Four Common Reasons You’re Failing to Reach Your Health & Weight Loss Goals

Early this week, I introduced you to real success principles behind the people who successfully flip their health 180, and lose weight for good.

I busted some myths about getting your Dream Body this year.

And I showed you that the case studies I interviewed – DOZENS of people that lost 100+ pounds, naturally, without calorie counting, eating real, natural, healthy foods and kept it off – focused more on systems, habits, psychology, and behavioral change.

Rather than using massive willpower, discipline, and effort, they came up with more holistic, integrated ways to lose weight, and keep it off.

Just a quick reminder: Dream Body, my course that teaches you these six key principles found in dozens of case studies, opens in a few weeks. Make sure you join the wait list here to be notified first.

Is This What’s Holding You Back?

Over the past few months, I have been speaking with many of you in person, over the phone, in emails, and via surveys, and I get the same curious responses.

So many people know exactly what to do… but just aren’t doing it.

Why?

What’s frustrating is that for many, there is no diet on earth that could ‘save’ you.

Because every diet is more “what” – and none of them give you more “how” – how to actually DO it.

So I decided to dig further. What is the real, underlying cause of this?

And I received responses like this:

It’s lack of motivation. I hate exercise and I’m pretty much lazy so anything that involves effort to overcome the inertia is hard.

– Kelly, J.

Lack of motivation, complacency, fear of failure, anxiety, laziness, and probably more. It makes me feel sad knowing these things about myself, but hopeful because a change will come!

– Mark, Q.

Nothing is stopping me, but to maintain my enthusiasm seems to get harder the closer I get to my goal. My husband keeps junk food in the house which doesn’t bother me when I’m in the zone. But sometimes lately I’ve been tempted and then feel bad when I give in and eat it.

– Cindy, A.

It’s hard to tell if I feel bad from lack of physical health or my depression which leads to not being able to stick with the healthy habits that may also have a positive on my depression. I feel stuck in a cycle of bad feelings. The physical unwellness feeds the mental unwellness which makes it extremely difficult to take positive steps toward fixing the physical aspects

– Carlos, R.

I feel like I don’t have motivation because I’ve tried and failed so many times. I also don’t know how to really change my bad habits.

– Alex, T.

So, assuming you already know “what” you should really be doing and eating, look at the overwhelming majority of responses – things holding you back:

• Lack of motivation
• Lack of willpower
• “Laziness”
• Lack of self discipline

But what’s funny is that in the majority of the success studies I interviewed, they rarely mentioned these things.

And that’s because…. yup, you guessed it… systems and habits took their place.

Four Things Holding You Back

There are things I hear over and over from many of you, but what I found super interesting was that when I interviewed many of the 100+ pound weight loss success stories… they rarely mentioned these things.

Surprisingly, unless I asked them, motivation, self control, discipline and “effort” rarely came up in the interviews.

… but 75% of you tell me these are the main reasons you haven’t succeeded:

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Barrier/Myth #1: “I’m lazy and undisciplined, so I’ll never succeed.”

Assumption: “This is going to take a lot of work, grueling hours in the gym, and lots of forcing myself to do stuff I don’t want to do.”

You feel like “ugh, just the thought of doing a massive amount of work, even if it’s for something I want and love and need… just takes so much energy to get started.”

Now what if I told you that several of the case studies I interviewed lost the majority of their 100+ pounds without exercise?

(FYI – Dream Body: the Anti-Diet is 100% nutritional and integrative lifestyle coaching, there is no exercise involved whatsoever).

Consider this basic example:

Do you currently drink soda?

If so, do you think you would probably lose, 5, 10, 20 or 50 pounds if you stopped drinking it? (Probably, depending on where you are. Sol lost 30+ pounds just by removing soda).

Now how much TIME do you think it would take? How much time would you have to invest each day to, say, drink soda only 3x a week versus 7 days a week?

Certainly not 10 hours a week, right?

Probably not even an hour.

Maybe not even 10 minutes.

See how much easier it is now? Imagine if you broke down weight loss into 3, 5, or 10 simple habits, each habit only requiring a few minutes per day?

That’s the essence I’m trying to get at here. And that’s what Dream Body is based around. Micro habits, mini systems.

Remember: it’s the micro habits, the 100s of mini systems that make up YOU that result in your health, your wealth, your weight, and many other things.

You change things at their root – by changing tiny habits – and you see real, long-term results.

***

Barrier/Myth #2: “I’m really unmotivated…and you can’t succeed without motivation.”

Assumption:“I need to stay motivated every single day to lose weight.”

Funny thing.

Lauryn, Sol, Amanda, and others rarely mentioned motivation.

They used different words: commitment, habits, rituals, drive, passion, “loving the grind” and other phrases.

