This weekend I spent some time in my garden pulling out weeds as we have left our back yard to turn into a mini forest. While I was begrudgingly taking out weeds from my garden it reminded me that theses weeds can be compared to unwanted body fat. Bear with me, you must be thinking “This girl is nuts” , but let me explain….

1. It looked unsightly and I was embarrassed

Every time I  looked out of the window into the backyard, I was faced with the unsightly  weeds that have taken over our garden. I was embarrassed to have friends over for in case they might see our garden and judge me for how I have let it get so out of hand.

This is exactly how I felt when I looked in the mirror, I felt that my fat was unsightly and I was always embarrassed about my weight. I continuously worried about what others were thinking about my body.

2. It was overwhelming, I did not know where to start

I finally decided that this weekend I will spend some time in the garden and get it into a better shape so I found some gardening gloves and went outside to look at the task at hand. From the outside it looked even worse, I was overwhelmed and did not know where to start.

This is how most people (including myself) feel at the start of their weigh loss journey, there is just so much information out there. “Do this”, “Eat This”, “Don’t eat this” , “Drink this pill”, “Run thousands of kilometers” . It’s overwhelming and every person you speak to has their own piece of advise.

Here’s what I did, I decided to grab some plastic bags and start in one corner. I took the first step. It still felt overwhelming when I looked at the whole garden but when I looked at my little corner, it started to look better.

The same can be applied to fat loss. Take the first step, it does not have to be a large step, just one step in the right direction, whether you decide to drink more water today or just start your day with a healthy breakfast. Will it change the way you look overnight? Definitely not but if you repeat that little step as often as you can you will start seeing changes.

3. Focus on the large weeds

As the morning was progressing I was able to see so great changes to the garden, what I really noticed was that if I focused on the large weeds I saw faster progress, were there still smaller weeds to get to, of course there was but I was seeing larger improvements by focusing on the larger ones first.

So many times when we attempt to loose fat we try and do everything. We join the gym, we clean out the pantry, we plan to drink 5 liters of water, we put together a meal and exercise plan, we wake up early for a morning run and so the list goes on.

Has that worked? Not in my case and I can guarantee that if you are still in the pursuit of fat loss, that the above approach as not worked for you either. Maybe for a week /month or two, but then it falls apart because it takes up so much energy trying to do all these things at the same time.

I took on all these things and yet again I felt overwhelmed as I could not keep it up, it was exhausting and the payoff was not what I have hoped it to be. So I gave up only to gain it all back again and feeling miserable.

If you focus on the large weeds first, you will start seeing progress faster. If the largest contributor to body fat is what I put in my mouth and stress, then why am I focusing all my energy on for example exercise and meal plans? I’m not saying that exercise does not have a role in losing fat and reducing stress, and a meal plan is very helpful when I need some ideas for planning my week and grocery list, but that’s not where my largest problem is. My largest problem is my food choices.

Again focusing on overhauling your whole day or weeks meals all at once could be too much to take on at once, why not start with one meal. If you start your day with a healthy breakfast, a couple of deep breaths and a glass of water you are already on a path of improvement from where you were yesterday. Keep this up every day and you will see improvement. Once you have perfected breakfast you can move on to the next meal

4. Don’t let it get out of control again

By the time I was done taking out the large weeds, I was exhausted. I looked back at what I achieved and I was proud. Was it perfect? Absolutely not, will I have to get back in the garden next weekend, you bet. But the effort I have made has paid off and I feel rather relived.

I have realised that I will have to put in the effort regularly in order to keep our garden from ever looking like it did, is it the same effort I had to put in today? Absolutely not, I have focused on the large weeds and I have perfected on getting those out and now it’s like second nature and a lot easier, now I can start focusing on the smaller weeds.

The worst thing I can do now is just leave it and expect it to stay this way, focus every day on the big weeds, focus on eating cleaner and reducing your stress levels. Every day this will get easier and soon you will see the effort to maintain your results will be a whole lot less than what it was when you started out.

I hope you enjoyed my little anecdote and I hope you have found it helpful. Leave a comment below or tell us what your largest weed is.