Many people who have struggled to lose weight and struggled to keep it off usually feel they have failed.  Based on these past experiences they have a lot of self doubt and do not feel they can trust themselves and trust their bodies.

Unfortunately this history  causes them to hesitate in fully committing to trying again.  This creates a  self -fulfilling prophecy. The  fear of failing prevents them from fully committing and lack of full commitment results in the same outcome as the past  – they don’t reach their goal.

In fact this fear of failure can also be so strong that it prevents them from even starting again.

I hear this a lot from people before they start working with me.  It is very scary to consider trying again – why would somebody want to set themselves up to just feel like they failed again????

I get it!!! 

The challenge is that if you cannot learn how to master this fear then you will never break the cycle.  The fear may never completely go away but it doesn’t need to stop you from continuing to try.

When people enrol in my weight loss program and after I have walked them through their orientation session I always ask them, “How are you Feeling” and 90% say the same thing….”I am excited but nervous or scared”  and I will ask “What are you nervous about” and they say “I am nervous I won’t stick with it”  They are not nervous that the plan won’t work, they are nervous that they won’t follow through”  Will history repeat itself, yet again??

I tell them everybody feels this way so they are not alone and they are not wrong to feel that way.  It is completely normal to feel nervous about making a change and making a commitment.  Once I remind them that they are not alone and  they have support this time they feel better.  And guess what they may mess up, they may not be “perfect” but the difference this time is that they are going to have the opportunity to  learn from those setbacks because of the support and coaching.  Once they learn more about themselves and their behaviours from a setback and then get back on plan  HIstory does not need to repeat itself.  

So how can you set yourself up to push through the fear of failure and get started on your weight loss journey again??

Look at your past attempts for losing weight and try to objectively assess what happened and why it didn’t work for you. Can you see what was missing?  Don’t judge yourself, just try to learn from these past attempts.

Often when people try to lose weight they will do it in isolation because of their fear of failure and feelings of shame, embarrassment and guilt if they do have a setback leading to them giving up.

Unfortunately when doing this journey in isolation the only voice you have in your head is your own voice and that voice’s perspective is just based on your own past experiences and beliefs.  This is a limited and biased perspective.  What if you had another voice speaking to you with compassion, encouragement, expertise, positive past experiences???

This voice could be a coach, could be a supportive friend, could be a FB group of people going through the same thing, it could be your voice saying  a series of affirmations that you review and say to yourself when your inner fearful voice starts speaking to you again. 

There is no such thing as failure – yes a setback or several setbacks can happen but if you can learn from that setback and continue to move forward then that is a win and with each setback you will learn more about what you need and eventually you will succeed.  But if you let that inner voice full of fear make decisions for you and hold you back from trying then that is the ultimate failure. 

The only failure is giving up and not trying again.  Just like the saying “burn the boats” once you start the journey there is no turning back.  You can change strategies, you can learn, you can tweak the plan along the way but you need to have an attitude that you will not retreat – burn the boats.  

Embrace an attitude of not giving up on yourself – continue to learn, continue to try, surround yourself with other “voices” so they can drown out your inner critical fearful voice.

I hope you found this information helpful.If you want to learn more:

1. You can book a complimentary call, and discuss your challenges, and obstacles, and together we can determine if my program is right for you.
2. You can also go to my Facebook page, @DrSherBovay, where you can find and join my Private Facebook group, The FastLane Mind Body Reset Mastery Group. Here, I host Facebook lives and frequent posts where you can engage and learn more.