Summary 

In today’s episode, we’re revisiting a topic that so many of us face on our weight loss journey: falling off the bandwagon and figuring out how to get back on. Whether it's a holiday weekend, a vacation, or just a tough day, we've all had those moments where we stray from our plans. The good news? You’re always in control of getting back on track, and it doesn’t have to wait until the new year. In this episode, I’ll explore why we sometimes derail, how to shift our mindset, and actionable steps to regain momentum without guilt or drama.

If you’re feeling stuck or discouraged about falling off your plan, listen to this episode for a refreshing perspective on why it happens and how to bounce back stronger than ever. Let’s redefine what it means to stay on the path toward your goals, and how to take ownership of your journey—no matter where you’re starting from today.

Learn more: https://www.burnstressloseweight.com/ 

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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• Why falling off the weight loss bandwagon isn’t a failure but a choice—and how to own it.
• The four main reasons it feels hard to get back on track and how to overcome them.
• Why feeling embarrassed or behind on your journey is holding you back.
• The power of reframing your self-belief and how to reignite your momentum.
• Practical steps to get back on the bandwagon without waiting for the "perfect time."

Listen to the Full Episode:

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Download the full transcript here.

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  Today's episode is a concept that I come back to time and time again, and that is what to do when you fall off the proverbial weight loss bandwagon. This is an episode that I actually aired a little over a year ago, and it is one that I personally have needed for myself because you better believe, even when you get to your goal weight, there are going to be many times that you fall off the bandwagon. The thing is when you're following through on your plan and you're hitting goals week after week, You feel full of belief, you feel full of momentum and excitement because the results on the scale are matching a lot of your efforts, but inevitably there will come a moment where you go off plan. I call these plot twists, right? You might forget yourself for a weekend, maybe go on a trip or vacation or just a date night. And for some reason or another, which we are going to get into on today's podcast episode, you will fall off the bandwagon and need to get back on. You can't just go back to business as usual for anyone that has ever fallen off the bandwagon. You know, that getting back on sometimes feels a little sticky, a little uncomfortable, and you might find yourself hesitating today on the podcast I'm going to talk to you about exactly why smart professional women ever fall off the proverbial weight loss bandwagon. What has ever gotten in the way of you getting back on quickly and my five steps for how to get back on without drama. The reason that I really love thinking about this concept now, getting back on the weight loss bandwagon is because you don't have to wait until new year's to start executing and implementing this strategy. In fact, imagine that you started to get back on your weight loss bandwagon right now. Where will you be by the time the clock strikes midnight on January 1st? Just imagine that you've already created weight loss momentum on and off the scale. Let's get into today's podcast episode, how to get back on the weight loss bandwagon. Hey, unstoppable friend. You're listening to The Burn Stress, Lose Weight Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Priyanka Venugopal, a physician termed a stress and weight loss coach for professional working moms and the founder of the Burn Stress, Lose Weight, Feel Unstoppable small group coaching program. This podcast is going to inspire change at the root for you on and off the scale. I've lost a little over 60 pounds while being a busy physician mom with two young kids and an unpredictable schedule. And along my journey, which was full of many, many imperfect moments, I have learned how to skip past the fads and the gimmicks. I am on this mission now to share with you how you can have a real strategy and mindset skills to really have more of the life you want that you have worked so hard for. Let's get into it. Have you heard the term I fell off the bandwagon or thought I fell off the bandwagon? This is one of those common colloquial terms that I think originally was first coined in the early 1900s and the concept of falling off the wagon or falling off the bandwagon applied usually to alcohol. So when you were on the wagon, you were considered sober or abstaining from alcohol and the concept of falling off the wagon implied that you were now drinking alcohol. The term is now used a lot more broadly and it's applied to really any area of self improvement. You can apply the principles that we're talking about today to really any area, whether it's drinking, eating, thinking, ruminating, overscrolling, you can apply being on or off the bandwagon with any area of self improvement. The intention of today's episode is for high achieving working moms to really see the truth that getting on and off the bandwagon is completely in your control. If there's one really common theme that I see coming up time and time again with my clients and with all of you is that sometimes we feel or believe that hitting a goal or weight loss feels out of our control.

