9 Weight Loss Mistakes You Need To Stop Making — NOW

By JoLynn Braley

Sometimes it's good to be a quitter...

I sure do know what it feels like to be fed up with yourself because you want to lose weight but you’re simply not getting anywhere. Instead, you feel like you're spinning your wheels, taking one step forward and five steps back.

You keep asking yourself, "Why can't I lose weight?"

Just like millions of those who are struggling with the question of how to lose weight, you probably think there's something you're missing.

Maybe you're right! 

Maybe you are making some mistakes. Maybe you're even making mistakes the mainstream diet industry never discusses. The mainstream diet industry is all about, "Eat this kind of food. Do this kind of exercise" — so you tend to think that's all there is to it.

What if there's more to the story? What if the diet and exercise piece of the puzzle is the smallest piece? What if there's a big honking piece of the solution you've been missing?

What if in order to lose weight and keep it off forever, you need to find that big honking piece of the solution you're missing today, but up until now, you weren't even aware that there is such a thing out there

Let's take a look at the top 9 weight loss mistakes to stop making today so that you can finally lose weight!

You might be surprised by what you read below because you're used to reading lists that are all about the practical steps like, "Drink more water" and "Eat breakfast."

Let's see if instead, you might be making some mistakes you haven't been aware of — mistakes that cost you lost time, experiences, and happiness. In simple terms, these mistakes can cost you a life that you could be living in your ideal body instead of continuing to struggle and battle with yourself, struggle with your weight, and fight with food like you've been doing for as long as you can remember.

But first ... why could these 9 weight loss mistakes be so costly to you and your life? 

Because if you stop making these mistakes, then you can easily lose weight and keep it off for good. Then you could live your ideal life while in your ideal body — just like my weight loss coaching clients do. 

My weight loss coaching clients come to me as lifetime strugglers who are stuck in emotional eating, binge eating, and weight loss sabotage. Even though they know what to do to lose weight, they don't do it before working with me.

My clients used to make mistakes that were stopping them from losing weight for good. The biggest mistake they made before working with me is the one that had to do with their mindset. (Tip: it's number 9 on this list — and it's the mistake that creates all of the others!)

Let's move on to the list to learn more!

Here are 9 weight loss mistakes to stop making today:

1. Telling yourself you’ll start again on Monday.

This is an extremely common diet mistake that millions make every week, and I've been there, too. It will only end up keeping you from your weight loss goal forever, though, keeping you stuck on the constant hamster wheel of "someday-Monday-itis." 

Why will it stop you from losing weight? Because all of the overeating and unhealthy living you do each week before Monday is really your lifestyle. Unfortunately, two days of healthy eating just isn't enough per week to get you to your goal weight and keep you there. 

2. Waiting until New Year’s Day.

This is another super common mistake that millions upon millions of overweight overeaters make every holiday season. Wow, I too know how easy it is to pack on 20 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day! In fact, I was just talking with one of my weight loss coaching clients about this (she's the one who said it would be easy and fast to gain 20 pounds before January 1st!).

This is a such a big mistake to make — to wait and make a New Year's resolution to lose weight.

Not only will you be heavier on January 1st, but you'll also be adding to the momentum of the 500 mph freight train of overeating and overindulgence that you've got going.

How do you stop a speeding train on its tracks on January 1st? Isn't it more common that a freight train just keeps on going? And going? After all, Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and then Easter, that birthday, wedding, vacation is coming up ... and then, before you know it, it's one year later, and you're telling yourself you're going to start again on New Year's Day 2018. 

What if you stop doing this to yourself now? What if you just get going now with your weight loss action plan? Just make sure that you've got the right system to feed your mind before your body each day. This is the most important piece of the puzzle (more on this below).

3. Eating when you’re not hungry.

When you put food in your mouth when your stomach isn't empty, your body has no choice but to store that extra food as fat. 

Why? Well, imagine driving your car to the gas station when the tank is full. How would you put gas in the car? 

Your vehicle on this Earth (that's your body) does not need fuel when it's already full. Food is fuel. It's not something to have "fun times" with or date. And when you eat only when physically hungry, your body won't be able to stop from shedding the extra fat!

4. Trying to be perfect.

You've probably heard the saying, "Progress not perfection," right? Well, it's true when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off. While you do need to be progressing forward towards your ideal body, the majority of the time, one slip up per month or so is not a reason to throw in the towel.

Just stand up and get right back on track — this is what those with a weight loss mindset do! They just don't make it a big deal about it, and therefore, it doesn't cost them weight gain from one slip up.

5. Expecting to lose 20 pounds in 20 days (or some other kind of crazy instant gratification weight loss thing).

Unless you are 500 pounds overweight you're simply not going to lose 20 pounds in 20 days. I know you see these wild claims made about diet pills and cleanses and such, but even if you could lose weight that fast, I promise you it wouldn't be fat loss.

This is why it comes right back in the blink of an eye as soon as you stop doing a cleanse or other "fast fat loss" trick.

