You can have the perfect diet on paper but when it comes down to execution, it’s a COMPLETELY different story. We’ve all been there, “I’ll have 5 no carb days, 1 low carb day , and a reefed day”. We build up these grand plans for success and go straight from A to Z. This type of planning usually sets you up for failure. Why? Because you didn’t build up to it.
Foundation:
The base is basically your foundation, the key to your success. Think of the old quote “You don’t build a house on sand”. You need a solid foundation to build off of and to do this with nutrition is clearly important. To start, choose something simple that you can have a 95% compliance rate on, such as:
- No eating after 11:30pm
- Pack your own lunch
- Mid-day snack will be a fruit
- No more candy during the week
- Dessert only x2 a week.
You get the point, it’s something YOU can do that’s not a big sacrifice but is a step forward. From there you and/or your trainer will develop (together) another goal in 3-4 weeks time and as you keep building momentum you’ll soon see that you’ve built a strong foundation.
Ups and Downs:
There will be fluctuations on this path, life gets in the way and you may have to go to client dinners, where the healthy food choices are scarce. But don’t worry, that’s completely normal, just as long as you refocus and get back on track. Just because you back tracked a little doesn’t mean that you should revert back to your old habits, realize that’s it’s typical and to develop another strategy to combat the downs.
The Big Picture:
Think of dieting as your retirement account, it’s not about the short term; it’s about the long term. If you look at the chart, there’s some fluctuations with a big dip in 2009, which may “seem” as if you’ve lost money but when you pan out and look at the bigger scale, you can see that the median is actually a net gain.
Summary:
In short, slow and steady wins the race! While your eagerness to obtain your goals quickly is great, but without a strong foundation you’re more likely to fail. Keep the goals simple & obtainable, if you stay consistent and stay focused on the big picture you’ll be on your path to success!
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