  So the intention of today's episode is to help bring control back and really understanding the principles that it takes to getting back on the bandwagon whenever you want. So before we can even get into how do you get back on the bandwagon, I want to just take a minute to define what is the bandwagon. I've heard plenty of people say, particularly in the coaching space, that you can't really fall off or on the bandwagon because there is no bandwagon, right? We're getting a little meta, but I want to say that I actually disagree. I believe that there is absolutely a bandwagon and you can fall off of it, but you can get right back on. Let me describe to you how I want to define the term bandwagon for the purposes of this episode. So there is where you are right now. I want you to imagine that you're standing on a map and you have a journey ahead. Where you're standing right now is the number on the scale. It's how you feel physically in your body. Maybe it's the size of the clothes you're wearing or how you physically and emotionally feel living in your current body. Your destination or where you want to go is the goal you have. That could be a number on the scale. It could be a size of clothing. It could be how you physically or emotionally feel living in your body. And to get from here to there, you have to embark on a journey. I want you to think about the bandwagon as simply a set of actions that are going to take you from here to there. So when it comes to specifically a weight loss goal that you have, this means executing the plan that you made. Let me just highlight exactly what I mean by that, making a plan to go from here to there is not being on the bandwagon. You're not executing or creating measurable results, making a plan to lose weight. It's like getting your map oriented, but it's not taking action yet. So I wanted to set that at the start of the episode so that you can understand the difference between setting plans, creating plans, and then actually doing the work, which is the whole intention of today's episode. So now we know that to go from here to there, or to go from where you are right now on the scale to where you want to go, you have to take consistent action. You have to implement the plan that you have. And the way we're going to do that is by doing the work of being on the bandwagon. But before we talk about like getting back on a bandwagon, I want to actually talk about how do you ever even fall off, right? When you think about new year's day or Monday morning or your birthday, when you feel really excited and full of gusto at hitting your goal weight, you create these massive plans, you start taking action, you feel really good about it and motivated. How and why do you ever quote unquote fall off? Now, there are many answers to why you ever stop being on the wagon, but I wanted to say you don't actually ever fall off the bandwagon. Let me just say that again. You don't ever actually fall off the bandwagon. What you do sometimes do is you step off on purpose. Now before you argue with me or before you're like, yeah, but Priyanka, no, no, no, that's not true. I want you to hear me out. The bandwagon has never gone off without you. If you've ever fallen, quote unquote, fallen off the bandwagon, I want you to know that the wagon is standing right there waiting for you to get back on. This means that you were never passively riding the bandwagon to begin with. You have been driving it the whole time. Let me just say that again. When you think you have fallen off the bandwagon on your journey to lose weight, the implication is that you were passively sitting in the back of a buggy and somehow you fell out. This isn't true. You were driving the wagon the whole time. And all that's happened when you either go off plan, you stop implementing or executing, Is you simply stopped driving the wagon or you stepped off and started looking around and getting distracted by all the beautiful things around you. This is important and so, so, so good to know. This one simple redirect is going to help bring control back to you to help you take ownership of this. This is one thing that truly felt like a breath of fresh air when I realized that I wasn't ever passively falling off plan. I wasn't ever passively falling. Out of the bandwagon. There were times in my life, maybe I felt very stressed or I felt bored or annoyed or frustrated that I actively stopped driving the bandwagon and I stepped off. And it's so important when we frame the story of every part of our life in this way, because it means that we can be in complete control. Reframing this specific piece that you never fall off the bandwagon, but you've stepped off shows your brain that you actually have a choice. So I hope I've made a compelling case for this one simple redirect that you've never fallen off the bandwagon, you have stepped off. And the reasons for stepping off the bandwagon is for a whole different episode, but I wanted to really bring that reframe for you so you can start bringing control back to stepping back on. Basically, I'm here trying to change all the old colloquial phrases that we've had for a hundred years, but that's okay. I'm here for it. Let's get back to how do we step back on the bandwagon? There are four reasons that it is hard to get back on the wagon. And these are the same four reasons that are going to be your stepping stones for getting back on. I'm going to share with you what we typically do and why getting on the wagon is hard. And then I'm going to share with you what goal getters do. And just the difference is going to help you start to implement some of these strategies into your own life. Number one, you feel embarrassed. This is going to be a flavor of a thought like, I can't believe I skipped a day, week, month, or months. Maybe you've gotten to the point where you've even gained some weight back and you have some shame, blame, or judgment about the fact that you stopped taking consistent action. Simply put, you feel bad about yourself. Because you were doing it, you were on the bandwagon for a while and now you're not feeling bad about yourself or feeling embarrassed is going to keep you from getting back on the wagon. There's another, subtler, piece of embarrassment that I think is going to warrant a whole episode on its own, but there's a piece of embarrassment that you don't want people to know that you have quote unquote messed up. It's like, what will they think that I fell off the wagon? What will they think that I was trying to lose weight and I went off plan? What will they think if I gained weight back? It's like, if they knew that I wasn't perfect at this, what will they think of me? Right? Think about how much that desire to save face from the people in your life or really with yourself is driving your embarrassment. Um, let me come clean as someone who coaches on weight loss. I still overeat. There. I said it. I call myself an expert on this and yet still at times I stop driving the bandwagon. I share this to normalize it because I want you to claim it without embarrassment, because when you do this, when you can claim you getting off the bandwagon without embarrassment, you will be able to get on so much more quickly, which is the real way that you hit goals. I think that sometimes in this point, number one, the reason that you feel embarrassed or ashamed that you fell off the bandwagon is because you had a subconscious belief that you should never have fallen off to begin with. And that is the lie. People that hit goals on the scale don't do this. They fall off the wagon or they maybe overeat like I just shared and I feel no embarrassment about it. I just get right back on track the following day. The other piece of this that I think is unique for women and weight loss is this embarrassment piece of sharing that you're trying to lose weight, or even more that you've invested in weight loss. Why is this? When you really think about what is it about weight loss and your body that feels embarrassing or shameful? I feel like there's such a huge stigma specifically around high achievers who want to get help hitting these goals, and it's especially prevalent for women, especially when it has anything to do with their bodies. It's almost like we think that weight loss is indulgent or superficial or vain, but listen, it's not ever other people's judgments that you're protecting yourself from. It's always your own. And why this is your one body, the one body you have forever. So if you want to lose weight simply because it is you taking care of yourself, then what would it be like to own that desire without the embarrassment? I would say for the most part that the embarrassment doesn't actually come just from having the goal. The embarrassment comes from the possibility of not hitting the goal, which is the whole point of point number one. Embarrassment will stop you. So from now on, moving forward, start to identify that lie. That the ride should have been perfect, that you should never have fallen off, and you can just stop letting embarrassment stop you ever again. Moving on to point number two, number two is you think starting again or getting back on the bandwagon will be hard. Listen, I'm going to be totally honest with you. When you have stopped taking consistent action and you have stepped off the bandwagon, it's true. 