6. Believing in weight loss fairy tales.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but there is no magic pill, powder, cleanse or shake that will help you shed fat and keep it off forever while you continue living the same lifestyle you're living today.

Yep! That's what people are looking for. How to lose weight while eating pizza and ice cream every day, making no changes to their diet and exercise habits while popping a magical weight loss pill to fix it all.

(Ack! I know how easy it is to believe that stuff when you're desperate to lose weight! Unfortunately, that stuff just doesn't work.)

Here's the truth: the only permanent weight loss "trick" that works is a healthy, consistent lifestyle. That's it! Live a healthy lifestyle day in and day out, and you'll have it made.

However, if you want to be able to do that, do it consistently, and have it be fun and easy, then you need the biggest piece of the solution for successful weight loss: a weight loss mindset.

More on this below!

7. Leaving 'Universal Laws' out of your weight loss journey.

Whether or not you believe in the laws of this Universe doesn't change the fact that they are what they are. If you leave Universal Laws out of your weight loss journey, you'll continue to fight an uphill battle.

One of the Universal Laws that all of us live under, which illustrates what I mean perfectly, is: "You cannot enjoy the outcome to a journey you despise." 

Here's a perfect example: if you hate eating healthy and exercising, even if you can get yourself to do it you won't be happy once you lose weight! You've got to get happy now, right where you are, while you move towards your ideal body with ease.

Once you get a weight loss mindset, losing weight will be easy to do. It can be no other way. That's how powerful your mindset is. It either keeps working to make your body fat (that's what a fat mindset is geared to do) or if you get a weight loss mindset, it will work to drive struggle-free, healthy behaviors to make your body fit and thin. Simple and fun!

Note that if you're feeling frustrated reading this because you've never experienced easy, fun weight loss, it's just because you don't have the right mindset. The good thing is that your mindset can be transformed to a weight loss mindset. So it's all good!

8. Telling yourself, "I'll go it alone."

When you're struggling with emotional eating, binge eating, food addiction, low self-esteem, self-doubts, nighttime eating, and the inability to stop stuffing yourself, but you keep telling yourself, "I'll go it alone. I'll just make myself do it!" — how exactly does that work out for you?

This is a costly mistake to make when you could get the help of a proven, professional weight loss coach who already has the step-by-step proven system to end your food and weight struggles.

Coaching with the right coach is the quickest and easiest way to get the weight loss results that you want. Based on my experiences since I began coaching in 2009, I've never had a weight loss coaching client tell me they could have gotten the results they got working with me on their own. Because they couldn't. Why? Because none of us can see our own blind spots. And, the right permanent weight loss coach can see yours and help you break out of them now!

Especially, if she's also an intuitive coach. 

9. Ignoring the biggest honking piece of the solution to permanent weight loss.

The biggest honking piece of the solution to permanent weight loss is a weight loss mindset. It's so huge that it's impossible to lose weight permanently without it.

Mindset is 92.8 percent of the problem when you can't stop eating. It's also 92.8 percent of the solution when you want to lose weight, and keep it off.

Your mind leads your body. Always.

When your mindset is fat, your behaviors will be fat, and your body will match. See how that works?

If you stop making these 9 weight loss mistakes and move forward now, just think where you could be six months from now. 

What about a year from now?

Now, look forward to five years from now.

This is exciting because once you get a weight loss mindset you'll not just lose weight easily, you'll also keep that weight off. This means that five years from now you would have been living at your ideal weight for several years. Just like Holly, who was 20 pounds overweight and had been struggling with binge eating for over 30 years. Nothing she'd tried before working with me helped. She'd even gone to therapy for seven years — and that didn't end her binge eating! 

I coached Holly through my proven system in 2011. She ended her binge eating (yay!), and she lost 20 pounds.

What's even more exciting is she's never gained that 20 pounds back, and she is still binge-eating free today. How do I know? She still sends me updates, five years later! 

Heck, I bet you could be at your ideal weight within less than a year if you could just get a weight loss mindset so that you'd get out of your own way now to do the sh*t you already know you need to be doing every day to lose weight and keep it off. You know what I mean: regular exercise and healthy eating only when hungry.

Just remember that it's bass-ackwards to try to do that stuff first.

Why? Because diet and exercise are only 7.2 percent of the solution (you'll never hear this from the mainstream diet industry!). What makes is easy to do the physical healthy lifestyle steps consistently is the right mindset.

A weight loss mindset is 92.8% of the permanent weight loss puzzle. 

This is the biggest honking mistake that most overweight overeaters are making right now. In fact, in the above list, mistakes 1 through 8 are all symptoms of a lack of a weight loss mindset. You wouldn't make any of those mistakes if you already had the right mindset: a weight loss mindset.

Please remember this: as long as you move forward and take daily action now to get a weight loss mindset, you'll be on track to lose weight without the struggle and keep it off forever. That's exactly what my Inner Self Diet coaching clients experience (they tell me it's pretty darn exciting!). 

There's no way you can fail at weight loss once you get the right mindset: a weight loss mindset.