Welcome back, friend!

If you’re here because you’re trying to lose weight (and keep it off) but you feel like you’re constantly falling short, this episode is for you.

So often, I hear from clients who are actually making great progress, “I thought I’d be further along by now.”

Their brains spiral down the same anxious questions many of us ask when we’re trying to lose weight: Am I a slow loser? Is something wrong with me? Is this not working? Am I “cheating” without realizing it?

And my answer was: no, no, no, no, no. The problem isn’t their effort. The problem their expectations.

We’ve been conditioned to want results immediately — to lose weight fast — and when that doesn’t happen, we assume we’re failing. We live in a world where you can have anything delivered overnight, so we expect our bodies to work the same way. And that mindset makes it really hard to stay consistent with the boring-but-effective stuff that actually creates long-term progress: meal prep, tracking, hydration, sleep, strength training, daily movement — the unsexy systems.

And here’s what I really want you to take from part one of this series: expectations and comparisons don’t just make you feel bad — they can directly lead to quitting, weight cycling, and worse overall health, because they convince you your progress “isn’t enough” even when it’s objectively significant.

Now, I’m not here to crush your hope. I want you to dream big. I want you to believe you can change. But I also want you to understand reality so you can stop getting in your own way — and stop letting the scale dictate your peace.

The expectations that sabotage weight loss

• A “magic number” goal weight in your head that decides whether you’ve succeeded or failed
• A timeline you believe you should hit (and you mentally calculate it like: 2 pounds/week = done by ___ date)
• The belief that it should be easy once you decide you’re “really ready”
• The belief that progress should be constant and linear (down every day/week/month)
• The belief that you should be perfect with food, exercise, water, sleep, and stress every single day
• Comparison as a measuring stick (assuming you should lose weight the same way or at the same rate as someone else)

And let me say this clearly: you can do everything “right” — high protein diet, low carb diet, tracking, workouts, even meal prep — and the scale can still fluctuate. That doesn’t mean you’re gaining fat or failing. It means you’re human. Bodies are not robots.

My challenge for you (do this today)

• Write down your “shoulds.” (Example: “I should have lost more weight by now.”)
• Ask: Is it true? (Logically, factually — not emotionally.)
• Write the truth. (Example: “My weight loss isn’t linear, but I’m making consistent choices and getting stronger.”)
• Write how you’ll remind yourself daily. (A sticky note, a phone reminder, journaling, a morning mantra, or repeating it when the scale messes with you.)

Because when your expectations aren’t met, it’s so easy to spiral into “what’s the point?” and then self-sabotage. But the truth is: one off day, one off weekend, even one off week doesn’t erase you. The difference between people who maintain progress and people who stay stuck isn’t perfection — it’s how they respond after they slip.

This is Part 1 of my three-part series, and today was all about the unrealistic expectations and comparisons that sabotage the actual process of weight loss. Next week, we’ll get into how these same patterns can sabotage long-term maintenance and lead right back to weight cycling — even after you worked so hard to lose weight in the first place.

And if you’ve been stuck in that loop, I want you to listen to the full episode — because I promise, the goal isn’t just to lose weight fast. The goal is to lose weight in a way you can actually live with… and keep.

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