Overcoming Weight Loss Obstacles: The Laid Back Guide Back Guide to Weight Loss, #2

By Kayla Cox

Frustrating obstacles appear in every weight loss journey. Plateaus, overeating, slow weight loss, emotional eating, and weight gain are a few of the common roadblocks that can cause you to quit before you hit your goal weight. The good news is, all these obstacles can be overcome. Each chapter in this book will mentally prepare you for the challenges you are likely to face and will give you tips on how to overcome each one. It will help you focus on the why behind losing weight and on the big picture, so that you continue to make progress in a sustainable way.

Kayla Cox is a mom of three who has gone from being obese down to a normal BMI and has maintained her weight loss for years. In this book, she shares the struggles she had at each phase of the weight loss journey, and how she's dealt with each obstacle. She shares her failures, things she still struggles with, and the valuable lessons she's learned in the process. She has a YouTube channel about intermittent fasting, weight loss, and walking that currently has over 60,000 subscribers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kayla Cox
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223454410

Book preview

Overcoming Weight Loss Obstacles

How To Keep Going When Things Get Difficult

Kayla COx

Copyright © 2020 Kayla Cox

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by: Kayla Cox

To everyone who has felt like weight loss is a Sisyphean task.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Also By Kayla Cox

Introduction

Part I: Traits To Cultivate

Introduction

Trait #1: Persistence

Trait #2: Self-Love

Trait #3: Confidence

Trait #4: Accountability

Trait #5: Patience

Part II: Obstacles Before Starting To Lose Weight

Introduction

Obstacle: Fear (aka Worry)

Obstacle: Grudges & Unforgiveness

Obstacle: Perfectionism

Obstacle: Self-Sabotage

Part III: Obstacles While Losing

Introduction

Obstacle: Slow Weight Loss

Obstacle: Plateaus

Obstacle: Weight Fluctuations

Obstacle: Weight Gain

Obstacle: Inconsistency

Obstacle: Emotional Eating

Obstacle: Overeating

Obstacle: Hating Your Plan

Obstacle: Other People

Obstacle: Comparison

Obstacle: Vacations and Other Things That Break Your Stride

Obstacle: Emotions

Obstacle: Funks

Part IV: Obstacles in Maintenance

Introduction

Obstacle: I’m At My Goal Weight But I’m Not Happy

Obstacle: Loose Skin, Stretch Marks, Cellulite, and Flab

Obstacle: The Right Weight?

Obstacle: Weight Regain

Epilogue

Bibliography

Appendix A: A Framework For Weight Loss

Appendix B: How to Run a Postmortem

About The Author

Books By This Author

Also By Kayla Cox

Non-Fiction

The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting

The Laid Back Guide to Weight Loss Maintenance

Intermittent Fasting Workbook

Fiction

Escape From Olshek's Castle

The Swamps of Dorscha

Introduction

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. -Arnold Schwarzenegger

We all wish that the road to our goal weight could be freshly paved, straight, flat, and clearly marked with new paint. And if we could have a detailed, easy to read map that would show us exactly what to do at each fork in the road, it would also be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, the actual road is made out of dirt which sometimes turns to mud, with steep hills, hairpin curves, and potholes and obstructions all along the way. Once in a great while, the road straightens out and everything gets easier until the next thing you know, you’re deep in a dark forest and the road seems to have disappeared out from underneath you. You find yourself wondering how to proceed, or if you even want to.

There’s a reason they call it the weight loss journey. It’s an adventure, filled with missteps, snafus, and occasional triumphs. You’ll lose weight, gain weight, overeat and maybe even emotionally eat, but if you hang in there, you’ll figure out what works and you’ll reach your weight loss goals. The journey doesn’t end there, though. The day you reach that milestone is the first day of the next leg of your journey, wherein you endeavor to keep it off for good. Thus, this is literally a journey of a lifetime. It is a mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual challenge. The good news is, all that’s required of you is all that’s required on any journey: that you keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The purpose of this book is to prepare you mentally for the obstacles you will face, a roadmap of the hazards of a weight loss journey, so to speak. Of course, since you are a unique individual with your own unique life and unique challenges, this roadmap won’t be the same as the detailed directions you’re used to getting from your smartphone. Most of the time the obstacles come up when you least expect them. My goal in writing this book is to prepare you so that when you do come up on these roadblocks, you’ll know it’s a normal part of the journey. In the chapters that follow, I am going to talk about all the discouraging things you’ll likely go through, because they’re all the discouraging things I went through. My hope is that if I share with you all the ways I failed, struggled, but ultimately succeeded, you’ll feel less alone. I hope I can show you that if I can do it, you certainly can too.

Successful weight loss is a process of figuring out how to lose weight, changing your behavior, and most importantly, figuring out how and why you became overweight in the first place. It takes a lot of time, introspection, and effort to get to the bottom of it all. Sometimes things will go well, and it will feel easy to keep on going. But, there are also going to be plenty of times when things go terribly awry. You’ll hit a plateau that seems to last forever, or you’ll find yourself mysteriously bingeing on chips and cookies after you’ve finally started making progress towards your goal weight. It is in those moments when you’ll be tempted to quit, to turn around and head back toward the relative comfort of the life you knew, even if it was slightly miserable.