  Starting again will feel hard. Starting again takes a little activation energy. It's like I discussed back in the episode on how to gain momentum back. I know that sometimes starting is hard and yes, it does suck, but sometimes what makes it harder is your anticipation that starting is hard. Let me say that again, because I know this sounds a little bit meta when you're anticipating that starting is going to be hard, it will make starting harder. Just pause and listen to that again. I think that sometimes we aren't willing to accept that starting is going to be hard or we are wishful. We wish that it would be easier and just that monologue, that anticipation is going to make getting back on the bandwagon harder. It's going to actually keep you off the bandwagon longer. People who hit their weight loss goals don't do this. They expect that it is going to be hard to start if they take a detour or they derail, it's going to be hard to start back up again and they don't make starting again hard a problem. They take action anyway, and here's the best news. When you really identify this one and you start taking action anyway, you will discover that starting is not as hard as you actually think it is. Point number three, you think you've gotten behind. Listen, when you fall off the bandwagon or you step off the bandwagon, or maybe you've been leaping off the bandwagon, you will often find your brain looking at all of the ways and all of the evidence of how you have gotten so far behind. This implies that you were supposed to be executing it 100 percent perfectly and consistently. And especially when you look around at other people and you see them making progress, it's very, very easy to look at yourself and think, I am so behind. Here's what I want you to know. This isn't real, nor is it helpful. I want you to really check in. When you think you've gotten behind, how do you feel? It's going to be some flavor of overwhelm and even defeated, right? This is the reason you won't get back on the wagon. And I want to tell you what is really happening. Your primitive brain, which all of us are just hardwired with, doesn't want to do any extra work. Just remember point number two, restarting and getting back on the bandwagon is going to take extra work and your primitive brain is hardwired to not want to do extra work. She's like, listen, The status quo is just fine. We've been working really hard. A break would be nice. Listen, we've come so far. Let's just take another day's break. Maybe two, maybe 10. You know what we've really gotten behind on emails and that work project? Let me hold off on getting back on the bandwagon for my health and my body. Let me just focus on these emails. You know what? That other project, that meeting, my kid, my husband, they really need my attention. My bandwagon can wait another day. There is a lineup of excuses that your primitive brain is going to just give you one after the next, after the next. And it is literally never ending if you let that record keep playing. But I also want you to know that nothing is going wrong. Your primitive brain is hardwired to conserve energy. That's all. So really think about in point number three, when you tell yourself you're so far behind, That is just one way for your primitive brain to let in excuse makers and justifiers. I want you to know that people who hit their weight loss goals have the same stories that you have. They just don't allow the excuses or justifications to drive them. They expect them and then they have a response and take action anyway. I promise you don't have to feel behind ever again. When you compare to other people or to where you think you should be, you're not able to really evaluate why you stopped riding the bandwagon to begin with. And you may not love your reason, but I want you to know that you can accept it. You can decide that you aren't far behind and actually just get back on with so much more ease. Number four, you have lost your belief mojo. This is a big one, especially for weight loss. Especially if you've wanted to lose weight for a while and you haven't yet hit your goal, you have likely tried so many things and they haven't worked. And so your brain very naturally reflects on all of the times in the past and it sees a large pile of evidence that you quote unquote can't do this. That sentence, I can't do this is a sentence that is keeping you off the bandwagon. And it is also the fastest way to undercut your self belief mojo. Here's what has really happened. What's really happened is you picked a plan and you chose a bandwagon. You chose the journey to go from here to there. And when it got hard, you stopped. Maybe you stepped off and in that moment you started questioning the whole entire thing. You thought, hmm, maybe a different bandwagon would work, maybe a different pathway, maybe if I took a different route, maybe a different plan. And so without evaluating and figuring out why you stepped off the bandwagon to begin with, you jump ship or jump bandwagons. And what this does is it leaves a mount of evidence of jumped bandwagons in your wake.

