Getting Your Weight Loss Back on Track

Setbacks are an inevitable part of life. No success happens without failure, and your weight-loss journey is no exception. No matter how much you plan, you can’t account for every obstacle life throws in your way. Setbacks are natural—the trick to handling them is to develop healthy ways to work through them and get back on track.

Recognizing and Accepting Setbacks

Maybe it was the excess of unhealthy snacks sitting around the house, maybe your workload got in the way of your workout, or maybe a bad week triggered a stress-eating session—it happens to the best of us. However, it’s important not to beat yourself up. Setbacks make it easy to get discouraged, but one bad day or even week doesn’t cancel out all the progress you’ve made and all the hard work you’ve put in to improve your lifestyle.  

Take time to reflect on your setback. Consider what caused it, how you reacted, and how you could have reacted differently—what would have helped you in that moment? If a similar problem arises again, you’ll be more prepared to handle it if you understand why it happened in the first place.

Start Today

When we fall back into old habit, it’s sometimes too easy to let them work their way back into our lives for good. “What’s one more day?” can quickly snowball into a month of unhealthy habits. Set firm boundaries with yourself. When you experience a setback, take the first step to get yourself back on track sooner rather than later. If you’re struggling to motivate yourself, consider why you started your weight-loss journey in the first place, and use it to motivate yourself positively.

Don’t Try to “Cancel Out” Your Setback

Speaking of positive motivation—part of responding to setbacks in a healthy way is refusing the urge to “make up for it” with a restrictive diet or grueling exercise routine. This creates an unhealthy mentality that encourages you to “punish” yourself for setbacks instead of positively motivating yourself to overcome them. It also forms an unhealthy relationship with food by starving your body of what it needs to function.

Plan Ahead

Sometimes setbacks are simply the result of our busy lives getting in the way. When it comes to finding a time to work out or cook a healthy meal, utilizing a planner or scheduling app can be especially helpful. Planning your week will give you a clear, visual representation of your free time, making it easy to see when you can fit in a workout or meal-prep session.

After reflecting on what caused your setback, use that information to plan strategies in case you find yourself in that situation again. For example, if you buckled and ordered fast food because you were hungry between meals, buy and pre-portion healthy snacks instead, like fruits, vegetables, or mixed nuts.

If you haven’t experienced a setback during your weight-loss journey, chances are you will soon enough. Developing healthy ways to cope and get yourself back on track is the key to working through them. For more tips on your weight-loss journey, visit the Lap-Band® Indiana blog.