It’s easy to make stupid mistakes. It’s also hard to recognize them. Two really stupid mistakes don’t seem stupid at all. They seem completely logical and that’s why the smartest people continue to make them!

Stupid Mistake #1: Perfectionism

Sorry to break the news to you. You aren’t perfect.

You’ll never be perfect. You’re a human being and as such you’re perfectly imperfect. Trying to be perfect at weight loss guarantees perfect results – perfect failure.

Here’s why:

The day begins perfectly.

You get up at the perfect hour and do a perfect workout. That’s followed by your perfect breakfast. You maintain perfection until noon. You forgot to pack your perfect lunch so the perfect solution is to skip lunch.

Problem is your perfect breakfast isn’t going to hold you until dinner.

Your perfect day falls apart when you get so hungry you eat something handy that’s not on your perfect diet. Once you did that you ruined your perfect day.

Today is not going to be a perfect day. Today is a bad day. You will have to be perfect tomorrow.

What happens after that doesn’t matter.  Eat whatever you can reach; eat as much as you want because all is lost until tomorrow when you can start all over to have a perfect day.

Today is ruined. It doesn’t matter what I do today anymore. I’ll be perfect tomorrow!

The pattern is repeated until you finally decide you’re not capable of losing weight because you’re not going to ever be able to be perfect.

Maybe you are capable of perfect adherence.

Day after day you are perfect and when you step on the scale you see what you expected for your careful perfectionism. The weeks that follow you continue to be perfect.

Your friends and family don’t like the “perfect you” so much.

It’s difficult to be around you because you’re so rigidly sticking to your perfect diet. You make unreasonable demands of those around you so that you can maintain your perfectionism. You don’t care if you’re annoying and overbearing. You’d rather be alone and thin than surrounded by friends and family and overweight.

Being perfect will give you the perfect body and that’s the only thing that will make you happy.

“I’m going to follow my weight loss program perfectly so I will make perfect progress all the way to my perfect goal!”

You step on the scale expecting to have another perfect weigh-in, but it’s not what you expected.

The payoff for your perfectionism is a loss of 0.2 pounds!

“This isn’t fair! I’ve been perfect! Why didn’t I lose this week? First I’ll kill the scale and then I’m quitting because this isn’t working!”

This can only mean one thing! Your weight loss wasn’t perfect not because you didn’t follow the plan perfectly. You did everything perfect just like you did last week and the weeks before when you you were making perfect progress. Now your progress is no longer perfect and that can only mean one thing.

“Your metabolism has died and you can’t lose weight.”

Even if you had weight loss surgery and you’ve been a  perfect post-op patient, it’s no guarantee that your weigh-ins will be perfect week after week.

You expect the larger, gratifying weight losses as a result of surgery and your perfectionism, to continue every week. It rarely works that way. Even when you’re warned to expect it by your doctor, you think, “that won’t happen to me.”

One week you step on the scale and you weigh exactly what you weighed last week!

A few more disappointing weigh-ins and you’re positive that your metabolism died and you can’t lose weight. Your 100% adherence has failed you! What hope do you have now?

You’re about to make mistake #2 and it’s even a bigger mistake than Perfectionism!

Stupid Mistake #2: Quitting!

Yes, quitting is the biggest mistake you can ever make. If you quit you can’t lose weight, not now, not ever! It won’t happen.

What do you want more?

Do you want to lose weight slowly or do you want to remain (or possibly gain) at your current weight?

The benefits of losing weight are there for you no matter how long it takes to get there!

Forget about being perfect and just try to make progress.

Revise your weight loss program.

Remember you are creating new routines to last you a lifetime. You don’t have to do everything right all of the time. You can lose weight and keep it off by doing most of the things right most of the time.

If you have a day when you do most of the things wrong, it’s okay! There’s no harm or permanent damage done unless you allow that to become a pattern. Just get over it, and move on.

If you feel alone and want support of others who are fighting the weight battle just like you, consider becoming part of a weight management support group.

You might discover that even though you thought you could do this alone, it really helps to share insights, challenges, and successes with a group of people who really understand what you’re facing because they are facing the same things.

Avoid

Stupid Mistake #1 – Perfectionism

and

Stupid Mistake #2 – Quitting

and trust me, one day you will be celebrating reaching your weight goal and in the years to come you’ll be celebrating maintaining that goal!

At last! A way to live that “Fits for a lifetime!”