  Another level of this that you might notice is maybe you hit a hard moment and you stopped the bandwagon or you stepped or leaped off and maybe you did evaluate why you stopped, but then you didn't do anything with the information you gleaned. Friend, listen, I want you to know that it's okay if you find yourself repeating behaviors and habits. It's normal because remember your primitive brain. Remember, point number three. Just because you give yourself new information from evaluating why you stepped off the bandwagon doesn't mean that your brain wants to do the work to implement what she's learned. You have to decide in advance that you're willing to do the work and do it anyway. I want you to start catching when you're undercutting your belief mojo because it's true, maybe you didn't do it yesterday, but so what? Don't let yesterday define tomorrow. I want you to simply let yesterday inform how you want to go into tomorrow. Telling yourself that you can't do this or undercutting your self belief mojo is going to become your self fulfilling prophecy. People who hit their weight loss goals don't do this. They might take a hit to their mojo, but they don't ever question their capacity to learn and grow. I share on this podcast all the time that growth and learning is messy. This is the hardest lesson, especially for high achieving working moms because we've been a little brainwashed into thinking that growth and learning is supposed to feel good all the time. It sounds good, right? Learning is fun. Learning is easy. That's crap. Learning is not always fun. It is not always easy. I like to think about real life learning. Learning in the wild, aka your life, is going to be messy. But having your back in those moments and showing up in those moments is how you start to pocket skills forever. Let me just tell you a little story about a trip I went on recently. I went to Miami for a coaching conference and it was literally just the funnest experience. And it was in the midst of me being in seriously the best fitness kick I have been on for a while. If you follow me over on Peloton, I'm unstoppable mom too. You will see my streak. It was gorgeous, beautiful think it was like 11 weeks not missing a week and multiple days in a row. I was like barely missing a day week. And that was usually planned rest. So I went on this trip and I even found a gym at the first hotel I stayed at and I got myself into it. I felt so good. I was working out even on this trip, but then the conference started. Okay. So the coaching conference started and I found myself stopping the bandwagon. I stopped driving the bandwagon and I didn't just step off, I solidly leaped off the bandwagon. I frolicked with my friends, I went to the beach, I ate deliciously, and I had loads and loads of fun and conversation. Now is it possible that I could have stayed on my fitness bandwagon while being at this coaching conference? Absolutely. But I didn't. I missed about four or five days and I came back on Sunday evening. And it came back to my reality. Now, let me tell you, getting back on the bandwagon felt hard. When I came back to my reality, I was like, hmm, I experienced all four of the reasons that I have shared with you on this podcast, I got up on Monday morning and I thought about, huh, I'm kind of behind on my emails. I have a lot to do. You know what? I'm also kind of tired from my flight yesterday. Let me just take an extra day to catch up before I get back on my fitness bandwagon. And guys, just to say on the side, my fitness bandwagon, it's 20 minutes a day. It's not like hours and hours at the gym that would have been like a huge, huge thing for me to do. It was 20 minutes. But my brain, my most primitive and beautiful brain found all of the reasons to not get back on the wagon. That one thought that I have a lot to do, I'm a little bit behind in my work. You know what? My kids haven't seen me in so many days. My husband hasn't seen me in so many days. Let me just take an extra day. That one day turned into four. So now it's Thursday. Okay, now it's Thursday and a whole week has passed. I have not worked out. I have no real reasons. I can hear that I have had excuse after excuse, and now I'm just simply feeling bad about myself. Like Priyanka, seriously, you were doing so well. You know that streak on Peloton? You just totally messed up the streak. How is it possible you let a week go? Oh my gosh, you have so many excuses. There you go again. And that feeling bad about myself led to another three days off the bandwagon. Guys, this is a real story. I'm telling you in real time, this actually happened. Finally, okay, finally, 12 days later, it's the following Sunday, I have not worked out now. So like during the conference, I think I worked out on the Tuesday, I got home on the Sunday for a whole eight days. I had an additional excuses all for the reasons that I shared on this podcast that kept me off of getting back on the bandwagon. Finally the following Sunday, I was like, wait a second, hold on.

