The trick is to never give up, even when you mess up!

29^th January 2012

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop - Confucius

Well that’s January almost over, some have joined my meetings at the beginning of the month and already dropped out for one reason or another.  We all know it’s not easy to lose weight despite the fact that the end results are so good, sometimes knowing that isn’t enough to keep us on track and we lapse.   They’ll have a bad day and instead of realising that’s part of life and you can’t change your lifelong habits overnight, they’ll give up because it’s too hard.

It’s such a shame because they obviously as we do want to lose weight.  We all hear a great deal about lifestyle changes, but it’s our daily choices that really test us. What happens if you have to work late and you can't get to the gym? Or what if you get stuck in traffic and you’re starving? Any number of things can happen in a day that may throw you off track. The trick is to be flexible. It helps of course if you're always prepared - keep your trainers in the car so you can stop off at the park for a quick walk. Keep some food handy so if you get stuck in traffic, so you’re not gonna attack the fridge when you walk in the front door.  Being prepared of course is easier said than done sometimes, so on the days you’ve not had time to be prepared, give yourself a break for not being perfect and do the best you can.

You won’t be perfect every day.  Luckily I’m no longer a perfectionist, I used to be and it was why I failed with permanent weight loss, I’d love, have a bad day then give up because I felt like a failure and didn’t like that feeling.   The truth is, everyone (even perfectionists) has good days and bad days. On the good days, you'll eat all your fruits and veggies, say no to that pizza and do your workout even though you're tired. On the bad days, you'll wake up late, forget to take your lunch to work, have an extra piece of cake at your friend's birthday party and skip your workout. The bad days will happen if you're a human being. The trick is to never give up, even when you mess up. You're not a loser just because you make some mistakes...you're simply a person trying his or her best to make good decisions.

I’ve slipped every weekend this year, it won’t stop me trying to stay on track every weekend and doing the things I can to balance out the blips, for example I walked Alfie walked for over 2 hours yesterday to earn some Activity ProPoints to try to counteract the ProPoints I’ve gone over!

So let’s take it one day at a time, starting today, if we do one thing each day, they’ll all build up and make a difference.  I was gonna call it your ‘daily challenge’ but that makes it sound like its going to be difficult and you have to do it, so let’s call it your ‘daily choice’ because I think it’s really important to remember all these things you’re doing to lose weight, they are all a choice, you don’t have to do anything, you can accept you’re overweight and get on with your life!

Don’t wanna be overweight?  Then today’s ‘daily choice’ could be to make a commitment to yourself to make your diet better. How much change can you handle in the next month?  Start to be realistic and practical about your willingness to change your diet. 

What one thing could you do each day to help your weight loss?  It could be the same thing, or a build up of different things.  What can you do in February? Don’t aim too high, but make a commitment now.

Make a commitment to changing your diet. And be realistic. Over the next few weeks and months, how much time do you really have to make changes to your diet? It’s easy to over-commit and end up disappointing yourself. To avoid this, spend some time thinking about your schedule and make a committment. Being realistic is an important part of changing your health.

My commitment is to start afresh every morning, regardless of how I’ve done the day before!  Of course I plan for those day’s before to have been good ones too, although going back to the start of this blog, I’ve realised a bad day is part of life and you can’t change your lifelong habits overnight, and I’m NOT willing to give up because it’s too hard!

How about you?