing weight and/or getting fit, make some change today. Take some action towards it today. Nothing will change if you leave it for tomorrow, or Monday, or January 1st. That’s just a way of not doing it, even as we are convinced that we’ve got it under control because we have a plan.

Trap 2: I’m going to start eating healthily, I just have to eat all junk out of the house first…

Well it’s a waste otherwise, right?

C’mon now! It’s much more of a waste sitting on your hips. It’s another excuse that we need to start being able to see through. We are deluding ourselves thinking we are totally sincere, when our actions say otherwise. If we were serious about losing weight, would we postpone it (and do something to make it worse!), or get on with it?

Trap 3: Fantastic! I am starting to get results so now I can stop trying and it will magically keep working…

This one gets me every time! Magic is not going to solve this one for us, sadly. We can only change, and make the change comfortable enough to stick with. And do whatever we can to keep our goals in the forefront of our brains so we don’t lose focus – like tracking in our diaries, little notes stuck on the mirror or fridge, setting a reminder to go off each day, etc.

Trap 4:  I have eaten something ‘bad’ or skipped a workout, so now it’s all over…

Yep, coz giving up is going to help…

The faster we can learn to move on from a set-back, the better. It’s going to happen, it’s always going to happen, so teach yourself to let it go, refocus and get back on it.

• Minimise it instead of blowing it out of proportion. Yes, it wasn’t ideal, but it’s also not the end of the world.
• Do something to make up for it – ate a donut? go for an extra long walk. Missed a workout? do a longer one tomorrow, or workout on one of your days off instead.
• Learn from the experience – why did it happen? what led up to it? what could you change so it doesn’t happen again? (like plan to workout at a different time of day, or pack a snack for the afternoon so you aren’t tempted by the chocolate machine). If the same circumstances arise again, how could you react differently? Have a plan in your head for it.

Don’t let the shame of ‘failing’ put you off or hold you back. If you can take a ‘failure’ and learn from it, then it becomes an opportunity instead of a mistake. And you can take that knowledge and go on stronger than before.

Do you get trapped by any of these, or something else? What can you do to sidestep it next time?