Why Is It Hard To Lose Weight? (Stop Doing These Things)

Why is it hard to lose weight?

Here’s the thing. You can add all the good stuff. You can add all the veggies, superfoods, and all the supplements.

But you can only progress so far with your weight loss goals unless you remove all the other unhealthy factors from your lifestyle.

Because if you eat more avocado and start working out. But you’re still eating Doritos and fast food, you’re not going anywhere.

That’s like taking one step forward and two steps back. You’re basically just chasing your tail. And then people wonder why is it so hard to lose weight.

I always like to say that what you stop eating has far more impact to your health than what you start eating.

The same thing goes with your habits. We’re gonna be applying the concept of addition by subtraction here.

In this video, I’m gonna talk about 8 unhealthy and self sabotaging habits you need to stop doing so you can put yourself in the best position possible to succeed in your health and wellness journey.

Why Is It Hard To Lose Weight? (Stop Doing These Things)

1. Stop stocking junk food in your house

Let’s start with a low hanging fruit.

I’m not saying you should never eat junk food and have the most pristine diet of all time. I like cheese cake and carrot cake too much so I’ll never stop eating it.

But guess what? I never stock them in my house.

We are not wired for self control as human beings. We’re just not. Your environment determines your success.

If you have a bag of Doritos within arms reach at all times, guess what you’re gonna eat?

If you don’t, and you have better options always available to you instead, then you have no choice but to eat healthy.

We’re also lazy by design. We’re extremely flawed as human beings.

Usually, the fact that you need to put pants on, get in your car, drive through traffic, find parking, wait in line, drive back home, take your pants off, etc. That’s usually enough to deter people from making that bad decision.

This is why I never stock Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at home. Otherwise, I will eat it. Usually, in one sitting.

Here’s another thing I wanna add to this. Let’s say you do end up having a cheat meal. Don’t buy an entire cake. Why? Because you’ll have left overs. Keep it to just one cheat meal.

2. Stop eating out so much

What I mean by this is if you eat out more than a couple of times per week.

You should not be having more take out food than home cooked meals. Why? Because what gets measured gets managed.

One of the best things you can do on your health and wellness journey is being aware of what’s in your food. This is why I always recommend that you eat single ingredient, mostly unprocessed, nutrient dense foods.

That’s why I love using plant based substitutes because people just get brain washed to think that it’s automatically

healthy for you. There are at least 18 ingredients in a beyond burger and it’s been processed to the nth degree.

If you eat a piece of steak? It’s unprocessed and there’s only one ingredient. Beef. What do you think is healthier for you?

But your control gets completely taken out of your hands when you eat out. You don’t know what restaurants are putting in your food.

Remember, food companies and restaurants spend top marketing and research dollars to make their food highly palatable.

Even if it’s a “healthy” restaurant, they could be putting things that you don’t know.

When you order anything deep fried for example, restaurants have to cut cost somewhere so they use highly inflammatory cheap vegetable and seed oils.

Some experts compare the negative effects of those oils as drinking radiation. That’s why fast food is so cheap. People eat that stuff all the time and wonder why is it hard to lose weight.

If you know exactly what’s in your food, you’re a lot more likely to make healthy and smart decisions.

When you cook from home, it allows you to be in charge of what goes in your body other than leaving it up to fate. But when you’re at a restaurant and you order an overpriced $20 salad for example, who knows what’s in that salad?

When you make your own, you know exactly what’s in it. When I roast cauliflower and Brussels sprouts for example, I know that there’s only one ingredient in those things.

The other thing that I want to point out is the mark ups are insane when it comes to eating out. Usually, the cheapest ones on the menu are processed carbs like french fries deep fried in toxic oil.

Going back to getting an overpriced $20 salad, you can easily buy a box of grass fed and grass finished burger patties and some pasture raised eggs that should easily last you a week for the exact same amount of money.

3. Stop making yourself feel bad

In the history of feelings, no one has benefited from this.

Stop feeling guilty about eating bad food or missing a workout. This is a self sabotaging habit that we need to completely cut ties with because it can turn into a vicious cycle real fast.

