Journey to Fit with Debbie

Previously I published an article answering the question, How do you know where to start when trying to lose weight? I broke down all of the components I focus on with my clients who are on weight loss journeys. (If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend pausing to read it now. It will make this article even more powerful.) The most important point of that article, “don’t try to do it all at once”, is worth a deeper dive. 

I mention that of the six things I list for weight loss I have my clients choose only one to two to start. You might still be wondering, then, where do I start a weight loss journey that works? How do I know which of the six things to pick?

I know you might want me to just tell you. You might be thinking, there has to be one of those areas that makes the biggest difference and that you should certainly start with that. Stay with me though. Choosing where to start is possibly even more important than choosing to start at all.

Self-Efficacy: The Key to Sustainable Weight Loss 

Once you have accepted that you should not try to accomplish everything at once, the next important thing is that you believe in yourself. Self-efficacy is one of the most crucial components in achieving your goals.

Self-efficacy is a belief in your ability to accomplish something. If you start a diet believing you will fail, then you will likely fail. The problem is, many of the people I work with, myself included, come to the table having already failed at weight loss multiple times. How will this time be different?

The answer to this is also the answer to knowing where to start. Your success depends on choosing the habit that you feel most confident you can achieve. A lot of conversations I have when I am helping people start a weight loss journey center around breaking big goals down into small habits. 

Once you have chosen one of the categories listed in the previous article, we then break the category down into small manageable habits. We ask the question, on a scale of 1-10, how confident do you feel that you will accomplish that behavior. If the answer is not a 7 or above, we circle back and make the habit more manageable.

For example, let’s say you decided to pick “paying attention to daily movement” as your first goal. A first step would be to establish a current baseline. How much are you currently moving now? If you have a step tracker, using the weekly average is a great way to get a general sense of movement. I know you have heard that you should be getting 10,000 steps a day. I wrote an article about the importance of that specific number that you can check out if you want. However, jumping to a goal like 10,000 if you are currently averaging 3,000 is both unlikely and unnecessary. If I asked you how likely you would be to accomplish a weekly average jump of 7,000 your confidence would likely be pretty low.

What if instead we set the goal to be 3,500 steps daily? How confident do you feel that you could accomplish that? Still not a 7 out of 10? Let’s break it down a little more. What if the goal is for 3 of the 7 days this week you will get 3,500 steps instead of the 3,000 you have been getting? 

Of course, this is just an example, with made up numbers. The important takeaway is that you continue to ask yourself how confident you feel in your ability to accomplish the goal. Continue to break it down into smaller more achievable steps until your confidence is at least 7/10.

Starting point, not an end goal

You might think that setting a goal of walking 5 extra minutes/day, 3 days a week is a ridiculous place to start. What outcome will possibly be achieved by a goal so small? It must be a waste of your time. And you might even feel embarrassed to admit that you are focusing on something so small.

But this is a starting place. It is not your end goal. In order to accomplish anything you have to start. And the most likely way you are going to start is if you believe it is possible to accomplish.

Tracking Progress: Celebrate Every Win Along the Way

It is important to keep a record of what you have achieved along the way. Write down every time you meet your goal and mark off when you don’t. This is where having grace for yourself will be crucial. Accomplishing this new habit 100% of the time is not necessary for success. There is research that shows that people who accomplish their new habits even 50% of the time can achieve success.

Harsh truth time. Saying that you are an all or nothing person is a cop out. Stop giving yourself an out before you even get started. You are not going to, nor should you, be consistent with your goals 100% of the time. Accept that now. Letting yourself out of the 100% or nothing mindset will increase your likelihood of success exponentially.

It is absolutely crucial that you celebrate the heck out of every single win. The size of the win does not matter. You have to start adding up all the chips you are stacking in favor of you being someone who can succeed. Every single time you go out and do the thing you said you would do, that is another vote in your favor. Celebrate it like you just won the National Championship. 

I cannot overstate the importance of giving yourself credit for the things you accomplish. Each win will build up your confidence and belief in yourself to accomplish more things. It will boost your self-efficacy. These wins will compound.

Assess and adjust

Remember that we are playing the long game here. That means that we will need to make adjustments along the way. After 2-4 weeks of working on 1-2 goals, assess your consistency. How consistently did you hit your step goal? If it was less than 50% you might consider adjusting it down. If you hit that step goal over 80% of the time, you may be ready to scale it up or add an additional habit to start working on.

From One Habit to Many: Building Momentum Over Time

Okay, so I told you to start small, choose only one to two habits to focus on in the beginning. But as your self-efficacy grows, you will be able to add more and more habits to your focus. These habits build on each other and as you have more and more success you will see compounding effects.

Eventually, you might be working on all of the action categories I originally listed. There will likely be an ebb and flow throughout the whole journey. Sometimes you will go through a season of life that is busier than another. In that case, adjust how many of the habits you are focusing on. Choose the ones that feel most important or most manageable at the time. If you do not have time to get in all of your steps during a busy month of work, that does not mean you need to also ditch out on all the rest of the healthy habits you have been working on.

Remember it was not all or nothing when you started. It will not be all or nothing at any point in the journey. 

Embracing the Journey: Cultivating Resilience and Self-Efficacy

Hey, if you have made it this far, I want you to know I believe in you. You have invested the time to learn about how you can make long-lasting changes. So many people want quick weight loss. And there are a lot of ways to achieve that. If you are still here reading this, it means you are already ahead of so many people. You are willing to consider that a quick fix is not the best fix. 

While I have not told you specifically where and how to start your weight loss journey. I have given you a lot of information. The power is in your hands. You get to choose!

I would love to know what you decided to start with. Leave a comment below letting me know where you are going to start your weight loss journey.

Self Efficacy can be difficult to build on your own, especially in those moments when weight loss is feeling hard. If you want someone in your corner every step of the way, cheering you on, helping you build self efficacy & realize you are capable of change, apply for 1:1 online coaching here.