How to Start Fresh with Your Weight Loss Plan and Get Back on Track in the New Year

I don’t know about you, but there is NOTHING I love better than a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over. Because frankly, it’s easy to fall off the wagon over the holidays, isn’t it? Between all the yummy comfort food and the neighbors delivering home baked goodies every 10 seconds, and the calorie-laden cocktails and even the emotional eating that tends to rear its ugly head this time of year, it’s not hard to find yourself going totally off the rails. Or maybe you just intentionally chose to give yourself a break during the busy holiday season, knowing you could pick up where you left off come January.
Honestly, that’s pretty much the approach I took this year because I knew that in this crazy season of life I’m currently in, good enough was just going to have to do. But now, with the holidays almost behind us, I’m ready to start thinking about the NEXT season, and that’s exactly what I want to talk about today—how to actually KEEP moving forward, even when we have those moments of setback or those times when we feel like we’re totally off track. Are you ready to create the ultimate 12-month blueprint for reaching your health & weight loss goals this coming year? Our free on-demand video training will walk you through how to make 2024 THE year you set health goals…and keep them. Access our free video training Embracing the Journey
But before we dive into all of that, I think it’s really important to just acknowledge ONE thing about this journey towards better health, and that is this—it’s a LIFELONG journey. It’s not something that has a finish line, or a specific destination. It’s not something that you can ever really be “done” with. And in a lot of ways, it’s not even something that’s always going to be linear, where you’re always moving forward and always making progress. And I think that’s something that we often forget, especially when we’re feeling super motivated and making a ton of progress really quickly. It’s almost like we think that if we could just get started and get some momentum, then we’ll be able to reach our goals and then we can go back to doing what we were doing before. We think that if we can just lose those 10 pounds, then we’ll be good. Or if we can just get through that sugar detox, then we’ll be able to go back to eating the way we were. Or if we can just get through the first month of exercising every day, then we’ll be able to go back to just sitting on the couch and watching Netflix. Or whatever it is. But that’s not how this works. If you want to actually create lasting change in your life, then you have to be willing to change your life. And I know that might sound a little bit scary—like it’s going to require a lot of effort and energy and that you’re going to have to give up all of the things you love and start doing a bunch of things you DON’T love. But the reality is that it’s often just the little things—the small changes that we make to our daily habits and routines—that have the biggest impact on our health and our waistline. And it’s also the little things that start to slip up and get us off track. This isn’t a journey that has an end point, and it’s not a journey where you can just do it for a little while and then go back to what you were doing before. It’s a journey that requires you to be consistent with the things that actually work for your body—the things that make you feel good and healthy and energized. So that’s the first thing I want you to understand. This is a journey—a lifelong journey—and it’s the little things that matter most, both in moving you forward and in setting you back. How to Give Yourself a Fresh Start So with that in mind, how do you start fresh when you feel like you’ve gotten off track? Well, like everything in life, it mostly comes down to MINDSET—changing the thoughts that ultimately dictate your actions. But at some point, of course, you do also have to change your actions as well, right?
So let’s talk about a few strategies that can help you start fresh and get back on track. Stop Beating Yourself Up The first strategy is to simply STOP beating yourself up and start practicing self-forgiveness. Because the reality is that we are often our own worst critics, and we tend to be a lot harder on ourselves than we would ever be on anyone else. And what ends up happening is that we get caught in this cycle of self-sabotage and negative self-talk that just KEEPS us from moving forward. We tell ourselves things like “I’m so undisciplined. I’ll never be able to lose this weight. I always mess things up. What’s wrong with me?” It’s almost like we think that by beating ourselves up and making ourselves feel as terrible as possible that somehow we’ll be motivated to change. But that’s not how it works. Because the more negative and critical we are of ourselves, the more likely we are to just keep REPEATING the same patterns of behavior that got us off track in the first place. So the first thing you have to do is to literally just STOP the negative self-talk and start giving yourself more grace. And I know that might sound a little bit easier said than done, but I promise you that it’s a PRACTICE. It’s something that you have to intentionally CHOOSE to do, over and over again, until it becomes a HABIT. Because the more you can focus on the positive and give yourself credit for the things you’re doing well, the more you’ll start to believe that you’re actually CAPABLE of change, and the more likely you’ll be to keep moving forward and making progress. And the reverse is also true—the more you beat yourself up and focus on all of the things you think you’re doing wrong, the more likely you’ll be to keep repeating those same mistakes. So that’s the first thing—to simply stop focusing on all the ways you’ve messed up and instead forgive yourself enough to move forward. Reconnect With Your WHY The second strategy for getting back on track is to reconnect with your WHY. And I know I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, but it’s so important that I’m going to keep talking about it over and over again. Because honestly, this is the ONE thing that I see make the BIGGEST difference in people’s ability to actually achieve their goals and stay consistent with their healthy habits. When things are going well, and you’re feeling motivated and seeing progress and getting results, it’s so easy to stay committed and stay on track. But then as soon as you hit a roadblock or a setback, or you have a few days or weeks where you’re not seeing as much progress or not feeling super motivated, it’s easy to lose sight of WHY you wanted to make these changes in the first place. And so you just kind of give up. So that’s why it’s so important to have a really clear understanding of your WHY—of your big picture vision for your life, and what you want to be able to do and FEEL, and what you DON’T want to have to deal with anymore. You have to connect with the EMOTIONAL reasons WHY this is so important to you, and why you’ve decided that you’re no longer willing to just stay where you’re at. Because when you have a strong enough WHY, then the HOW will always reveal itself. And when you’re feeling stuck or like you’ve gotten off track, you can always come back to that WHY and use it as your motivation to keep moving forward. So if you’re feeling stuck right now, or worried about getting your momentum back, then I want to challenge you to take a few minutes to really reconnect with your WHY. Go back and listen to some of the early episodes of this podcast, or read The full article on our website.