Because if you feel bad, that’s gonna stress you out which can then lead to stress eating.

Then you feel even worse which leads to even more stress. Then we stress eat again. Now you’re just this big giant ball of stress. It leaves people wondering why is it hard to lose weight.

I have a separate video about how to stop stress eating if you suffer from it.

But if you can stop the cycle right away and not feel bad about your little slip up, then you can move forward with your life again.

This is important because chronic stress leads to chronic inflammation in the body. Which then opens up pandora’s box to all sorts of disease including diabetes, obesity, cancer, arthritis, autoimmune and cardiovascular disease. Just to name a few.

It also leads to that all too familiar weight gain around stomach.

Just remember this. You change best when you feel good, not when you feel bad.

Life gets a little bit easier when you have a good relationship with yourself. And just remember that you’re one good meal and one workout away from getting back on track.

Do not ruminate about it. Do not stress about it. Breathe. It’s all good, baby.

4. Stop taking unsolicited advice

Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one. You need to stop letting other people’s experiences and opinions influence your behaviour.

Yes, there’s something to be said about collective learning of people’s mistakes. I agree. Don’t make those mistakes as well.

What I’m trying to say here though is that if you are trying to carve your own path. If you’re just starting out your health and wellness journey. You need to be careful who you listen to.

Never take advice from someone you wouldn’t trade places with. Even then, that’s where bio individuality comes in.

For example, if you’re trying to lose weight. How long you’ve been carrying the weight you’re trying to lose plays a huge factor when it comes to your results. Your genetic predisposition to storing fat also plays a huge role.

There’s also still a lot of outdated information out there that’s considered conventional wisdom that a lot of people still believe in. And people wonder why is it hard to lose weight.

If you ask the average person how to lose weight. They’ll tell you, without a doubt, to just eat less and move more.

It’s not that simple. It won’t work long term without factoring in hormones.

Another example is intermittent fasting which I also talk a lot about on my YouTube channel.

Unless you’re pregnant, a teenager, or you have a history of eating disorder, it is literally one of the best things you can do for your body.

But if you ask the average person, they’ll tell you without a doubt that you’re hurting yourself.

Other people will try to convince you to go Vegan after watching a stupid documentary like Game Changers or What The Health.

Again, you need to be careful who you listen to. Otherwise, you’re always gonna be left wondering why is it hard to lose weight.

I personally share my healthy lifestyle with you and my entire channel is dedicated towards educating people based on my own personal experience and the results of all my students.

But you might not agree with everything I say, especially if you’re vegan. That’s okay. You do you. I’m not here to tell you what to do. You need to tell yourself what to do.

This next thing is something that I’m still working really hard on to get better at. But hey, we’re in this together.

5. Stop working too hard and ignoring self care

I’ve come a long way with this but I’m still a work in progress. And I will always be a work in process.

Raise your hand (even though I can’t see) if you’re the same way. I can be really hard on myself sometimes especially when it comes to taking days off.

I love what I do. I’m so blessed and so thankful that I get to do what I love which is to speak my truth and educate people.

But I still work way too hard and don’t really give myself enough time to recover and reset sometimes.

I’m just as susceptible as everyone when it comes to do this. Because I always feel like there’s always work that I can be doing.

Again, it’s important that you’re at least aware that this is happening. Because failure to address it can result in negative health problems like chronic stress which I mentioned earlier.

If you don’t give your body time to calm down and relax then you’re living in this constantly elevated state of stress. That is not good for your body.

This is why I’ve been incorporating a lot of mindfulness and self care tips in my recent YouTube videos because it is so important.

When you’re really sore or tired but you’re supposed to workout that day, but instead you end up sleeping in and taking the day off, don’t think of it as being lazy.

Think of it as a form of self care. It’s part of living a healthy lifestyle. Resting and recovering is just as important.

What I recommend doing is scheduling self care on your calendar. Put it on your schedule.

For example, here’s my morning routine. I’ll wake up, I’ll brush my teeth, and I’ll drink a glass of water. Then I make a pot of coffee. While it’s brewing, I go back to my room and I’ll meditate for 10 minutes.

