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A guest post by Justin Kompf.
A client recently signed up to work with me on an initial 4-week weight-loss program. In the first week she dropped 5 pounds and then on the second an additional 2.5 pounds. The results were great, and for the first time in a long time, she had exercised to some extent each day of the week.
Then, on the third week, it happened. She gained back about a pound and a half. When this occurs, some people freak out, their mood changes, and they cease to remember that they are not defined by a number on a scale. Most people identify with that number and if it goes up how could they be anything other than a failure?
But my client told me that she had a rough few days, knew what she did, and was ready to get back on track. There was no discussion of being a ‘failure’ or lacking the adequate skills to achieve her goal. There was no giving up. There was only “I know what I did wrong, time to get back on track.”
Process Mindset
In her book Mindset, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, wrote one sentence that stood out to me. She discussed a process mindset. Within this process mindset, there is no such thing as failure. There are only ineffective solutions.
Setbacks give us data, and if you think of a setback as information, then it is completely useable for improvement. However, if you think of a setback as a sign failure, there is no choice but to feel defeated.
To relate; I remember reading a statistic that the average smoker tries to quit 30 times before they are successful. That is persistence despite 30 different ineffective solutions. We find what doesn’t work, learn, modify our approach, and make more attempts.
Fat loss shouldn’t be any different.
Why Fixed Mindsets Backfire
Years after Langer’s book was published, Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck wrote Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In her book, she discussed two mindsets; a fixed and a growth mindset.
Let me explain a fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. With the fixed mindset, one’s skills are fixed. We are who we are. Meanwhile, the growth mindset is similar to a process mindset. With a growth mindset, an individual believes their skills can be improved upon with practice.
What’s more, when we’re so concerned with being perfect all the time, we don’t put ourselves in situations where deficits in our skills might exist. We don’t put ourselves in circumstances where we might fail. If we are who we are (fixed), and if we try and come up short, well, then, we must be a failure.
Weight loss is tricky. We live in what is called an obesogenic environment. This means that the environment is designed to make you fat. We all have easy access to highly caloric, very tasty foods. Essentially, the deck is set against success.
Fat loss requires the attainment of a variety of physical (how to exercise, how to cook) and self-regulatory skills that need to be practiced. The belief that your skills are fixed, combined with a challenging environment, is certainly enough to hamper your weight-loss efforts
How you view your successes and setbacks has an impact on whether you persist when things become challenging. Weight loss and increased exercise are common goals that people attempt to meet. Inevitably you will run into challenges. How you respond to those challenges is what matters.
Learn how to shift your mindset to lose weight.
Justin is a certified personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach. He served as SUNY Cortland’s head strength coach from 2013 to 2017, prior to starting a doctoral program in exercise and health science. You can follow Justin on Facebook and Instagram. You can also follow Justin’s blog at justinmkompf.com.