There is a common belief that in order to lose weight, all you need to do is set a goal — a SMART goal.
This is true to some extent. While setting goals is important in your quest to lose weight (or to achieve anything for that matter), setting a goal isn’t enough.
You need a system to help you get there.
This explains why people continue to set the same goals year after year and never achieve them.
You probably have many goals that you’ve never achieved, despite your good intentions or hard work. Or maybe you’re still procrastinating about your goals. Either way, the reason you’re struggling is because you don’t have a system.
What is a system?
A system is a way of working, organising or doing something that follows processes and plans in order to achieve a goal. Systems can be made up of other smaller systems or subsystems that work together as part of a whole.
You probably already use systems in your workplace. For example, you would follow processes around when you have your breaks, how long your breaks are, what to do if you’re sick, what to do if you’re late, when you get paid, and how much you get paid.
Systems are everywhere and enable us to maximise results with minimal stress. Systems give us clarity around what is important and show us the necessary steps we need to take to solve challenges and achieve goals.
Many businesses understand the power that systems can have. But unfortunately, individuals are often resistant to using structured systems themselves because they believe that it will limit or confine them. However, failing to implement structure into your life will mean that you’ll never achieve all the things you say you want to achieve.
And that includes losing weight.
What happens if you don’t have a weight loss system?
Without a system, your weight loss goals will never become a reality.
It’s one thing to know where you want to go, but if you don’t know how to get there, you’ll only go around in circles. This explains why so many people go on diet after diet — they’re too busy focusing on the end result and are unaware of the individual actions and processes they need to take to help them reach their goal. When one diet doesn’t work, they change to another one, hoping that one will work, which of course doesn’t, and so they look for another.
It’s a bit like driving from Melbourne to Sydney. Would you go without directions, without a map? And if you had a map, would you ignore the milestones marked along the way, and do your own thing? Of course not! If you did, chances are you’d never get to Sydney at all, and if you did, it would all be down to luck, plus it’d take you a lot longer to get there.
That’s exactly what happens when you set a weight loss goal and don’t have a weight loss system to follow. Other problems associated with just focusing on your goal include:
- Focusing on the wrong things (i.e. diet and exercise) instead of working on your habits
- Doing too much (i.e. training like an athlete) instead of focusing on what will give you the best results. This is likely to lead to injury and burnout or you feeling overwhelmed and giving up
- Comparing yourself with other people instead of focusing on yourself
- Copying what other people are doing instead of what’s right for you
- Lack of consistency due to acting on your emotions and relying on willpower to do things
- Constantly questioning yourself, overthinking and wondering if what you’re doing is ‘right’
- Jumping from one diet to another, which only compromises your metabolism and takes a toll on your physical and mental health
- Always guessing on the best action to take
- Mixing and matching bits and pieces of other diet programs to try to work out the ‘perfect’ diet
- No recording data to determine what works and what doesn’t work
- Lack of awareness about what you need to work on, and therefore lack of clarity on the right actions you need to take
- Feeling stressed, which will significantly impact your weight loss
- Lack of structure in your week means you never have enough time to do the things to help you lose weight (e.g. do your workouts, go for your walks, and weekly food prep)
How does a system help you lose weight?
The right weight loss system is a powerful tool to help you lose weight. Here’s why.
You’ll always know what to do
A system will outline the steps you need to take in order for you to keep progressing. This removes the guesswork which means that you will be working on the things that will make the biggest difference to your weight. This will keep you focused on your action steps, and will help you stop comparing yourself and copying what other people are doing. Knowing what to do also reduces stress and makes the process of losing weight a lot easier.
It helps you develop new habits
The right system will give you the right action steps to help you develop new habits that will support long-term weight loss. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not food and exercise that has the biggest influence over your weight — it’s your mindset and habits. By addressing the habits that led to your weight gain, and developing new habits, you’ll be able to lose weight and keep it off.
