Is Pressure Getting In Your Way To Lose Weight?

Some people thrive under pressure, and some people crumble. Myself, I tend to crumble! I always thought pressure could be a good thing, it could give me the added push to get things done and quickly, but in fact I repeatedly find myself feeling paralyzed and anxious when under pressure, and sometimes I feel defeated by the very things I set out to do.

As a health coach, I also see this with some of the clients I work with. When it comes down to diet changes and weight loss goals, some excel when they have goals and deadlines, and the pressure invigorates them. But for others, the moment pressure sets in, they find themselves procrastinating and even sabotaging every effort they make.

If you have health and diet goals you’re working towards, it’s important to know how you respond to your goals. Does a goal start off as an exciting goal, and then turns into pressure, and is that pressure constructive? Does having specific goals and deadlines propel you forward, or does it overwhelm you? Does pressure turn into motivation and creative energy for you, or does it create anxiety and stress?

Knowing how you respond to pressure can help you establish an effective strategy to actually achieve your goals. Too many times I see this one important step overlooked, and people try to go about achieving their goals all the wrong way, over and over again.

My story: I lost 30 pounds by going on a “pressure-less” diet! 

A few years ago I lost 30 pounds (see my blog post/video on how I lost 30 pounds here). I had been struggling for years to lose weight, and the more I tried to lose weight, the more I gained! The pressure I was putting on myself to lose weight was worse than the weight itself, and it was only until I surrendered to the weight loss, did I start losing weight.

When I say surrender, this doesn’t mean giving-up. It means letting go of pushing myself too hard, letting go of the pressure, letting go of high expectations and trying to control everything.

For years I went about trying to lose weight by setting out diet goals, rules of what I could eat, how much, and I had weekly weight loss targets. Sometimes these goals were so high and difficult, I wonder if anyone could reach them. I certainly didn’t! In fact, having such goals just made me more anxious, more stressed, and more unhappy – all of which made me want to eat even more.

I realized that my problem wasn’t the food, it was the pressure I was putting on myself that would make me want to sabotage all my efforts. I had to work on the pressure, not my diet. And that’s what I did. I re-worked my weight loss strategy to make it the most “pressure-less” weight loss plan. Instead of putting myself on a super restrictive diet, I made one goal, to lose 0-1 pounds a month. My only guideline was even if I didn’t lose that one pound that month, I had to make sure I didn’t gain any more weight. Easy!

From that “pressure-less” diet plan of losing 0-1 pound a month, I lost 30 pounds in about a year and a half. And, I’ve kept it off for about 4 years now. It was easy weight loss as well because I eliminated the very things that was causing me anxiety and stress, and in turn, the root cause for me to overeat. There were even many months where I lost even more weight than planned, and I met my weight loss goal much faster than I expected.

Is pressure standing in your way?