Stop Trying to Fix Your Whole Life to Lose Weight
Have you ever decided that this is finally going to be the time you get serious about weight loss?
And somehow that decision means you suddenly need to change everything about your life at the exact same time.
More protein.
More fiber.
More water.
More steps.
Strength training.
Earlier bedtime.
Less sugar.
No eating after dinner.
Meal prep.
Stress management.
And apparently, while we're at it, become an entirely different human being by Monday morning.
It feels motivating at first.
You are ready.
You have a plan.
You are doing ALL THE THINGS.
And then a week later?
You're overwhelmed.
Half of those new habits have already disappeared.
And you start thinking:
See? I knew I couldn't stick with it.
But what if the problem isn't that you can't stick with anything?
What if you're simply trying to work on too many things at once?
Sometimes Doing Less Helps You Make More Progress
I've been learning this lesson recently in CrossFit.
I've been doing CrossFit for more than six years, and somehow there are still approximately 500 things I want to get better at.
I want to improve my toes-to-bar.
I want better pull-ups.
I want to do a handstand push-up.
I'd like to get better at snatches—which I hate.
And I still want better double-unders.
So naturally, my brain tells me:
Work on all of them.
I'll practice toes-to-bar one day.
Pull-ups another day.
Maybe I'll throw in a little handstand push-up work somewhere.
Surely if I'm practicing all of these things, I'll eventually get better at all of them.
Except that's not really what has been happening.
Instead, I do a little bit of everything and never spend enough focused time on any one thing to actually make much progress.
Then I'm still frustrated.
Still struggling.
And still wondering why I can't do these things yet.
Sound familiar?
Because we do the exact same thing with weight loss.
I Had to Go Backward With My Pull-Ups
Recently, my pull-ups were feeling terrible.
I had been able to do them before.
I could do some kipping pull-ups.
I had actually been feeling pretty good about them.
And then suddenly?
They just felt rough.
So I went way back to the basics.
I started doing seated rows using a low pull-up bar.
And I won't lie—I felt like I was cheating.
Part of me kept thinking:
I can do pull-ups. Why am I sitting on the floor doing these?
I felt like I should be doing something harder.
I should be hanging from the pull-up bar.
I should be doing the "real" thing.
Going backward felt like failing.
But instead of repeatedly forcing myself through pull-ups that felt awful, I kept working on the easier movement.
I slowly built my strength back up.
Then I started practicing one strict pull-up at a time.
And recently, pull-ups showed up in a workout again.
I jumped up to the bar and was able to do two good kipping pull-ups.
Now, I'm not telling you I suddenly did 30 unbroken pull-ups while everyone at the gym stopped to applaud me.
That definitely did not happen.
I did two.
But they felt good.
I could get back on the bar and do more.
And most importantly?
It didn't feel like I was failing over and over again.
There was progress.
And it reminded me of something I think we forget all the time when we're trying to lose weight:
Sometimes the fastest way forward is to stop trying to fix everything.
What Does “Getting Back on Track” Actually Mean?
I hear women say this all the time:
“I just need to get back on track.”
But what does that actually mean?
Usually it means there is a mental list of about twelve things they think they need to start doing better.
Get breakfast together.
Pack lunch.
Eat fewer carbs.
Stop eating sugar.
Drink more water.
Get more steps.
Start working out again.
Stop snacking.
Go to bed earlier.
And suddenly you're trying to rebuild your entire life.
But maybe you don't need to fix twelve things.
Maybe breakfast is actually fine.
Maybe lunch isn't really the problem.
Maybe you're already exercising.
Maybe you're doing more things well than you're giving yourself credit for.
But there's one part of your day that consistently makes you feel defeated.
What if you worked on that?
Maybe Evening Eating Is the One Thing
For a lot of women, that difficult part of the day is the evening.
You do pretty well during the day.
Dinner happens.
Then the kids finally stop asking you for things.
Maybe they go to their rooms.
Maybe they go to bed.
The house gets quieter.
You finally sit down.
And suddenly you're thinking about food.
You grab something sweet.
Then maybe something else.
You might not even be physically hungry.
And before you know it, you're standing in the pantry asking yourself:
Why am I doing this again?
Then you go to bed frustrated.
The next morning, instead of thinking:
Maybe evening eating is something I need to understand better...
you think:
I need to start over.
And suddenly we're changing breakfast.
Lunch.
Carbs.
Sugar.
Portions.
Workouts.
Steps.
Everything.
Meanwhile, the one thing that was actually making you feel stuck gets buried under an entirely new weight loss plan.
You May Not Need More Discipline
If you've struggled with nighttime eating for years, there's a pretty good chance that telling yourself to just stop eating after dinner isn't the breakthrough strategy you've been missing.
You've probably already tried that.
You may have even done really well for a few nights.
Then life got stressful.
You had a long day.
You were exhausted.
Or you simply wanted something.
And suddenly you're right back in the same pattern.
Then comes the conclusion:
I have no willpower.
But what if that isn't the conclusion we need to draw?
What if instead you said:
Something is happening here. Let me stop judging it long enough to understand it.
That is what I had to do with my pull-ups.
I could have kept walking up to the bar and trying to force them because I believed I should be able to do them.
Instead, I sat down.
Literally.
I went back to a movement that looked easier.
And that easier movement turned out to be exactly what I needed to start moving forward again.
You Don't Always Need a Harder Weight Loss Plan
I think a lot of women need permission to do the same thing with weight loss.
You don't always need more goals.
You don't always need a stricter plan.
You don't always need to ask:
What else should I be doing?
Maybe a better question is:
What is the ONE thing that, if it felt easier, would make the biggest difference for me right now?
For you, maybe that's nighttime eating.
Maybe you're tired of ending every night feeling like you blew the whole day.
Maybe you're tired of waking up and promising yourself you'll “do better today.”
Maybe you're wondering why food feels manageable all day, and then something completely changes once evening hits.
If that's the thing that keeps making you feel stuck, you don't necessarily need to overhaul everything else.
You may need to give that one problem your attention.
Work on that.
Build confidence there.
Make progress there.
And then move on from there.
One Month. One Problem.
This idea is exactly why I created my 4-Week Evening Eating Reset.
I don't want this to be another program where I hand you a giant checklist and tell you to go fix your entire life.
We're narrowing the focus.
For four weeks, we're focusing specifically on the evening eating that keeps happening, understanding what is going on around it, and building a plan that actually fits your life.
Because sometimes progress comes from doing more.
But a lot of the time, progress comes from finally giving one thing enough attention to actually get better at it.
You don't need another Monday where you start everything over.
Maybe you just need to pick one thing.
Work on that one thing.
Build confidence in that one thing.
See progress in that one thing.
And then go from there.
Because sustainable weight loss isn't about becoming perfect at everything overnight.
It's about building habits you can actually maintain.
And sometimes?
That starts with doing a whole lot less than you think.
