#3 You don’t have a plan for when you get off track.
Can you stay 100% committed to a plan? Remember, targets move. Life is going to happen. So let’s build that protocol for when it does.
I have two big important fixes for this.
Number 1: Be more flexible in your plan.
Accept that even your basic plan is already wildly unrealistic. Rather than “I will do 30 minutes of cardio and 60 minutes of weights using an upper body/ lower body split, every day no matter what.”
Aim for “I will be active for 30-90 minutes per day no matter what.”
You have grace built-in so you can still be successful when emergency zoom meetings pop up at work.
Number 2.
Get mindful of why you messed up.
If you have a rough day and address it with a whole pizza and Nicholas Sparks movies, don’t beat yourself up over the pizza.
You may not use the same food or terrible movies, but you will sedate yourself again by chasing hormones through rich foods and emotional movies unless you bring it to the light and address it.
**Yes, literally write. grab this ancient device we used to call a pen and put it on paper or a napkin. (Extra points for sharpies on sleeping family members. Send me pictures.)
Answer the following when you have “fck-it” days.
- Write a short story (2-3) paragraphs on how you handled a stressful temptation in a way that ended with negative effects. *Stress-eating and binging tv or social media.
- Write a short paragraph about what you might have done differently in that situation to minimize the negative effects. *I could have eaten something healthy first to minimize the amount of bad stuff I might eat later.
- Now that you’ve thought about how you might have behaved differently in that particular situation, think in more general terms. How could you improve this pattern in general so that these situations do not repeat themselves? *Calling a designated friend when I am stressed, before I reach for food or distract through TV or Snapstatock.
If you can do this exercise (which you can.) Phrases like “I fell off the wagon again” or “I just can’t stick with anything.” aren’t going to stay in your repertoire.
It is not just because you took the effort to introspect and correct, but because you’ll start noticing all of this isn’t a track to stay on or fall off. It’s aiming, re-calibrating, adjusting, and progressing, over and over.
You change throughout.
