It’s Not Willpower—It’s Procrastination That’s Sabotaging Your Weight Loss

When you feel like you have no self control or will power to lose weight, maybe it’s actually just your way of procrastinating the hard things? Here’s my experience if you can relate.

The longer I spend on my weight loss journey, the more I learn about myself. It’s definitely been a journey for the past 6 years and while it’s getting easier, I can’t say I’ve nailed it yet. But in the process, I’ve learned:

• What I’m capable of
• How much discipline I can have
• Where my priorities are
• How I cope with life
• And what I’m willing to do & sacrifice to reach my goals. (which is important to know, because sometimes that dinner out with your kids IS more important than your goals!)

When I first reached my weight loss goal (now over 6 years!) I mistakenly thought “I arrived”. It’s over. The entire motive in getting started was that I could finally STOP chasing my physique goals and get “lose weight” off of my bucket list forever.

(found another “before” photo of me… there aren’t many because as I raised my kids I was always behind the camera! I’m sure you can relate!)

But, apparently I haven’t learned ALL the lessons I am meant to learn yet. Because sometimes, it feels like this journey is far from over.

What I’ve learned so far in 2025 kind of surprised me. I think one of my biggest problems from the last 50 years in trying to lose weight hasn’t been my willpower. I think it might actually be my incredible way to use procrastination to postpone my goals and my life!

This might be you too if you have found yourself with these thoughts:

• I’ve been overweight for 45 years, what’s really one more day ‘in the grand scheme of things‘. I’ll eat these cookies today, and then REALLY start tomorrow. LOL
• These cinnamon rolls are too tempting. I can enjoy them now, and get back on track tomorrow.
• Technically, I can start tomorrow and still have plenty of time to lose the weight before that next vacation.
• Once I learn all about this new program, then I can start! I need more information first! I NEED to buy that meal plan, read that book, watch that YouTube video, listen to that podcast, etc. so I have all the details first.
• It’s too complicated to start now with family coming in town next week. I’ll have to stop, and I don’t want to start and then stop again.

The problem with delaying your goalsis that you’re going to wake up one day like I did, at the age of 45 and realize, you’ve been saying it your whole life. And now, you’re running out of time.

If I could go back to the younger me, and not procrastinate the thing I thought I wanted the most, I really think I would have been able to live a fuller, bolder life in my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. I know your physical appearance shouldn’t matter that much, but I’m so much more confident and comfortable in my new body, that I really do engage with life in a bigger and more social way.

The reason I’ve really understood this lesson the most in 2025, is because I ended 2024 just off the heels of a bikini show, in which I was able to diet down to be lean enough to see my muscles.

But, with no bikini show on the horizon, it was VERY easy to not stick to a plan at all. I thought I could keep things under control without tracking my meals or weighing my food. I thought I could gain a few pounds back and maintain my new preferred weight comfortably.

But, with no real reason to stick to a plan, I just indulged whenever I was in the mood. I’d get am impulse to eat a tortilla and within seconds, a tortilla was in my mouth. I had no boundaries. No “pause” between stimulus and response. I’d just eat whatever, whenever I felt like it.

I am not an UNHEALTHY eater, but in 2025, it’s so effortless to overconsume calories, even if those calories are healthy. Food (even healthy food) is so convenient, affordable, available, and knows no seasons. It requires some boundaries to not overdo it. I recently heard from a Yale University lecture that overnutrition has now taken over undernutrition as the most concerning health problem GLOBALLY!

Each day as the scale crept higher and higher, I kept thinking, “It’s no big deal. I’ve lost weight before, I can do it again…… but starting tomorrow! There’s no deadline, so why start today?”

That’s when I decided to launch this 100 day body recomp. At 123lbs, and a goal weight of 110- I’m 5’0 tall, I decided I would go all in, follow the meals on my 1500 calorie plan (because it’s high in protein, and controlled for calories), and get my body fat and hormones tested and measured. And most importantly, NOT procrastinate a starting day. I told the internet world I was starting on April 25, 2025, so I felt like I had to do it.

