So if you’ve been following me a while you will know that I love an analogy.
I often come up with ideas for blogs and newsletters at random times of the day when I am doing different things.
The idea for this one came to me this morning while I was doing an early morning run.
I’m not a massive runner. At the moment I am just doing 1 run and some sprints each week to build up some cardiovascular fitness to compliment my weight lifting and yoga.
So, one of the things I often hear is…
“I’m just so sick of having to think about food all the time!”
You’ve been there right?
When you are on a diet you are thinking about what you can eat.
You are thinking about what you can’t eat.
You are thinking about when your next meal is. Or if you do the whole cheat meal thing then you are mentally planning your next cheat meal from one to the next.
This makes dieting really hard.
You are trying not to overeat, yet all you can think about is food!
The more you try not to think about it. The MORE you think about it!
It’s like if I say to you, don’t think of a pink pig. What do you think of?
Let’s talk about planning and meal prep…
One of the things I tell all my clients is that they must plan what their food at least a day in advance and they must do a weekly food shop where they get the right foods in for the week.
This can often be expressed as a massive hurdle and planning, unless you are a natural planner, is something I lot of people don’t do very well.
It takes time. AND, yet again, you have to think about food.
However, let’s face it, you do need to become more mindful of food and be conscious (remember that word because I’ll come back to it later) of your choices as you start to build new habits.
So let’s go back to my run this morning…
It’s mostly a flat route with one pretty big hill in the middle and a nice downhill towards the end.
So when I was on the uphill I had to use a lot of mental energy to stop myself from giving up.
I had to focus on MOTIVATING myself to keep going.
I’d say things to myself like
“you got this!” “keep going!” “one step at a time.” “almost there!”
A little cheesy perhaps but I do this stuff because if I thought…
Gosh this is so hard…. I hate running…. Why am I doing this… it’s fine, just walk….
It would be so easy to give up.
However, what I noticed on the downhill is that it took very little mental effort. Instead of having to self-motivate my mind drifted and I had the freedom to think about all sorts of different things.
So what does this little story have to do with weight loss?
A whole lot!
You see weight loss is all about creating sensible and sustainable habits.
If your weight is stuck right now or you have yo-yo dieted or “started a diet” more times than you have fingers and toes, I am sure you will agree that you probably need to try something different that you haven’t tried before.
Trying or doing something different requires you to get out of your comfort zone, learn something new so that you can grow.
That growth is required to get the result – weight loss!
The beginning of change is your uphill…
- You have to be focussed.
- You have to think about it a lot more – it will take a lot more mental effort, but you shouldn’t be obsessing about food 24/7 (see note below)
- You will need to think positively (you got this! vs why can’t I just eat pizza!?)
- You will need to plan and prepare – the planning and preparation should actually help you to think about food LESS (provided you are on the right plan). If you plan each week what you’ll have for your meals and you buy that food in a big shop once a week, all you have to do is follow the plan. And if you need help with planning, that is something else I can blog about – just holla!
Note:
If you are on a diet that requires massive amount of will power or all the time, you might be on the wrong diet!
If you eat each meal and start counting down the hours until the next, unless you are entering a body building show, you are probably on the wrong diet!
If you are on a diet where you feel restricted and continuously think about all the things you can’t have, you are probably on the wrong diet!
But the downhill is when it all clicks into place…
- Your repeated behaviours from the mental effort your applied [to the right program] in the beginning, become habits. It is the creation of these habits that move you from being consciously incompetent (thinking about it a lot) to consciously competent (thinking about it a lot) to finally unconsciously competent (where it becomes effortless)
- Prepping and planning soon become natural.
- You shouldn’t have to obsess over grocery lists and recipe books each week – if you are smart, you’ll probably just do an online shop and click “repeat” when you find what works.
- If you learn moderation, not restriction, you won’t need to reply on will power to get you through the week.
- If you enjoy a birthday party (and the cake) and not let it become a slippery slope of self berating
Then you can be mentally free. You can then focus on other things that life has to offer (not just getting to the top of the hill), look around and enjoy the view!
So, some questions you might want to ask yourself are…
- Am I following the right plan? is my resistance, resistance to learning or is it a warning sign for the wrong plan?
- What am I learning from my struggle? if you aren’t learning, you aren’t growing and if you aren’t growing then you probably aren’t doing that something different that we already established you need to be doing to get a result.
- Are you relying on will power alone [and then failing miserably]? Then your approach is most likely to wrong one. Losing weight doesn’t have to be restrictive or hard. Having the right tools and guidance to learn moderation is very important.
If you feel that you would like…
- more support and accountability
- a sensible solution, not a short term fix
- top quality coaching from qualified professionals
- to lose weight and keep it off
Then take a look and apply for a FREE Break Through Call where we can chat through where you are right now and create a future vision of where you would like to be and how to ACTUALLY get you there.
It’s not often we have a guest blog on the website. The following was actually written by a client of mine as a Facebook post in our Ladies that Lift VIP Supergroup. Charlotte has hit the nail bang on the head with her tips for surviving the busy London social life while still making progress in her health, fitness and body comp. 
