You’re at the top of your game, and you are definitely no stranger to making your goals a reality. As a high-achieving professional, you know exactly how to navigate your demanding professional life so that you’re accomplishing your goals and functioning at your best.
But still, there’s one area of your life that you just can’t seem to stop struggling with: your weight.
You might have tried diet after boring diet, or signed up for expensive gym memberships and private training sessions — all to no avail. You might have even had some success … but found yourself slipping backward after life’s many challenges inevitably got in the way.
This constant yo-yo-ing can be extremely frustrating, especially if you’ve managed to establish systems for success in every other area of your life.
The good news is that, if any of this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. When you’re constantly locked in and on the pursuit of success, it’s easy to put your own health and wellness on the back burner. With busy schedules, overwhelming responsibilities, and demanding days that leave you feeling completely drained, it’s no wonder that many of us simply don’t have the energy at the end of a long day to dedicate to ourselves.
But honoring your own personal goals is just as important as accomplishing your career milestones … and the good news is that, if you’re already here, you have the tools and skills you need to make them a reality. Let’s talk about the basics of what it actually takes to get started based on peer-reviewed scientific research, practical strategies, and a plan that is specifically tailored for high achievers like yourself.
1. Don’t overthink things.
One of the biggest obstacles that can get in the way of weight loss success is the sheer amount of information out there. From the Keto Diet to the 75 Hard Challenge and everything in between, there’s a company or an influencer out there for basically every different kind of weight loss method.
As a result, researching weight loss can be, in a word, confusing.
So here’s truth number one: weight loss is not necessarily easy, but its main concepts are actually pretty simple.
It’s not about the gimmicky diet that claims you’re going to lose 50 pounds in one month, or the current workout trending on social media. At the end of the day, peer-reviewed research has found time and again that the pillars of weight loss are quite simple: be in a calorie deficit (in other words: you need to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day).
You don’t need to sign up for a confusingly complex diet program or invest thousands in the latest fitness tech in order to get results. The things you really need to focus on are:
Eating a healthy, balanced, and properly portioned diet for your needs
Increasing your exercise and physical activity to get your metabolism going and maintain lean muscle mass
Implementing healthy habits like prioritizing sleep and managing stress
Most importantly, finding ways to stick to it no matter how busy your schedule is.
2. Understand that this is going to take time, effort, and commitment.
If you want to achieve a weight loss goal, know that it is going to take a ton of dedication and lots of time. As such, it’s important to set realistic expectations from the get-go.
An enormous reason that so many people give up on their healthy lifestyle change is that they don’t see results as quickly as they’d like. But as you probably already know from your professional pursuits, success doesn’t happen overnight. Every long-term win is the result of countless hours of work and effort. The same applies to weight loss.
Sure, there are plenty of “solutions” out there in the weight loss industry that claim you can have your dream body in mere weeks or months. Unfortunately, research has shown time and time again that these extreme “crash” diets do not work in the long run. They’re hard to stick to and can even be dangerous since they’re based on extreme caloric and nutritional deficits.
Your efforts don’t stop when you hit your goal weight, either. You need to find ways to maintain it for the long run — and if you didn’t set a solid foundation for a healthy lifestyle already, this is not going to come easily.
Case in point: a qualitative study published in the Nutritional Journal looked at participants who did a variety of commercial/trending diets. The researchers found that two-thirds of the participants felt that their diet was effective …. but only when they were able to stick to it.
