I present to you, a timeline presented via carefully curated gifs.
In general, most people get in on a plan and they’re ALL IN Like, all in.
Then, it gets hard.
The End.
Staying all in doesn’t make sense if your salary or life plan does not revolve around aesthetics or fitness. You likely have a life. probably a job, could even have a kid or two. There could be several more things on your priority list on top of that before fitness even makes an appearance.
So, why do we hold ourselves to professional athlete regimens and trick ourselves into feeling like we failed?
Feeling like you failed and actually failing are different.
If you set a reasonable plan, you say you’re going to make changes, then flat out don’t? Yeah, kinda failed in that plan.
If you set sky high expectations and 100% effort still leaves you “missing the mark” you are telling yourself you can’t get healthy.
So, let’s remove ourselves from the Tom Brady no tomato diet, shall we?
The Pats aren’t giving you a look this week and you are allowed to reach your goals in a way that doesn’t suck so badly that you end up back at square one.
Let’s be clear – most fad diets are exactly this. You cannot drink just lemon water with cayenne pepper for the rest of your life. You cannot live a happy life terrified of every calorie that lands on your plate.
You can, however, take slightly longer to reach your goals and actually keep the results.
Too good to be true? It is. Sometimes you will still have to not eat the dessert when you want it. Skipping margaritas is fun 0% of the time. But, let’s talk about how you can still enjoy these things in a way that doesn’t cause the emotional chain reaction, and therefore, overconsumption.
My simplest tips for sustaining your results:
—-> eat more meals, eat less snacks.
Meals have protein.
Meals have vegetables.
Meals are eaten sitting down.
Meals have value to your goals.
—-> Don’t use willpower, create an environment that helps you succeed effortlessly.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE WITH MORE ON THIS PRINCIPLE:
Atomic Habits by James Clear: https://amzn.to/3sEMo14
Make the right thing to eat the easiest thing to eat. Put fruit in the fruit bowl, not candy. Put the stuff you want to eat that aligns with your goals in the front of the fridge.
Can’t deal with a certain food in the house that the kids love? Put it in the garage. Put it upstairs. Put it somewhere where it is not in “what should I eat” decision making territory. If you don’t see it, you’re WAY more likely to make a better decision.
—> match your intensity with the intensity of your goals, if you’re not trying to win the olympics, there’s no need to be perfect.
If you want to have 5% body fat year round, you’re going to have to be damn near perfect in your compliance. If you want to have some visible muscle tone and feel good day to day, you don’t have to be nearly as stringent.
What gets you from point A to point B (which is typically the phase most people beginning a diet experience) will not be what gets you from point B to point C (which is most people’s “last 10 lbs”)
—-> pre plan, decision fatigue is real.
The less decisions you have to make to arrive at the decision your best self wants you to make, the better.
Prep your meals.
Plan your grocery trips.
Know what the strategy is for the day.
—-> stick to routine even on days you can’t actually workout
AKA still going to the gym and just mobilizing during the time you normally go, still taking a morning walk during the time you would workout when your shoulder hurts. Keeping the appointments you make for your health in rotation is important. If this means making it 7 days a week, figure out how to fill that time while still resting and recovering to keep it blocked off.
We have to give ourselves the chance to not have to diet anymore. If we can be patient, we can see the results slowly solidify within our life. When you repeat making the decision that’s best for you over and over it does become easier. The hardest part is the lackluster first few weeks. In most “diets” you see a massive scale drop and all sorts of crazy things.
Why this is all BS is another blog post for another day, but I digress.
You won’t drop 12 lbs in a week.
You may not even drop 12 lbs in a month.