But it’s those hard moments that will teach you the most and make you stronger. You learn and grow very little when it’s going well. Of course, you’ll find very little consolation in this fact when you’re actually going through the aforementioned hard moments. You’ll feel like you want to throw away your plan, throw yourself a pity party, and go on an eating spree. Each time you choose instead to fight your way through, over, around, or under an obstacle, you get a little more powerful and a little more resilient. If you just keep pressing forward, you will get to where you want to go.

I have faced my fair share of troubles on the weight loss journey, and I continue to face them in maintenance. I have struggled through every single stage, from getting started when I was obese, to getting down to a healthy weight, to keeping it off. I have messed up, self-sabotaged, and wanted to call it quits more times than I can count. And yet, I keep on going and have maintained at a weight I am happy with. Yes, weight loss is hard, and yes, it can sometimes drive you crazy. You’ll cry, you’ll get mad, and you’ll screw up a lot. And yes, it is worth every ounce of effort, when you do it for the right reasons.

This book is divided into four parts:

●    Part I: Traits to Cultivate

●    Part II: Obstacles Before Starting

●    Part III: Obstacles During Weight Loss

●    Part IV: Obstacles During Maintenance

In each chapter, I’ll describe what each obstacle looks like and steps you can take to overcome it. I am also including a case study at the end of each chapter based on my personal experience with that particular challenge. I am only one woman, but I hope that by sharing what I went through and how I overcame it, you’ll be encouraged and maybe even learn from my mistakes.

I’ve put these obstacles in the general order I first faced them on my journey, but you may find they show up earlier or later for you. You might get lucky and never have to face some of the ones I did. You also might find, like I did, that the obstacles you face pop back up over and over again. You might get your emotional eating under control while you’re losing, but then find yourself challenged again with it in maintenance. Or, you might conquer your fear of success early on, but find that it comes back with a vengeance when you actually hit your goal weight.

Remember that you’re human. Sometimes you will throw that pity party. You might even turn yourself around and start marching back to where you started. Even if you march so far that you find yourself farther away from your goal weight than you first began, you always have the option of making another u-turn, coming back to face the obstacle, overcoming it, and continuing on the road. You’ll make faster progress if you don’t ever turn back, but that’s beside the point. No matter how badly you screw up, you can always get back on track.

Before we continue, I want to emphasize a few things. I’m not perfect. I’m a flawed human being, just like you. Even though I’m a few years into maintenance at this point, I don’t have it all figured out. I make mistakes, learn from them, and iterate as I go along. I’m not a nutritionist, a doctor, or a therapist. This book is not intended to be a substitute for medical or mental health advice. If at any point you find yourself in need of professional help, seek it out immediately. You are worth it. What follows is based on my own experience. Consider it a case study in not quitting on the weight loss journey.

My Timeline

Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about. -Winston Churchill

It might be helpful for me to share my timeline with you, so you have a sense of my history with weight loss:

●    1990 - 2000 (ages 6-16): Chronic dieting, including diet pills. Periods of being overweight, some periods of weight loss, rare periods of maintaining.

●    2001 - early 2004 (ages 17-19): Maintained a healthy weight.

●    Mid 2004 - early 2014 (ages 20-29): Weight starts to tick up due to being newly married, dealing with my husband’s deployment to Iraq, and then three subsequent pregnancies and chaos of raising three kids. After the birth of my third child, I was aware I had gained weight, but refused to weigh myself.

●    2014 (age 29): Tagged in Facebook photos and was confronted with my obesity. This was my I’ve had enough moment. Started trying to figure out how to lose the weight while still eating the food I liked, and keep the weight off forever.

●    2015 (age 30): Weighed for the first time in years. 222.5 pounds. Started weighing myself and going to the gym every day. Experimented with intermittent fasting. Lost 20 pounds, but then plateaued and started to regain towards the end of the year. Almost quit.

●    2016 (age 31): Started intermittent fasting consistently and walking six miles a day. Lost down to 157. Began maintenance in November.

●    2017 (age 32): Maintained seven day average weight between 157-163. Started YouTube channel about my weight loss and decided to lose a few more pounds.

●    2018 to present (ages 33-35): Lost down to 142 by October 2018 and entered maintenance again. Currently maintaining in the 140s, though my 7 day average has been as high as 152 (which is still in the normal BMI range for my height). This period has been the most emotionally rewarding one, because I finally got to the root of a lot of my weight issues.

Before we go any further, let’s get something straight. My numbers don’t matter. I lost down to a random number. I choose to maintain in that range because it seems right for me. You might find you feel best in a higher range, or a lower one. You are in charge of picking your own range and figuring out your own reasons. I hesitate to include my numbers at all. It’s easy to fixate on the number and forget to focus on the important stuff. I’m including these numbers to give you an idea of how my journey has looked so far, and the numbers tell at least part of the story.

In case