Anticipating and Overcoming Obstacles to Weight Loss

Anticipating and overcoming obstacles to weight loss will help you plan more realistically and improve your odds of weight loss success.

One of the exercises I lead my clients through is that once we’ve designed a new positive habit, we look at the potential obstacles to weight loss. 

It’s not often that a coach asks a client, “why WON’T this work?”  But by looking for what could go wrong, we are able to develop strategies to overcome those obstacles.

For example, I had a client who wanted to drink more water in the evenings and on weekends.  One plan we created was for her to put a pitcher of water in front of the TV, so she’d see it while she was hanging out.  That would create a cue for her to drink a glass of water.

However, she often has younger kids in the house and anticipated that they might pull the pitcher over, spilling the water or even breaking the jug itself.  Through this conversation, we were able to anticipate that issue and overcome it.  Instead of a glass jug of water, she’s going to use a reusable water bottle with a screw on lid, so that if it is knocked over nothing will break or spill.

Now, this may seem like a small issue, but the process I outlined works in other areas of your life as well.  And most importantly, by anticipating and avoiding at least a percentage of the fails, my clients experience a greater success rate by overcoming weight loss obstacles, which helps them stay optimistic during their weight loss journey.