  Starting again is not going to be easy. Okay. Starting again is not going to be easy. I've been feeling bad about myself and I can hear all of my excuse makers, but you know what? It doesn't have to be easy. I can just take action right now. Just that one sentence that I told myself, I was like, I'm not letting today pass without me taking action and getting back on the bandwagon. I'm going to let it be simple. It's not going to be a huge, long workout. It's going to be 20 minutes and I'm going to feel so good that I did it. I'm telling you just that, just doing those 20 minutes, the shortest 20 minute ride, I felt so good about myself. It's like I was able to cancel out the last eight days of negative thinking, feeling bad about myself and pooh poohing myself and all the excuses. I was like, wait a second. It's actually totally possible to get back on the bandwagon any time I want. And I wanted to share this real life example. This was the fitness example, but you can apply this to weight loss and towards any self improvement goal that you have where you find yourself having fallen off, jumped off, walked off, or leaped off the bandwagon. I want you to really think about this as you move forward, and this is a recap for how to get back on the bandwagon and bookmark this episode if you ever need to hear it again. Always remember, number one, that you have never fallen off the bandwagon. You simply stopped driving, stepped off, or leaped off. Maybe you got tired, needed a break, or wanted a distraction from taking consistent action. Pausing or stepping off the bandwagon isn't a problem. It's normal. Number two, identify your steam rolling stories. Those were the four reasons that I talked to you about in today's episode. Catch them in the act and know that those four reasons are the real reason that you're staying off the bandwagon. Number three, if you want to get back on, make it an active decision, not passive. Choose it on purpose and tell yourself why you want to number four except that it's going to feel hard to start back up again Hear your excuse makers and do it anyway Anticipating that it's going to be hard always makes it a harder than it really is. And when you start taking action, you will realize it's actually way easier than you realize. And number five, which is my absolute favorite, favorite, favorite thing to do, marinate in how good it feels when you start writing again. Seriously, in the work that we are talking about here in you hitting your ideal weight, you are your best friend to get back on the bandwagon and you will be your worst enemy. Which is always, always so important to realize. This means that getting on and off the bandwagon is in your control. So, I hope this episode has inspired you to get back on the bandwagon of your own personal self improvement journey and let the wind fly through your hair, driving to your dream ideal weight. Just know it's not always easy and it doesn't need to be. It's the anticipation of getting back on that holds you back from getting on. And this is the one thing that goal getters don't do. They let it feel hard and they take action anyway. It's true. It feels great when you take what I call inspired action. When you feel motivated and excited and committed, and you feel really driven and determined to take action towards your goals, that's what I call inspired action and yes, taking action in that way always feels better, but sometimes it is okay to feel uninspired and take action anyway, call a spade a spade, let it feel hard and do it anyway because almost always, almost always it is easier than you think, and you will feel gratitude course through you when you're back on the wagon. Save this episode if you ever need it. And if you loved it, come and tag me over on Instagram and let me know what you loved about it. I hope you have an amazing week being on the bandwagon and letting the wind fly through your hair.

