How to Make Weight Loss Simple

The One Thing You Need Bring Focus To

By Joshua Wayne, MA
(PEERtrainer Note: If you are coming to this page from our Tip Of The Day Program, there is a link at the end of this article where you can share your experiences and results with the exercise outlined in the following article)

The Most Important Thing You Should Be Thinking About Right Now:

Hi there-- The ideas I am going to share with you about how to approach weight loss are about how to make it a simple process.  Now I know this may sound like one of those phony sounding headlines we all read on the covers of countless magazines about “How to Lose 20 Pounds in 2 Weeks By Eating This One Vegetable” but I assure you what I’m talking about is different (yes, I shudder too when I read those empty promises).

I want to assure that my word choice is very deliberate. I carefully chose the word “simple” as opposed to “easy”.  My experience is that they are often two very different things, and it’s usually helpful to keep them separate.  But what I want to share with you is an idea I had recently that can give you a simpler way to approach weight loss (and that will hopefully make it easier in the process as well). 

Here’s why I think that at its core weight loss is really a simple process.  There is only one thing you ever really need to pay attention to, and that is what you do next.  That’s it. 

Think about that for a second. We make it so complicated and we overwhelm ourselves with all our non-stop thoughts and worries. 

We stress about what we ate yesterday (or even several days ago!) and how it will show up on the scale; we worry about what we’ll eat tomorrow when we’re out with friends; we drive ourselves crazy worrying about how we’re ever going to successfully lose the 20 or 30 or 50 or 80 pounds to begin with; and all the while we’re terrified of the possibility that we won’t and we’ll be dealing with this frustration the rest of our lives!

Whoa!  That’s a lot of thinking!  But in my experience it’s what most of us do.  Do you see how complicated we make it?  We get so busy in our heads thinking about all the things we need to do and all the things that can go wrong, and in the process we forget the most important thing of all: the present moment, and that single, simple choice in front of us about what to do next. 

Do you get how simple that is?  There is only one decision you actually have to make.  You don’t have to make a decision about what happens 30 minutes from now, or 10 hours from now or 10 days from now.  You just have to decide what to do next. 

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Joshua Wayne is a Personal Development Coach and Trainer who focuses on weight loss, fitness and mind/body wellness.  He is the co-creator (with PEERtrainer co-founder Jackie Wicks) of the “Point of No Return” training program that helps people adopt the thinking and behaviors necessary to finally get “un-stuck” and overcome frustration and hopelessness in their weight loss efforts.