Staying Patient in Your Weight Loss Journey

By the time you read this post, I’ll be on a 2 week road trip vacation with Mr. W.

Which means, while I write this post…I’m in a season of waiting. 

I’m waiting for something I’ve been planning on and saving for since December of last year. As I wait, and plan, and pack, and prepare….I’ve been thinking lately we’re always waiting for something.

And for many of you, it’s waiting for all your hard work to pay off and to reach the weight loss goal you’ve been dreaming of. 

So how do you stay patient in a season of waiting like this?

While a “season of waiting” is nearly always happening in life, each season can feel so different. Waiting on the vacation to come. Waiting to save money for a new home. Waiting for a child, either by birth or adoption process. Waiting for a surgery.

Here are some tips and encouragement to help you stay patient in your weight loss journey.

1. Stop thinking of just the end goal.

When you embark on a weight loss journey, it’s tempting for your mind to go straight to that cute summer dress you’ve never worn but always dreamed of. But what about all the moments in between where you are, and where you want to be ultimately? Break away from your day dream and chose a more “here and now” goal that feels attainable sooner. Here’s an example to illustrate my point:

I did not go straight from $0 in our vacation fund to our full savings for a 12 day trip. 

It took 14 months of budgeting, saving and denying ourselves of dinners out to slowly reach our goal. But you know what? We had fun along the way. We enjoyed the moment we got to book a new hotel or buy tickets to a show. We were able to deny brief moments of gratification because we knew something awesome would be coming if we waited. It’s important to have a “carrot” to keep you focused but if that carrot is too far in the distance, you’ll be tempted to give up and walk home. Set smaller goals and enjoy the journey.

2. Establish your means to your end.

Have you heard the phrase “it’s a means to an end?”

The means are the things it takes to get to your end goal. Similar to tip #1, you want to stop dreaming of just the end goal and now be practical on what daily habits will get you there. What are your means to your end? How many days a week are realistic for you to exercise? When will you plan out your meals and get to the grocery store? What will you do when you forget your lunch or someone wants to go out to eat? Write out your strategies and think out the different scenarios that have knocked you off track in the past. Learn from past mistakes and establish the means to your end.

For our vacation savings it was eating at home. Having a monthly budget meeting whether we liked it or not. Using a cash system to keep us on track. Telling friends we could meet for coffee instead of a meal. And for yours truly, not hopping on Amazon and buying the something that popped into my mind that would be really convenient to have ;-)

3. Cut the cord with your scale.

If you weigh yourself everyday, having patience in your weight loss journey would be as difficult to find as if I had been checking my bank account everyday to see if our vacation money was there yet. If I had checked my bank account everyday for the past 14 months, I would have looked 427 times to see if anything had changed. I’ll be honest…my patience would have run out well before the 100th time of checking and I would have given up. I would not be packing my bags this week to leave for the trip I’ve been dreaming of.

If this is a hard area for you, I strongly recommend talking it out with a friend and having he or she hold you accountable. My husband is a great sounding board, but for me, I also love having a girl friend I can talk these things out with. If I’ve been obsessing over something that I need to trust God and let go of…I call her and she will challenge me to delete the app I keep checking or not to google something or whatever else might be guiding my thoughts to impatience.

We are always waiting on something in life. Why not slow things down and try and enjoy the daily journey a bit? The alternative doesn’t help us get to the end any sooner anyway :)

PS Wonder where I’m going on this big trip? Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram! I’ll be posting photos for you to guess where I am!