To a large extent you may be on to something here. Once the scale stops moving, something's got to change. Some of it is definitely a wait and see game. My efforts generally show up in a whoosh a few weeks after the fact. But after a month or so, yeah, it's time to take charge.

My diet is pretty clean, but like you said, there's always something I could do better, something I could have said "no" to.

I like this perspective.
It really is easier to say "Oh, those darn stubborn pounds, I guess it really can't be helped" than it is to put yourself back in control, ask yourself "what more could I have done?" and work harder to get the result you want. The latter is much more productive, though, and so that's something I'll focus on next time I'm frustrated with those "stubborn pounds".

I think its probably a bit of both. I spent years avoiding trying to lose weight because I felt like nothing I had ever tried worked. And I did eventually find out that I have certain medical conditions that make it more difficult to lose weight. But not impossible. But instead of going to doctors and professionals to figure it out I was stubborn and put my head in the sand and pretended like it didn't matter. 15 years later, way too many years wasted, I've finally come to terms with what I need to change to start making this happen along with addressing the medical issues. So stubborn me hasn't really helped the stubborn pounds.

I'm not sure if stubborn is the right word for either one of them.

Habits are freaking HARD to change. Even simple ones that you might think are insignificant. Many times we know what we're doing wrong and WANT to change it but actually doing the legwork can shake up our life quite a bit.

When I started this journey I cut out sugar/artificial sugar cold turkey. I didn't make any other changes at that time (I was exercising already then, though), which was really a good thing because that took A LOT of work. I had to get out of the habit of buying chocolate every time I went to the grocery store. I had to learn to drink coffee black or with just milk. I had get used to having fruit after dinner, not something with sugar. I really was retraining my taste buds and learning new ways to cook. Add to that that many items that you don't necessarily think of have sugar (some types of chips, bread etc).

Before it wasn't that I was necessarily extremely stubborn but sugar was so ingrained in my life that making that change was difficult. I was able to do it but it took major work.


I'd say anytime you shake up your routine it's going to be difficult. It's not really a matter of being stubborn or not but more dealing with changes in general.