The truth about self-sabotage (and how to stop!)

I exercised this morning, so I’ve earned this pizza.

I’m stressed out after a rough day, and chocolate helps me relax.

I can treat myself. It’s the weekend, and I ate healthy all week.

Sound familiar? In the time I’ve coached people to stop binge eating and find their healthiest weight, I’ve heard countless clients say, “I’d be able to reach my goals if only I were able to stop self-sabotaging.” And they’re right. Many people sabotage their weight loss goals. I’m going to help you recognize self-sabotaging when you see it, understand why you might be doing it, and figure out how to overcome it.

Are You a Self-Sabotager?

See if either of these sounds like you:

-You’re focused for a while, lose some weight, and improve your fitness… then gradually revert back to your old ways.

-You know exactly what to do but can’t seem to do it. You feel like you could write a diet book with everything you know about weight loss and living a healthy lifestyle but you don’t act on it.

The truth is, there’s a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. It’s easy to hop from one diet to the next without ever sticking with anything. Success (or lack thereof) comes down to our mindset, psychology, and habits.

No diet that is solely based on the food you eat will help you figure out why you gained weight in the first place. A diet won’t fix emotional, mindless, stress-induced eating, and it won’t fix habitual, compulsive binge-eating. Basically, a diet won’t get to the root cause of why you overeat.

People often think a fear of failure is holding them back. I frequently hear, “I don’t want this to be yet another failed diet attempt.” But surprisingly, it’s a fear of success that holds people back the most. The best diet won’t matter—no matter how determined you might feel—if a part of you wants to destroy progress toward your goals.

Self-Sabotage Happens When You’re Scared of Success

Why would you be scared of success? Well, if you’re successful, any number of fears could be realized. For instance, you won’t have food as a way to temporarily escape or quiet your mind at work or at home. Or you’ll have to deal with uncomfortable feelings such as self-doubt, regret, disappointment, or fear (because you’re not suppressing them with food).

Maybe you’ll lose the “Once I lose the weight I will finally…” safety blanket that protects you from taking action on an intimidating (but ultimately rewarding) prospect.

These are real psychological roadblocks, but nothing that can’t be overcome. To break from a pattern of self-sabotage, you need to get to the root of why you’re sabotaging yourself. I frequently use the exercise below, which often leads to breakthroughs.

The Self-Sabotage Worksheet

We fall off track because a part of us isn’t sure that the goal we’re working toward is going to make our lives better. This causes inner conflict, and when there’s inner conflict, we do the easiest thing of all: nothing.

I’ve presented this simple worksheet to many clients, and I’ve found that it helps determine what’s really holding them back.

1. List five reasons you believe your life will be worse off when you achieve your goal.

These are some real answers I’ve received from clients.

-I don’t feel like it’s possible, so why bother trying. Nothing works long-term, and failing in front of everyone multiple times is embarrassing.

-My boyfriend loves pizza and chocolate; (And so do I!) I want to indulge at the weekends with him without worrying about calories or carbs.

-I’m scared of dating. I know if I lose the weight, I’ll have no excuse to get out there.

-I’m worried I’ll never be able to eat my favourite foods again and I’ll always feel deprived.

-I don’t want to exercise for hours every day.

These reasons all have one thing in common: Our powerful subconscious minds believe that rationalizing ourselves out of weight loss will protect us. But once we identify the real reasons that we’re holding ourselves back, we can begin to counter them.

2. Challenge your fears.

Question your reasons and poke holes in their logic so you can remove their power.

I don’t feel like it’s possible, so why bother trying. Nothing works long-term, and failing in front of everyone multiple times is embarrassing.

Is it really true that nothing works long-term? You’ve seen other people break free from binge eating and accomplish weight-loss goals, and you’re just as capable as they are. Perhaps what you’ve tried wasn’t sustainable. You’re worth taking another shot. Besides, our desire to lose weight and improve our health doesn’t fade; we just tend to either realize our goals or rationalize them away when achieving them gets challenging. And if we’re honest, “everyone” usually comes down to just a few people, anyway.

My boyfriend loves pizza and chocolate; (And so do I!) I want to indulge at the weekends with him without worrying about calories or carbs.

You can still have an enjoyable weekend with him. However, there has to be a balance between living for today and living for tomorrow. One solution is to ask yourself these powerful questions before you start to eat huge amounts of food just because it’s Saturday night…

Will doing this behaviour get me closer or further away from my goal?

Is this pizza, chocolate, (fill in the blank), more important to me to enjoy now than it is to reach my ultimate goal of being healthier, losing weight (fill in the blank)?

You see, if it is more important to you to eat the thing and enjoy the experience than it is to get a step closer towards your goal then that’s absolutely fine! Just be sure not to then moan about not being closer towards your goal and feeling guilty for eating the pizza, chocolate…

You ALWAYS have a choice and it’s ALWAYS your choice.

I found that instead of having pizza, chocolate and ice cream, I could still enjoy myself only having pizza and a small bit of chocolate because my goal of being healthier and not feeling bloated on Sunday morning meant more to me than eating the extra ice-cream and chocolate.

I’m scared of dating. I know if I lose the weight, I’ll have no excuse to get out there. What about dating are you scared of? Is it the possibility of rejection? Are you scared all romantic partners will be like your last one? Are you scared to be vulnerable? This can be hard stuff to think about, but try to be as specific as possible. I’m worried that I’ll never be able to eat my favourite foods again and I’ll always feel deprived. Any program that demands you give up your favourite foods is ridiculous. Deprivation is not sustainable. You can enjoy your favourite foods while losing weight. I teach my clients how to be fit and happy, not fit and miserable. If you don’t enjoy your life as you’re losing weight, you’ll never be able to sustain your weight loss.I don’t want to exercise for hours every day. You don’t have to! Eighty per cent of weight loss is diet. It’s about what, why, and how we eat. This is why you see people working their butts off in the gym month after month—even with a trainer—looking no different. It’s what you do between exercise that makes all the difference. Now that you’ve challenged your fears, you can counter them with how you believe your life will be better if you do lose weight.

3. List five reasons you believe your life will be better once you achieve your goal.

Here are some examples I’ve gotten from clients:

-I’ll be healthier and reduce my chances of getting preventable diseases.

-My life won’t be taken up with binge eating and then negative thoughts.

-I’ll have more energy for myself and my family.

-I’ll feel happy to be in photos instead of hiding away from the camera.

-I’ll be a good role model for my children so they don’t repeat my negative food behaviours.

-I will finally stop worrying about my weight.

Mindset, mindset, mindset!

Until we identify and deal with the reasons we fear success, we’ll never be successful. A lack of knowledge about what’s good for us is rarely the real problem in this day and age. Instead, we tend to suffer from a lack of consistent action… and that usually comes down to what’s going on between our ears. How we think about things literally determines our results. Your mind believes what you tell it, so make sure you tell it things that you want it to believe…!Change is hard as I talk about in my last article – Why change is so f***ing hard and what to do about it – and sometimes we just need some support, accountability and knowledge from someone who has been through what you’re going through. This is why I’m here! Reach out to me if you need help and you’re ready to crush those goals.

As a ***bonus*** I had a lovely lady reach out to me called Trishia. She shared her awesome article with me about self-sabotage and I just had to share it with you guys too! So here it is! Enjoy.

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