I’m Not Losing Weight: Coping with the Frustration

A tale that isn’t old as time but sure feels that way: I’m not losing weight, and I’m over it.

While people have been manipulating their appearances for as long as time, the pressure to look and feel optimal in the digital era is real. It can be at best motivational, and at worst, crippling. Social media has a special way of churning our insecurities, enabling us to compare ourselves to others.

The desire to lose weight may come about as a desire to change one’s physical aesthetic, health, or simply to feel better about oneself. Whether you’re actively putting in work and not getting the results you desire or finding it difficult to try in the first place, here are some ways to help you cope with the frustration associated with weight loss

If You Don’t Know Apples from Oranges and Don’t Like Either

I’m frustrated because I’m not sure how to change. I don’t know if I really want to or can change. I resent myself for wanting to change. I’m not a hundred percent sure how I got here or where I want to be, I just know it’s not here. I have general ideas of what I should sacrifice, but I feel it’s no use. I can’t live like that. I’m scared to start and fail.

Feel any of this?

Try this: Know that there is nothing wrong with you. Outside pressures are a burden, but in the end, you’re reading this with one underlying voice in your head: your own. That voice is louder than any other, and connected to it is a heart with the wish to feel better.

Focus on gravitating toward that wish, instead of guilt. Don’t stop yourself before you start, just start! There is no small change, the ramifications, and ripples of change span far past what we’re able to measure. Quit assuming that you’ll just “fall off later anyway”.

If You’re Working but it Isn’t Working

I’ve tried everything I know how to try, and it simply isn’t working. I’m not sure if I can really lose weight. I have to work harder than everyone else. I’m betting that I’ll just feel like this forever. It’s no use, I should probably just quit while I’m ahead and find other ways to be happy. I’ll never have the body of my dreams.

Feel any of this?

Try this: Understand that while there are a few staples, universal methods of losing weight, there are still a variety of factors that can impact one’s ability to do so. Take time to learn about your own body and what might be preventing your goals. Don’t give up on your dream body. Instead, assign a new sense of pride to your shape and genetics and own who you are.

Making Means Meet

I don’t have extra dollars for a gym membership. I’m not a morning person. I can’t work out at night. I have no time. I’m too busy. I’m too tired. I can’t afford to eat healthily. Healthy food doesn’t taste good.

Feel any of this?

Try this: Time, finances, and healthy habits can only be obstacles for so long, in time they become challenges, and eventually tread into the glorious category of strengths. Don’t undercut your abilities.

You could be a morning person, you’ve lived every morning in your life so far! You could learn to enjoy healthy foods, our pallets change when we adjust our diet, leading to cravings of those very foods. Does $50 a month on alcohol sound reasonable, but not for a gym membership? Think more efficiently and seriously about your time, physical and financial means, and how to up play them for your benefit.

Gain Perspective and Lose Weight

The aching desire to lose weight, even so, and especially if just in our minds, can be exhausting and difficult to reason with. Center feelings of frustration unique to you by taking a second to assess what your obstacles are.

It may be something small, it might just be a mindset. Consider the truth behind these obstacles. If your weight loss journey hasn’t gone as planned, try again. Be kind to yourself, patient, and educate yourself on your own genetics and unique shape. You’re already that much closer to achieving your goals.