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Have you ever just felt like you were doing everything you were supposed to in order to lose weight and STILL weren't dropping the pounds?

During her journey to lose 40lbs in 16 weeks, my good friend Kim faced some pretty serious challenges with regards to her level of motivation.

Another friend of mine, Antonio Goodwin, who lost 4 inches from his waistline in 9 weeks with my program, faced the same frustration.

The problem was that at several times during their weight loss, they both felt as if they were not losing much weight and were not seeing results.

Now, a look at either of their before and after photos on my web sites shows that each of them made quite a substantial improvement in their bodies.

So what would make someone who's losing weight each week feel as if they were not?

I'll tell you exactly what. Its referred to as the emotional roller coaster.

This is how it usually goes:

You start a new diet or weight loss program. You're all excited to be doing something great for your health and the way you look, and you're sticking to the program, step by step.

Consistent action pays off and after a short while you start getting compliments about the pounds you're losing week by week.

Then all of a sudden, it all seems to stop. You can no longer see the physical changes in your body, and maybe you even have a moment of weakness and cheat a bit on your diet plan. So now you're frustrated and mildly depressed. You feel as if true weight loss may NEVER happen for you, no matter what you do.

TIME OUT.

The trick here is to not get stuck in your own frustration.

Now this is a tough one, because everyone and I do mean EVERYONE goes through this stage. Whenever I need to trim down for a photo shoot, I go through it as well.

One of the things that you must understand about the body is that for as long as you are doing the right things on a consistent basis it WILL respond with results.

The Jedi Mind Trick is that oftentimes the progress is subtle, or may be primarily taking place in an area that you cannot see as well.

For instance, my friend Kim loses weight in her back the fastest. Her frustration came because she did not see the fat loss on her stomach the way she would have liked to. Little did she know that from behind she looked like a completely different person.

Listen, the emotional roller coaster is an inevitable aspect of any worthy undertaking that we take on in life. Remember getting through college? Or maybe waiting for puberty to set in? How about paying off your debts? The mental battle while attempting to diet and/or achieve weight loss is no different.

So make a conscious decision to stick to your guns. Let it play out. Victory lies in having the strength to make it through the rough spots without cracking under the pressure and losing all that you've worked for. If you can just master getting past the point of frustration, before you know it you'll be seeing results again and getting more compliments.

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach