Let’s be honest. Losing fat is hard.

It’s really hard. 

It often feels like everything is stacked against you as you try to lose weight and get in shape—and that’s because it is!

We live in a world that encourages us to stay sedentary most days, and we have so much yummy, high-calorie food conveniently close-by. 

We’re stressed out, we drink too much caffeine and alcohol, and most of us don’t get enough sleep. 

All of this is encouraged by our go-go-go, “always on” modern culture. 

The reality is that we live in an environment that encourages the behaviors that cause us to gain weight. 

So choosing to lose weight is a lot like swimming against a current. It takes so much constant energy just to move forward a little bit. And if you ease up even for a second, you can find yourself getting pushed backwards.

First thing to note is that you are not alone!

We are all stuck in this current—and we are all either floating along with it or trying to swim against it. 

Some of us gave up long ago and allowed ourselves to be swept away. Maybe we were never taught how to swim against it.

But if you look around, you’ll see that there are people who have managed to learn how to fight back against these forces that push us towards being unhealthy.

So escaping the current is absolutely possible—and that’s the second thing I want you to keep in mind.

It is absolutely possible to free yourself from the cycle of constantly being knocked back towards unhealthy behaviors that cause you to gain weight.

But it is a process, and there are a lot of things you’ll need to learn and unlearn.

Because part of what makes the current so strong is your habits—you’ve engaged in unhealthy behaviors so many times and for so long that changing them requires a lot of energy and a lot of practice.

It is not going to be easy, and you will fail a lot along the way. 

But the key here is to use your failures as learning opportunities to grow from, so you can craft new strategies to set yourself up for better success in the future.

The third thing to keep in mind is that in order to be successful, you’re going to have to get aggressive. 

By this I mean you are going to have to make a conscious decision to push back and fight against the pressures in your life that encourage unhealthy behaviors. 

But once you make that choice to get healthier, those environmental and habit pressures don’t go away! 

Our work and entertainment cultures are still going to encourage you to do all the things that caused you to gain weight in the first place (sit still most of the day, eat high-calorie super-processed foods, get super stressed, drink lots of caffeine and/or alcohol).

These cultural and environmental pressures are a constant. And sooner or later, if you don’t have a plan in mind for how to protect yourself from them—they will wear on you and pull you back towards those unhealthy behaviors.

The same goes for the habits from your past. In the beginning especially, it’s going to take energy for you to not go down those well-worn paths of unhealthy behavior. 

So right now, if you really want this, you need to commit to yourself and prepare yourself to get aggressive about your health.

It is not going to be easy—and you need to accept that as soon as possible.

You need to accept that while trying to get fit, you are going to be swimming against the current of our culture and your past patterns. 

You need to be mentally prepared to fight back and push back against these forces as they come up! This is the only way! 

This means being ready with a plan of how you are going to respond and resist to the pressures that are a part of your life.

You also need to be ready to cut out parts of your life that encourage unhealthy behavior if you feel the pressure for unhealthy behaviors will always be there and you won’t have the long-term energy to resist. This is called setting boundaries.

Be ready to fight for your health—because you only have one body and one life. And you’re worth it.

You don’t have to do it alone though! Check out the options below for plugging into my wonderful community of people trying to get healthy:

Join me live on my Jaydigains Twitch channel most days to talk about fitness & health and connect with my community.

Plug into my Discord community of people who are fighting the good fight and learn with me how to set yourself up for sustainable fat loss.