6-Week Slim-Down: Weight-loss challenges

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Congratulations! You’ve reached week 5 in the 6-Week Slim-Down. By now, hopefully you’ve had some successes and are feeling good. But chances are, you’ve also run into a few hurdles. After all, weight loss isn’t easy. If it were, we would all look like celebrities and the obesity crisis would be over before it began.

It’s normal to face some serious challenges when you’re trying to break bad habits or start new healthy ones, but it’s the way you address those challenges that will decide whether you ultimately fail or succeed.

It’s not just willpower that can be an issue (though that is a big one—after all, we are only human). There are many lifestyle issues that can make sticking to your health plan difficult. Perhaps your schedule makes it impossible to fit in exercise in the morning or evening, or your job requires dining out at restaurants where healthy options are scarce. These challenges can easily become excuses unless you build a plan for how to deal with them. For example, you could arrange for a lunchtime workout or you could park farther from work to add more exercise into your day, and you could rearrange meetings to occur over coffee or at restaurants where you know you can choose healthful options.

Think back on your biggest obstacles so far. (If you’ve been using the 6-Week Slim-Down Tracker, refer to your notes there to find patterns of problems you have faced.) Sit down and make a plan for how you’ll overcome them. Need some help? Share your challenge with us and next week we will have some advice from Maureen Hagan, fitness expert and vice-president of program innovation and fitness development at GoodLife Fitness.

So this week, tell us:

What’s your biggest weight-loss hurdle?

Tell us in the comments below, and if you haven’t already joined Canadian Living’s 6-Week Slim-Down, sign up now for all kinds of healthy and helpful weight-loss advice.