You’ve tried plenty of times but it always ends up taking the same path. You start off on fire first two weeks everything is tracking well. Then something gets in the way. You’ve got to travel with work or you realise eating salads every meal is not the life you want.
Does this lead to feelings of frustration or maybe that this is just how it’s going to be. I’m getting older and that’s just what happens.
Look I understand the frustration. I’m no spring chicken and recognise the wiggle room I had in my twenties is not going too cut it in my fifties. I have also seen numerous clients struggle with exactly the same problem and frustrations.
Shit it gets worse if you really want to dig into it.
From an evolutionary point of view we’re set up for failure.
We’re programmed to seek calories and do it using as little energy as possible. AKA weight gain.
Let’s not forget we’re living in an age of unprecedented advertising of high calorie poor nutrient dense food. Just to make it even more challenging.
Hence what you’re hoping to achieve puts you in the minority. Thats right the minority.
Here are three key strategies I’ve seen over the years with clients that shift the needle in favour of success.
Interestingly they all come before even thinking about calories in calories out.
Understand Your Why
Changing any behaviour is challenging. It requires energy and because our body has a slant towards conservation of energy it will try and push you towards the status quo. That’s why we have habits. But more on that later.
Taking the time to really drill down on why it’s actually important will serve you well in those times when energy levels are low and you need to make a grown up decision. Think end of the day when you’re suffering from decision fatigue.
Do you go for the piece of fruit or the chocolate cake?
A powerful technique that I seen work to supercharge the motivation system is the Five Levels of Why.
First you define the problem…..I want to lose some belly fat.
Then ask why is this important. For each answer ask the question why again.
Go through this process four more times.
You might be surprised where it leads if you’re really honest with yourself.
Then in those critical moments when you need to make a decision you reflect on this answer.
Having this internal dialogue that is linked to your deep driver is often enough to steer you in the right direction.
A nice bonus is that every time you step in the right direction you’re rewiring your brain. So that becomes your norm over time.
Environment V Self Discipline
Keeping it very simple you want to stack the deck in your favour so you don’t have to keep drawing on your energy reserves or use what people commonly refer to as self discipline.
Create an environment for success so you don’t have to rely on self discipline which is notoriously variable.
So for weight loss what does that mean.
I might split this into two categories.
Your physical environment and your mental environment.
The physical is simple. Get rid of any food in the house or at work that is not going to take you towards your goal.
If the chocolate biscuits are in the cupboard they're going to go at some stage.
Think about our evolutionary desire to conserve energy.
Nine o’clock at night you’re far less likely to go to the shop to grab a pack of your favourite biscuits than if you just have to get off the couch and go to the cupboard.
You want to make the behaviour you’re trying to get rid of (eating biscuits at night) as hard as possible.
Where as behaviours you’re trying to encourage you want to make as easy as possible. Plenty of your favourite fruit on hand for your post dinner snack instead.
Once your physical environment is all cleaned up.
Then it’s time to reset your mental environment.
What does this mean?
In my experience having some hard fast rules around what you will and won’t eat is a game changer.
Why because it takes the decision making process out of the game. You guessed it. It saves you energy.
Athletes often use visualisation to enhance performance. This same technique can be used with great success when you’re out for business lunches or dinners.
Imagine the scenario. See yourself making good choices. Also imagine the possibility of people putting pressure on you and how you’ll respond.
Because as you know. When you’re trying to make positive change friends, family or even the people that love you the most might throw obstacles your way.
“C’mon mate what’s one more beer. Are you getting soft?”
That’s more about where they’re at. But that’s a story for another day.
Having a clear plan before you enter these situations brings awareness and takes it from unconscious go with the flow, that’s my default pattern. I’m in control conscious decision. I’m winning this game.
What Gets Measured Gets Managed
I would recommend weighing yourself daily or every other day.
Ideally same time of day. As soon as you get up often works well.
It helps build awareness around if your strategies are actually working.
Don’t put too much emphasis on the day to day score. But instead focus on trends over a two week period.
The one caveat with this strategy. Is that if you’re the sort of person. That has the potential to get obsessed with the numbers and any shift that isn’t positive will send you into a spiral. Maybe this isn’t the strategy or you.
Once you have these things in place then you can get down to the nitty gritty of protein, fats, carbs, paleo, keto, vegetarian, carnivore blah blah blah.
The whole idea of eating less and moving more is simple. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
What does life look like in five years time if you continue down this path.
What impact will it have on the things you love to do?
What impact will it have at home and work?
Take back control with these 3 steps
- Understand your why for endless motivation.
- Set up your environment for success
- Build awareness on how successful your strategy is with some sort of tracking.