The inevitable frustrations that pop up on your health and fitness journey are a result of you being too outcome focused.
Any time you’re feeling really frustrated over your lack of progress it’s because you’re trying to be too controlling of your outcomes.
Usually it’s because you’re extra focused on what the scale is telling you, what your body looks like, or the calories you’re eating. And you’ve started to essentially live for tomorrow’s weigh-in.
When the scale doesn’t show you a number you were expecting, or you aren’t seeing changes in your body, you get frustrated and either want to double down on your efforts or you want to give up altogether.
Both of those solutions are losing propositions. The real answer to your frustration is to start becoming more process oriented again.
I like to think of our motivations as all falling on the “Process vs Outcome Spectrum”. On one side you have process-oriented action. And the other you have outcome focused/obsessed behaviors.
When you’re too far to the outcome side you lose touch with your body. Everything you do is for a future outcome.
You eat solely based on a calorie budget. You move your body to burn calories and accumulate steps. You become more focused on your body’s looks. And everything you do is meant to move the scale.
On the process side of the spectrum you take actions based on what makes you feel your best. You eat to fuel your body and nourish it. You exercise because you enjoy it. And you’re more focused on what your body can do as opposed to what it looks like.
Both outcome and process based behaviors and goals can be useful, which is why I like to think of this as a spectrum as opposed to either/or.
But when you get too far to the outcome side you start experiencing those negative emotions that are all too typical with weight loss journeys.
The good news is you only need to shift your focus back towards the process side of the spectrum to start feeling better.
This allows you to start taking action from a more mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy place.
And that’s a prerequisite for any transformation to occur.