1 pound per week = 52 pounds in a year

That being said, what's so bad about working your tail off but to find that you are going in the right direction? Even if it's only a pound...take it and run with it.

I think it's interesting to observe human behavior. It's what I do for a living and I can't help but notice trends along the way. I'll be real frank, it's hard looking from the outside at a person and know they have what it takes to go all the way yet the person doesn't see the same picture. Instead it's always about how they can drop 5 pounds in a week or completely revamp their body in a month. Then if that doesn't happen, they feel doomed. Why can't I brainwash everyone I come in contact with about how our body REALLY work?

Think about it like this:
You break your arm from a bicycle crash (let's say compound fracture for fun sake). You're taken to the doctor and they re-align the bones with pins and put you into a cast for 3 months. Slowly, ever so slowly your bones fuse back together on their own. It's your body's chemical reactions (what we can't see from the outside) that heal the bones. It's day by day, week by week that the bones SLOWLY grow back together.

That's how our body works with exercise and eating right. It wants to be FED good food and it wants to be exercised and kept moving ALL the TIME. Not just 1 month out of the year when you get the itch to exercise then find nothing changed and ultimately decide to forgo your new plan because "it wasn't working." Of course it didn't work, there were unrealistic expectations from the get go. Your body didn't have the least bit of chance. It was just beginning to start the process of change but was stopped abruptly because taking the long road isn't ever promoted. It's not popular because it's HARD work and it takes persistence and it takes dedication to really stick it out.

Realize the lies and make permanent change happen.