Motivation is a problem though – we tend to assume that the most successful people on earth are the most motivated… when realistically that isn’t true!

Just think about the last time you got “super” motivated. You watched an inspirational video or movie, or had a great conversation with a friend, or read an inspiring book.

All day you were bouncing on your feet, with a cheek-to-cheek smile, ready to take on the world.

But what happened the next morning? Back to square one, right?

Well that’s because motivation is an emotional state – and emotions are fleeting. They come, then they’re gone. You can’t build successful health and weight loss on that.

Remember Sol’s system in the last video?

He said that anytime he felt him getting sucked into someone else’s plan, he whipped out an old picture of himself, and reminded himself of where he wanted to be. Boom. Problem solved.

No motivation required. I’m going to tell you Sol’s story next week.

***

Barrier/Myth #3: “I don’t really know what I should be doing, so I can’t start.”

Assumption:“If I don’t have perfect information, there’s no point in me even starting.”

I frequently get emails sounding like this:

“ALEX, I’m so confused. Okay, I know I should be eating lean meats and veggies and good carbs. But I’m 300 pounds and I need to know ALL THE SPECIFICS about what I should be eating. What kinds of protein? How much? Is organic worth it? Low fat is bad right? Is dairy okay? What kinds of carbs are ideal, can you check out this protein shake to see if it meets your requirements?”

Whoaaaa Nelly, relax for a second.

I frequently talk about the 80/20 rule here and big wins.

Let me give you some examples:

Big win = removing soda and liquid carbs that you drink.

I told you about Sol (interview next week), who lost 30+ pounds just removing this.

I also told you about my CPR instructor years back that lost 100+ pounds (he was 400+ pounds), by removing soda.

Here’s another:

Big win = shifting from boxed food, to real food.

Amanda, Lauryn, Daniel, Sol, John, and every single one of the success stories I profiled emphasized eating REAL FOOD.

That’s all they ate.

Literally dozens (maybe hundreds) of case studies all embodied this “real food” principle.

Big win = shifting from “refined” to “whole.”

I’ve personally witnessed people reverse diabetes and get off their meds just by changing from eating white flour (white bagels) to “whole” flour, or brown rice. The nutrient load is up to 10x higher in “whole” foods, and it’s much nicer on your body and blood sugar.

That’s a huge win.

So you don’t need to focus on these tiny tiny things, like what kinds of protein you should be eating (for now), or which diet plan you need to rigorously follow, or whether or not to eat dairy. For the majority of you, emphasizing a few key big wins, a few key habits, is what leads to MINIMAL confusion, and thus MAXIMAL results.

Now, in-case you genuinely are confused about what to eat, I’ll be releasing a brand new video next week showing you my key points I give to all my clients and students.

***

Barrier/Myth #4: “I have to give up all the foods I like, or eat a ‘strict’ diet.”

Assumption: “This is going to suck. All pain, and no fun. What’s the point?”

Check this out:

Suhaib lost 22 pounds in 3 months… without restricting any food groups.

… And that was just after taking my advice in a FREE video. Imagine the results he might get if he joined one of my programs?

My point: ALL OF THESE ARE ASSUMPTIONS.

That’s why I have collected dozens of interviews with these success stories: 100+ pounds lost, without calorie counting, without restrictive plans, without sucky lifestyles, all while having a health, habits-first focus.

I am going to GIVE you the exact systems for all of these, because I’m going to prove to you that there’s a more gentle, effective, long-term, health-first approach to wellness and weight loss.

The era of “more discipline, more willpower” BS is over.

What’s Coming Next

Early next week, I’m going to share an interview with my friend Sol.

Sol went from 300 pounds… to having a six pack. Not bad 😉

And he did it all using the principles I’ve been introducing you to over the past week or so.

Systems, habits, psychology, behavioral change. Micro changes. Lifestyle optimization.

You’re going to learn lots more on this soon.

I’m also going to show you:

– What exactly you should be eating – that is healthy, natural, wholesome, and in fact, is potentially the most natural, holistic thing of all (video next week). Plus it doesn’t really eliminate any food groups.

– Amanda’s story – from 15 health conditions and over 200 pounds to mostly pain-free and medication-free.

– Lauryn’s story – 100 pounds lost, and maintained, as a single mother with two jobs, night classes, and a commute.

– Daniel’s story – 130 pounds lost as a video game designer, who conquered social cues making it hard for him to lose weight.

Don’t Forget to Get on the Dream Body Wait List

As I roll out more training, interviews, case studies, before and after pictures, and lots more, make sure you’re on the wait list to make sure you don’t miss any of this.

And then tell me below in the comments section:

Which one of these barriers do you think is the main reason you’ve been unable to lose weight long term?

Or is it something else?

Tell me below what specifically you think is holding you back.

– Alex

P.S. Don’t forget to get on the wait list here.