  See you next week. I hope that you enjoyed today's podcast episode and if you did, I would absolutely love it if you took a moment, whichever podcast app you are listening to this podcast in to leave a rating and review. Not only does this give me a sense of whether or not you're enjoying this type of information, this type of content on the podcast, it lets me know to keep going. It also helps other professional women find this podcast. And my mission really is to help professional women in every industry, burn stress, lose weight, and really feel better while living your actual real busy life. So if you could take just 10 seconds in the podcast app that you're in right now, hit rating and review, leave your honest thoughts with me and share with me what you're taking away from this episode and from this podcast so that I can do more of what you're loving. And if you know that you want to go full steam ahead in the next cohort of the Unstoppable group, which is my six month intimate small group coaching program, make sure you head over to burnstressloseweight.com/group and join our early access interest list. You joining this list is going to give you early access. Plus some bonus features for an early enrollment. I will be having for the upcoming cohort of this group. Make sure you do not miss out. If you want the best 2025 ever, I highly, highly recommend that you go check this out and get on the early access interest list. I hope you guys have an amazing week and I will see you at the next one. Bye. Thanks for spending this time with me on the Burn Stress Lose Weight podcast today. I hope that you are leaving today's podcast episode feeling a little lighter and more inspired than when we started it turns out. That you don't need to have a stress free life to hit your goals on and off the scale. But when you feel more empowered to respond to your real life stresses with true strategy, we will game change how we show up and how we hit our goals. If you want to take what you are learning here on the podcast and put it into real life implementation, it might be time for us to work together in the Burn Stress, Lose Weight, Feel Unstoppable group coaching program. Head over to burnstressloseweight.com and you can learn all about it. All of the details, the nuts, the bolts, when the next group is starting, and exactly how you can join. Okay friend, I'll see you next time.