Then I’ll go for a 10-15 minute walk. When I come back, that’s when I journal. I’ll write down 5 things I’m thankful for and 5 things I love about myself. Only when I’m done all those things do I even touch my laptop.

When it comes to taking actual time off, you should actually schedule it and book time off instead of just trying to fit it in whenever that “free time” comes up.

Because guess what? You’re always gonna have things on your plate.

In the US for example, 55% of workers reported that they did not use all of their vacation days. In 2018, a total of 768 million vacation days went unused. Nobody on their death bed will say, oh man I wish I worked more.

6. Stop putting everyone else needs ahead of yours

This is one of the most self destructive mindsets out there.

My family comes first.

Nope. You come first. Everything else is second.

Why? Because who else is going to take care of you?

If you have kids, this is when you often hear people say, “I have teenage kids. It’s hard to stay on track with my diet because I have to cook for them.”

So? Who buys the groceries? Who puts food on the table? You. You need to put yourself first. And if you’re healthy and happy, guess what? The entire family is healthy and happy.

7. Stop being an active couch potato

I used to be one of these people.

I would go to my CrossFit class and after that, I would avoid anything and everything that involved any physical exertion on my part.

A lot of people are guilty this. They’re active for their hour long workout. But for the rest of the day, those other 23 hours, they’re completely sedentary.

They barely get out of their desks at work. Then they come home and they turn into a couch potato and they just watch Netflix. Sound familiar?

Yes, you’re definitely doing better than people living a completely sedentary lifestyle. But you’re also still sedentary for 23 hours.

That’s still 95% of the time. The same negative effects of living a sedentary lifestyle still applies to you.

We evolved as human beings to move. There’s so much research out there about the negative effects of prolonged inactivity and we subject ourselves to this kind of behaviour all the time.

I get it. People have to work desk jobs but for every hour, try to at least move for 5 minutes. Get up, and stretch. Go for a walk.

Smokers take smoke breaks multiple times during the day. Do the same thing. Go for a walk. More likely than not, you’ll always come back more awake and more mentally focused.

Not only that, walking also helps up with your recovery from your workouts.

It can help you sleep better, it up regulates your fat burning metabolism, it can lower the blood glucose response if you go for a walk a meal, and it can drastically reduce your stress levels.

If you’re stressed right now, stop whatever you’re doing. Go for a walk and move. You’re not a tree.

8. Stop allowing toxic people to have access to you (and vice versa)

You have 100% complete control of this.

Stop following and interacting people who make you feel bad about yourself.

When it comes to social media, if there are accounts you follow that makes you feel less about your self every time you look at their posts, you need to unfollow that person.

People only post their highlights on social media anyway. Even your favourite fitness influencer. They’ll posting something saying, “I woke up like this.” When they’re already all glamoured up.

And then you look at yourself and you look like you just got hit by a bus. Twice. You can’t help but compare yourself. It doesn’t really help. That’s not good for your mental health.

I’m gonna give you some real talk because we can be petty sometimes.

Do you really still need to be following your ex on social media? Why are you still checking their stories? Why do you check if they’ve seen your story?

If that’s you and you feel personally attacked, I can relate because I used to do it as well. Then you’re actively playing a part in your unhappiness.

Don’t be part of the problem. Be part of the solution. If your ex hurt you and you’re still following them on social media because you want them to see that you’re doing well, have you really moved on?

Holding on to a grudge like that is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. You need to move on from those people and delete them from your life.

But then there’s also people in real life as well that are extremely toxic.

They’re extremely miserable, and they just drag you down.

We all have people like this in our lives. You feel worse after interacting with them. They make you feel bad about yourself.

You need to start distancing yourself from those people. Even if its your own relatives. What I’ve learned in life is that you can love your family from a distance.

If they’re toxic, even if they’re your family, you need to spend less time with them.

I’m gonna leave you a couple of tidbits here that I want you to take away. You want to be around people that celebrate you, not tolerate you. Stop doing things that does not bring you joy.

If the price of something costs you some of your happiness, it’s too big of a price tag. It’s never worth it.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!

Need More Help?

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