I’ll start tomorrow… Or Monday… Or after the Easter Holidays
The problem is that tomorrow never seems to arrive. That can mean the unhealthy eating patterns continue for an extra day, week, month, or even year, while the pounds continue to pack on. You may even have The Last Supper syndrome where you empty your cupboards into your mouth multiple times before you actually STOP and realise months have gone by since you originally planned to start. Make a plan, write it down or share it with someone. Stick to it. Today is a great day to start losing weight!
One bite won’t hurt.
You’re right, it won’t; but rarely is it just one bite. A single bite will often lead into two or even a whole plate. Then the mindset of “oh fuck it I’ve blown it now, I might as well have dessert. I’ll start again tomorrow” comes to the forefront. Suddenly that innocent bite turns into the feeling of failure and then comes resignation. The acceptance of the undesirable events that have just occurred yet perceived to be inevitable; “I knew I was going to do that”
Stop thinking that those thoughts are who you are. Remind yourself that one bite does not turn into obesity, it’s the subsequent thoughts and actions that follow that ‘one bite’ that does. If you are not strong enough to step away after just one bite do not nibble in the first place.
I deserve a break from my diet.
First and main problem is that you’re seeing your diet as a temporary solution. Have you heard the phrase: If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got?
Those habits that start because we use the phrase ‘I deserve it so I’m having it’ is the foundation for that stubborn behaviour stemmed from years if not decades of making the wrong decision in respect to your diet. Whether we have had a good day, a bad day or a stressful day we use it as an excuse to treat ourselves with what is usually our trigger food.
I’ve had a bad day at work, I need a glass of wine.
I’m bored, what can I eat?
I’ve just been promoted, lets celebrate (with champagne, wine, going out for a meal)
I’ve just had an argument with my partner and chocolate is the only thing that will help
You and your body deserve not to take a break from your diet, to learn new ways of treating yourself that don’t involve food. You do deserve something but you deserve to treat your body with the respect it needs to keep you fit and healthy. Food treats cost money and lets face it, that has probably contributed to our weight gain in the first place.
Why not create a list of other things you can do which are not food related to use when you ‘deserve a treat’:
Buy a new book
Buy yourself some flowers/plant
Treat yourself to a bubble bath
Treat yourself to some new clothes/shoes
Buy a new water bottle/coffee mug
Book a holiday/trip away
Book a massage/spa treatment
Treat yourself to a night in front of the TV with a good film
Consider saving up money you might spend on say takeaways and over a year you’ll probably have enough for a short break or to hire a hot tub for a week.
Make treating yourself a new hobby and soon it will become a new habit too.
Healthy or diet food is too expensive.
Its not cheap getting fat either! If you calculate how much you really spend on food every week you’ll probably find the healthy food option is equal if not cheaper than your current diet. Those takeaways, the 3 bottles of wine you have at the weekend, the coffee shop stops, the work canteen visits, the extra size clothes you’ve had to buy because you cant quite get into the size 12’s you’ve got hanging up in the wardrobe, the fad diet pills, slimming teas or supplements we may have fallen victim to in the past. In my 20 years of working in the Food and diet industry, I have come to recognise this as an excuse rather than a reason. I have heard (and used myself) terms like…I would pay £1000’s to lose this weight. If only there was a way to lose all this weight quickly. I hate looking like this, none of my clothes fit. Challenge yourself to write an honest list of everything you’ve spend over the last year (even just the last month) and then ask yourself if healthy food is still too expensive.
Diets do not work for me.
This is probably true if you think of diets as a short term solution to fix those habits you’ve built up over time. The key is to work on the mindset. To challenge those thoughts and behaviours you have around food and develop coping strategies to manage them in the future. There are many tools in the weight loss/weight management toolkit. You just have to recognise the sign, identify the why and then consider the what if.
Is it easy… no.
Is it quick… hell no.
Don’t expect to be ‘fixed’ overnight. Give yourself the opportunity to work on yourself, be kind to yourself and take every day for what that day brings to you. Small changes that make sense to your own lifestyle are going to be best for long term success.
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