Well, I still have 21 days left for this recomp and this morning I weighed 108! What do you know. When I finally started tracking again, sticking to my plan, and not procrastinating, I finally saw results. I’ll write more about what worked for me, but for this article just know, from April 25th on, I knew I couldn’t postpone it one more day. I had to work my program for 100 days, and be done by Aug 2nd, no matter what!

Why do we procrastinate?

SO many reasons!!! It could be:

1. When thinking of a restrictive diet, we don’t want to have to “live this way the rest of our lives“, so we want to squeeze a tiny bit more of flexibility and fun out before we get started on what we think is going to be ‘endless restriction’.
2. FOMO– we don’t’ want to miss out on your grandma’s famous cookies, and they are here now. If you’re going to have to cut them out for the rest of your life, you really should eat one today and get back to your plan tomorrow.
3. Something is coming up where we know we won’t have any control: A cruise, a family reunion, a work trip, visiting family, etc. My sister does this ALL THE TIME! It starts for her in October. She tells me, “I can’t start a diet till after Halloween, because I’m hosting a Halloween party, and then probably till after Thanksgiving, because we’re traveling, and then Christmas of course will be hard, and then in January Is my birthday, and then Mid-January, I have to go to Las Vegas for work… so technically, I can’t start till February! Haha.. It’s so ridiculous when I hear her say it, but I also totally understand at the same time!
4. Also, there’s the classic, “I can make up for it later“. I’ve had many days where I kept going back for seconds, thirds, and fourths of my breakfast food and can hear myself say, “It’s OK- I just will conserve calories the rest of the day by just eating veggies.” and then of course I don’t, because that’s ridiculous.
5. And possibly, life fatigue! I mean ladies, come on!! If you’re in your 40’s or 50’s, you’re just so dang tired of trying so hard to make life happen for SO LONG, you just want to be able to chill and enjoy a good documentary and eat what you want!! TOMORROW you’ll tackle life, but today, you really need to chill out.
6. You feel hopeless– I mean, you’ve tried to lose weight sooo many times before, what makes you think this time will be different. Might as well forget about it today and keep looking for a NEW, trendy, and different solution, because nothing has worked for you any way.

So, what’s my advice if you have no deadlines, no public facing confessions, and no bikini show to train for? Here’s my top things I would do if I could do things over:

1. Decide if delay or procrastination is your problem! If Just getting started is NOT happening for you, identify what you’re saying to yourself to postpone living your best life and reaching your goals.
2. Start before you’re ready- “Done is better than perfect.”
3. Don’t get overwhelmed. Losing weight might seem overwhelming and hopeless, but start small. Start with just telling yourself- my body is counting calories, even if I’m not. Every crumb, lick, taste, etc.
4. Focus on your identity as a healthy person. Internalize dialogue like:
   • I’m the type of person who stops eating when I’m full.
   • I’m the type of person that only eats treats outside of the house at parties.
   • I’m the type of person who loves fruits and veggies.
5. Create a deadline with accountability. Don’t keep your goal quiet. It’s so easy to develop excuses and to talk yourself out of something. The best accountability for me is telling my spouse. I definitely think twice before eating more food than I should if he’s in the room, just because I want him to know I am keeping my commitments to myself.
6. And perhaps the biggest one of all: Keep your goal so strongly in your mind, that immediate temptations aren’t tempting at all. This one I’m committed to more than any other. I’ve been watching beginning Philosophy through Yale Open Courses, and found this lecture on the will and procrastination very enlightening!

So give this idea some time to sink in, ponder on it, meditate about it, think about it. Could this be you? Are you delaying your goals EVERY DAY! Are you going to wake up one day at 90 years old, and wonder why you never got to it already?

Here’s a few quotes that keep me motivated:

30 Days from now, you’ll wish you started today.

“Never give up what you want most, for what you want today.” (Don’t give up on your biggest goals for a lousy tortilla today!)

And of course, the one I want to rebrand my entire blog with: LIVE THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL!

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