Why Losing Weight is Easy.

As a Personal Trainer of 20 years, I’ve seen pretty much all my clients lose weight.  Every single one of them.

Every PT client starts off strong and loses weight initially and quickly.

Keeping the weight off is the hard bit.

You see, losing weight is easy.  It shows you’re motivated.  Which is amazing.  Without motivation, you wouldn’t have started at all.

But the problem with motivation is that it’s fleeting.  Maybe it lasts 3 days, maybe a week, a month or even 3 months.  But eventually your motivation will dwindle from a roaring flame to a dull burn at best.  And it dwindles for everyone. There’s no escaping it.

At that point you’ll revert to your habits.  What your mind and body know best.  These can be good habits, or even bad habits you’ve subconsciously developed.

So you can’t just rely on motivation.  You need to develop easy, sustainable and practical habits that can carry you when you’re motivation is low.  That’s the hard bit.

And of course, you need to develop patience.  This is a long term game.  Think about it.  Take 30 seconds right now to think about what your weight is today, versus what it was in the middle of July this year, versus what it was at the start of this year (January 2023).

Now think about your motivation patterns.  It probably was up and down all year.  You most likely had periods of high motivation (perhaps whilst in the middle of a “6 week Gym Body Challenge”) and perhaps you had periods of low motivation (usually the middle of winter, when it’s cold, wet and you just want to stay tucked up in bed).  Now, you may be an outlier and had high motivation all year (usually those who are training for a specific big event, like a marathon, triathlon, etc).

So, if our motivation goes up and down all year, what is the biggest factor then in determining how fit and healthy our bodies are today, over a 12 month period (or even 3 or 5 year period).  Yep, it’s our habits.

As we are about to enter the Christmas period in 2023, we’re all most likely going to exercise less and eat/drink more.  That’s ok.  Enjoy it.  I’m not the kind of trainer that says you can’t enjoy yourself over Christmas.  I’d hate that guy.  (Plus, it’d destroy my Lebanese mum if I told her the food she cooked for me had too many carbs).

But what daily little habits can you implement around this to keep your health and fitness vital?

(For me, I’ll personally start each day of this holiday period to get up early, have a long morning walk, drink my coffee slowly, and delay my breakfast as long as possible. My very informal version of intermittent fasting).

Be patient, set good habits, think long term, accept mistakes along the way.

Merry Christmas to you.  I hope you get to spend some quality time with loved one.

Jerome Samaha