Restart - Reset - Reboot - Be Smarter

18^th April 2018

It always seems impossible until it is done.

Restarting!  I heard that a few times yesterday, but how about instead of thinking of it as restarting we see it as resetting.  Anyone who has a SKY box has at some point had to reboot the system because it’s stopped working, any gardeners out there know that plants in pots needs repotting at some point or they become pot bound.  Nothing I can think of works perfectly all the time including us, so now and again we need to reset, reboot, whatever you want to call it.  Whatever you call it, don’t see it as a bad thing, it’s a positive because you care enough to have another go, you’re not giving up on yourself which means you’re awesome.

How?  What needs to be done to make that reset work?  Firstly evaluate your situation, assess both your past and your present situation, this is key to setting new goals that are personalised to you.  What’s worked before?  What didn’t?  What do you want to achieve?  What can you improve on?

Make sure your goals are SMARTER, most people have heard of the SMART system when it comes to goals but I like to be SMARTER;

S – Specific - If you’re specific about your goals you have a greater chance of achieving them.

M – Measureable - how much do you want to lose, how do you want to feel, how many dress sizes do you want to drop.

A – Achievable – what can you realistically lose, how can you achieve these goals.

R – Realistic – a stone in a day isn’t realistic, but a pound a week is.

T – Timely – what can you do this week, what can you do by next month.

E – Enthusiastically & Enjoyable – approach these goals with enthusiasm, enjoy the journey, you’re more likely to achieve them.

R – Reward, Re-evaluate, Reassess & Reassure – Reward yourself for every major milestone, not with food (you’re not a dog!) find ways to reward yourself that you enjoy that makes you realise there’s more to like that eating and drinking.  Rewarding yourself will help reinforce positive actions you’ve taken so you can continue doing it.  If you’re falling behind on your goal targets, re-evaluate, reassess and reassure yourself it’s all going to be okay.

Write it all down, your goals to get it clear in your mind what you want to achieve and keep a record of your journey, where weight loss is concerned, your tracker / journal / app really do help keep you focused.

Break it down, having stones to lose can be truly overwhelming, heck having half a stone to lose if you’re struggling can be intimidating, so break it down into small and management steps to overcome the overwhelm.   This for me right now would mean wanting to lose a couple of pounds a month, so I don’t have to lose every month.  I gained this week, 1.5lb, not surprised after my visitors and the chaos of last week, I’m still 1lb down on the month, I’ll take that, so if I can lose another pound and keep the two off over the month, that’ll do me and it doesn’t make me feel so overwhelmed about it all.

We all need to hold ourselves accountable by maintaining focus and discipline, this is where meetings become invaluable, get your backside to your meeting no matter what kind of week you’ve had.  Remember if the thought of stepping on the scales is really terrifying one week, you can tell your coach to put you through as a “No weigh in” so you still get the meeting discussion, just not the terror of the scales, but remember it’s just a tool that doesn’t measure your BeYOUtiful or Awesomeness. 

Develop good habits is key, it makes it easier for you to accomplish your goals on a regular basis, think about the habits that you already have, the ones you know would help.  Start with the bad habits you have, so I’ve started eating a couple of my mom’s biscuits at night, that needs to stop so I need to find another habit to replace it with!  Ah fruit, get me some cherries or grapes maybe, then have a bowl of them by the side of me.

Anyway, that’s me for today, I’ve got lots of bins to put out as it’s ‘all bins’ day, rock and roll lifestyle going on here.  I almost made it through my day yesterday, omelette for breakfast, chicken dinner, then 2 custard creams for tea!  Here’s to a better result today.