Reflecting On Your Weight Loss Journey… In A Positive Way!
More often than not, we tend to put more focus on the things that went wrong along our fitness journey and not enough on the things that went right.
It’s essential that we take time to reflect on our weight loss journey in a positive way. We’re not saying it’s not productive to look at what didn’t work. Instead, we’re saying there is a time and place for both, and we shouldn’t have one without the other. There’s a balance to everything in life, including fitness.
When we take the time to celebrate, even the most minor accomplishment, it reinforces our positive behaviors. In turn, it helps us stay motivated so that we continue moving forward with our fitness journey. Loss of motivation, drive, and self-discipline often leads to giving up, and that’s not going to help us, now is it?
Take What Didn’t Work And Make Changes
Maybe you told yourself that you’d spend an hour or two at the gym every morning, cut back to 90o calories a day, and stick to a different diet, only to jump ship within the first couple of weeks. It may be time to adjust your plan rather than feeling as though something went wrong and you failed. In that case, maybe it’s best to start slow and small, with one goal at a time.
Sometimes, things can become overwhelming. Considering that we have our everyday lives to live, on top of trying to make better choices and reach goals to improve our health and fitness.
Harnessing The Power of A Fitness Journal
We know that using a journal may seem lame or as if there couldn’t be any actual benefits for some people. However, many people that journal their fitness journey (the good and the bad) are successful.
Half of the battle with weight loss is reflecting on what’s worked and what hasn’t. Using a journal gives us a deeper look into triggers, benefits, and things that should be changed. These are vital learnings that help us assess our weight loss efforts and the potential for future success.
If logging everything in a daily journal seems like a frustrating or daunting task, maybe consider something more like a food diary. Food diaries can help us keep our eating patterns and habits in check. We can use a notebook or our phone to log everything we ate and drank throughout the day.
Even if we write down what we ate on a scrap of paper and throw it away, the act of writing things down helps us remain accountable, and it’s an effective tool for reaching weight loss goals. Something else that helps us reflect and succeed is keeping track of our emotions while we eat. Our emotions play a massive role in our eating habits and food choices. When we are able to make the connection between our emotions and overeating, we can try and take more control over them.
Reflection can be one of the most powerful tools for reaching our weight loss goals. Take time for yourself to reflect on what this day, week, or year has meant for your health and fitness. From there, we see the positives and negatives and can further move toward improvement.
Remember, it’s ok to look at the things that didn’t work. However, it’s crucial that we find the silver lining and make any necessary changes to improve things when we do so. Also, ALWAY look at every little thing you have achieved along your journey because they count just as much as the big ones.