Find your purpose and the weight will drop off!
Virtually all ‘quick fix diets’ or ‘exercise fads’ have a bold statement that draws us in. For instants here is one that is fairly typical of the thousands of options ‘lose 7lbs in a week’. In principle it sounds great and for those of us that get sucked in to trying it (me) there is every chance we’ll follow the plan for 3 or 4 days with vigour and enthusiasm. Then we struggle with the light-headedness of feeling really hungry constantly. At this stage the cracks will start showing as you are irritable, miserable and starting to crave the feeling of being full up or sugary snacks that give you an instant buzz. The next week its forgotten and the old habits return.
What do we need to do different to break the cycle? Firstly, be honest. “Yes I am a serial dieter and no it has not worked.” I feel better already.
Now that we recognise what does not work and why it is time to look at what does. What do those people who have successfully lost weight and maintain their ideal weight do differently? Well in short they look in to the future and see themselves enjoying looking good, feeling good and living with the confidence having a healthy lifestyle brings.
By building a vision of your future self you are forming an actual end result of your plan. Let me give you a clear example..
Option 1. Lose 7lbs in a week
It has a start and end date. So in the week you lose weight what about next week? It just is not a sustainable method. Nor is it a healthy or enjoyable process so why would you want continue.
Option 2. Set a goal weight, reach it and maintain it
Already you feel more hopeful that you can enjoy life without a weight loss struggle. Whatever method of getting to your goal is it needs to be something you can sustain and therefore needs to be enjoyable. If that means eating better but still enjoying your food then plan to get better at varying meals and preparing healthy options. If you spend set out to try preparing one new healthy recipe each week for 3 months you will have 12-13 new options giving you plenty of choice.
These are quite extremely different examples but the point is you need to aim for what you actually want. No one sets out to ‘lose some weight fast and then put it back on again’. That diet plan would not sell well.
We can all lose 1 pound per week fairly easily if we put our mind to it. If you lose 1 pound per week for a year that’s an easy 52 lbs (over 3.5 stone) gone and good eating habits formed for life. Enjoy the process of getting better and during your weight loss phase of your plan be thinking ahead to how much you are going to enjoy living a life feeling fantastic because you know you look great.