It helps you be consistent so you get results
The best and fastest weight loss results come when you’re consistent. This doesn’t mean getting it right all the time. It means working on making progress every day, even if your progress is small, and even if you stuff up and make mistakes. A lot of people think that losing weight is all about making BIG changes, but the truth is the power is in taking lots of small actions consistently. (You can read more about this in our blog The snowball effect: Why small things add up to big weight loss). Following the small daily and weekly action steps outlined in your weight loss system, will lead to increased consistency and better results. Note, that consistency doesn’t mean perfection. It just means doing your best on any given day. You can read more about this in our blog Why 52 imperfect weeks is better than 6 perfect ones when it comes to weight loss.
You won’t need to rely on willpower
When you follow a system, you won’t need to rely on willpower. Too many people let their emotions get the better of them and they pick and choose what they do based on how they feel. An example of this is skipping your early morning workout because you feel too tired, or unmotivated. Willpower is a short-term measure that requires self-control, determination and hard work, which is why it never lasts. However, if your structured weight loss system specifies that you train early in the mornings, then you’ll stick to your early morning training sessions regardless of how you feel because doing so is part of the system. Read our blog Weight loss motivation: Why willpower doesn’t work, to learn more about the dangers of relying on willpower.
You won’t sabotage yourself
Self-sabotage is a big problem for many people trying to lose weight. You can read more about this in our blog How to stop weight loss self-sabotage. Basically, weight loss sabotage occurs when you make decisions based on your emotions. However, a system removes the emotional element of weight loss and instead maps out the simple steps you need to take. When you know the right steps, you’ll find that you’ll be able to take the right actions — actions that are based on common sense, rather than actions that are based on your emotions.
It is not overwhelming
Once again, let’s use the analogy of driving from Melbourne to Sydney. While the goal is Sydney, there are lots of other towns you need to pass through along the way first in order to get there. You don’t get in the car and aim for Sydney. Instead, you aim for the first milestone, knowing that if you stick to the route, you’ll eventually make it to Sydney. Losing weight is the same. Too many people focus on the end result which can seem overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. However, when you have a step-by-step action plan, all you need to do is to follow the single steps in the plan and focus on the journey. If you stick to the system, weight loss will take care of itself.
It helps create awareness of the things you need to work on
A system will also allow you to collect data, which creates awareness of what is working and what’s not. Action steps that are difficult to complete highlight the habits that you need to work on. For example, if you find it hard to make time for your weekly food prep, this may indicate that you need to work on prioritising yourself or getting rid of your people-pleasing habit in order to find the time. Without awareness, you’ll always work on the wrong things, which won’t give you the results you’re looking for.
It allows you to continually progress and get results
Having a weight loss system allows you to continually make progress without getting stuck. When you are aware of the habits you need to work on, you’ll always have the right steps to take. When you know the steps you need to take, you’ll always take the right action. And when you take the right action, you’ll get results.
What’s the best weight loss system?
Personally, we believe that our DATSTM Program is the best weight loss system around. This is because it’s a complete body and lifestyle transformation system that gives you everything you need to finally achieve long-term weight loss and increase your confidence.
Our program is based on habit and mindset change. It will help you uncover the habits that have led you to gain weight, and give you the tools, skills and strategies to change them into habits that support long term weight loss. Because when you have the right habits and mindset, weight loss takes care of itself.
We create a personalised program that fits into your lifestyle (instead of expecting you to fit into our program). This means you will be able to commit to ensuring consistent and long-term results.
Plus, our system enables us to capture the right data, so we can give you the right action steps that will help you get the results that you want.
And unlike other ‘plans’ out there, our DATS™️ Program makes it easy to keep progressing even when life gets busy or life gets tough.
If you’ve struggled to lose weight despite setting a goal, chances are you haven’t had the right system to support you.
We’ve done all the work in developing a system that is sustainable, easy to follow and yields results. So why not join us and finally get the body and confidence you’ve always wanted?
Points to remember
- Setting a SMART goal is important for weight loss, but it’s useless without a weight loss system.
- If you don’t have a weight loss system, you’ll continue to go around in circles, focusing on the wrong actions, and never reaching your goals.
- A weight loss system helps you lose weight by removing the emotion and guesswork often associated with dieting.
- Our exclusive DATSTM Habit and Accountability Tool which is an integral part of our system, gives you clarity around what you need to do and clarity gives you power.
- When you know what to do when to do it, and how to do it, you’ll remove all the emotions associated with weight loss, and you’ll always get results.
