How to succeed on a diet and stay consistent.
The only failure is giving up.
I coach so many clients that feel pressured to be “perfect” all the time, and when they’re not, they feel like they’ve failed, or in their words, “blown it”.
What if there was never a wagon.
When we set ourselves unrealistic goals that require us to give up the things that keep us both happy and sane, its a recipe for disaster.
Maybe you can relate. Remember the time you told yourself to “eat well” everyday, without a clear plan and exit strategy and you ended up bingeing by the time Friday night came around?
Its basic psychology. If you tell yourself not to do something, you’re going to want to do more of it.
Think of the things we do and as being on a spectrum of 1 - 10. Perhaps 1 is a habit that will lead you to move furthest from your goals, and 10 is a habit that is going to get you closest to your goal. Instead of the black and white approach of “this is good” and “this is bad”, choose something in between that will neither sabotage nor slow down progress, but one that will also nurture your likelihood for success.
As an example, a client would like to lose a bit of weight so that he can improve on his gymnastic movements at the gym. He tells himself that drinking beer and eating pizza won’t get him closer to his goals so he doesn’t allow himself to enjoy the occasional treat.
He has what he would describe as a “perfect diet” for 2 weeks and when day 14 kicks in, he has one pizza, and then “well since I’ve messed up now anyway I might as well eat whatever I want”. Que; more pizza followed by beer, then some cake and by day 16, he’s gained the weight back.
The more we can think of our actions as being along a continuum, the more sustainable and realistic your longterm goals will be.
So in this case, instead of labelling pizza as “bad”, call what it factually is, a damn pizza. It might not get you close to your goals if you eat it everyday, but if you ate one pizza a week, its hardly going to put a dent in your progress.
I talk about consistency so much in my programme because without it, progress is virtually impossible, at best painful.
The 80/20 rule is what I tell my clients to follow. 80% wholefoods, 20% fun foods.
Don’t go full throttle brown rice and broccoli from Mondays through to Fridays just to cry over a burger later and finish strong with a whole cake later that same day.
Learning to balance out your food choices is key to longterm success, and I don’t care if you have a 6 pack at the end of a 12 week programme, if you can’t sustain those results from week 16 onwards, you’ve just been on a starvation diet, not a “transformation programme”.
A client who has lost zero pounds but has learnt to tap into their natural hunger cues and stop obsessing over the scales has achieved more than a client who has lost 14lb but can’t control their eating habits at the end of the programme.
I’m going on a tangent here, I blame by ADHD, but point is, wanting to have the “perfect” diet, lifestyle, or habits isn’t going to get your closer to your goals. Set realistic tasks for yourself and allow for a buffer zone because life happens.
It’s not all or nothing.
One blip in your nutrition plan won’t mess up your whole progress. Stop catastrophising your break from tracking.
Something is always better than nothing. Anything will do. Just because you didn’t hit all the goals you set for yourself, doesn’t mean that you failed and therefore should write the whole week off.
I’m not saying it’s easy, in fact it’s going to be really really tough, and even when you feel like you’ve reached that point where you have a better relationship with food, you might even find that it rears its ugly head from time to time.
Give yourself the time and space to grow.
Allow for dips and plateaus along the way. Most importantly, surround yourself with the right support system. Doing things alone is tough, even the most dedicated athletes will struggle without the right support.
