Thank you so much for coming back to part thee of being ‘Tired of Diet’. That means a lot to me!
In case you’ve missed it then check out Part 1 and Part 2. Because I will spare you the recap and we will move forward with our aim in mind.
I’ve gotta warn you, though. We’ll try to wrap it all up in this one.
So, let’s proceed from being ‘Tired of Diet’ to being ‘Excited for Change’. Are you? Well, I am!
Get your pieces of paper…
Let’s move on with the old goal and new aim! I hope you have a small 1-2 week food diary now. (Let me know in the comments: what do you think about your food intake.)
And those pieces of paper? Take them out and read ’em out loud….
‘This is my old goal…’ (e.g. I want a bikini figure)
‘This is what I want…’ (e.g. Every day I will help myself to feel better)
Now I want you to take that first piece, that old self-hating goal in your hand. Take that goal, it’s not valid anymore! Crumble it; crush that goal with your hand. Be prepared to throw a tantrum. And now throw that goal and a tantrum on it!
You can say anything you like. Be profane and vulgar. Say ‘Fuck you’ to that. Say how much you hate it. Tell it how you hate the pressure and that you are sick of it. Right now every! thing! is! allowed! Cast it, stomp it, yell at it, kick it, anything you like. Throw your tantrum at your old believes. Get angry! And then, when you are ready… calm down slowly…. Your hate fades! And you feel relieved that you’ve overcome old beliefs that hold you back.
After this take sometime to accept the change and whenever you are ready, you can pick-up your new aim.
Your new aim is great for several reasons. First of all you might already have been manifesting it throughout the last weeks. By writing it down and following the simple but important steps of making a food diary and doing some micro-exercises. Whether you did both or only one… you may already feel a bit proud of your accomplishment, about your change(s). It’s best to keep your new (current) aim in your wallet or somewhere save, so you can read it either every day or whenever you feel like it.
Fill your notebook
Did you get a notebook? A written notebook is a good and maybe the best way to keep track of your achievements. Especially handwriting your notebook will anchor your words more easily than typing them.
Now, the process for your notebook isn’t set in stone. Basically it boils down to making a note of your failures. E.g. when you’ve failed to keep your snack stash or when you’ve lost track of everything. And making many more notes of your accomplishments. Everything that is a step forward should be jotted down!
Best practice is to write your journal along with failures and small successes from front to back and all your accomplishments whether small or big from the back on forward.
Did you do great at your job today? Write that down! Was there something that made you smile? Write it down! Have you reached your daily goal or 4 push-ups? In the notebook with it! You did 1, 2, 3 or more repetitions since last week? Another great entry in your list! You thought of your lunchbox today and didn’t forget it like so many times? Nothing is too small, make a note! Lost 300 grams? Great entry! Didn’t give up after gaining 1 kilo? Great one! In the notebook! Went to the gym or on a walk after three months of procrastination? Cool! Hype yourself up and list it as success!!!
No success is too small. And whenever you write down a failure, I want you to read a page (minium 5 entries) in your success list. Do you know what this will get us? Perspective!
Imagine this: You’ve had a bad day and didn’t do your micro exercise. Also you overate and on top of that with a big pile of ice-cream (or chocolate). Is that something to feel bad about? Not at all! Reading about your accomplishments will put perspective into that…. And then you might say: Yes! Today I’ve had a bad day. And I ate too much chocolate. But I’ve also exercises 10 days last month. And I came back to my aim after I’ve procrastinated for a week. So… today it was bad but tomorrow I will go back to feeling better and helping myself.
See, what we did there? Perspective! Every. One. Fails. Some more often and some less. But from failure comes success. Every time you get up again and walk your path… You win!
Keep going!
10 years of eating fat or sugary foods won’t be rectified within 10 days of exercising. We all know that this is true but still many adhere to a similar believe.
The most important thing is to keep going. To do your micro-exercises and to cut down on fat and sugar. It’s a process which leads to a healthier life while feeling better and stronger. And small breaks are allowed.
Instead of doing a diet and torturing ourselves, we want small changes that will make a diet obsolete and reaching our aim sustainable.
Award yourself!
The body building pros do it and you should too: Have a cheat day. (Or high-calorie day depending on the term.)
Most diets work with a calorie deficit. And while this will help with loosing a couple of pounds, our body accommodates to our food intake. Meaning that after some time it will adjust to less calories and all the torture is for nothing. That is why I am tired of diet!
So we take exercise as key for increasing our calorie budget. But increasing the budget daily will put our body in a difficult position, mostly because the digested food won’t be enough.
That means we have to vary and budget differently: One day should be dedicated to ingesting calories at will! Eat that chocolate or that doughnut. Get those fries or a pizza. Devour these snacks… It’s cheat day. So eat and feel good!
On top of that you can declare it as an award for all the times you’ve spared a snack!
Your mind and body will thank you!
A quick recap or TL;DR
- Make a small food diary and write down what you eat
- Keep a kind and patient written aim in your wallet or pocket
- Cut down a snack or more
- Replace a fat meal with a healthy alternative (e.g. smoothie)
- Focus on protein and vitamin
- Do micro-exercises
- Progress as you see fit
- Write down all successes and only big failures in your journal
- Reflect your successes and put failures in perspective
- Take a break / award yourself: have a cheat day.
Be kind and patient
Both patience and kindness go hand in hand with each other. If you fail and gained perspective you’ll be able to be kind to yourself. And patient that you will proceed forward. Always encourage yourself. Sometimes as an adult, it’s hard that there is nobody telling you how great you are doing. So you will have to do it! Tell yourself how well you are doing and what you can accomplish. Of course, you can push yourself but be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day 😉
Reflect and adjust
Always remember: We don’t have any problems; only obstacles. There are multiple solutions to overcome an obstacle.
Failures make up about 5% of our lives. But focusing on them can make 5% look like the majority… Reflection helps us to put things in perspective, by looking at failure and accomplishments!
After gaining a better perspective it’s easier to move forward and adjust your methods: Did you work out good and 5 push-ups are getting easy? Go up to 7. Or the other way around: Are you at 10 push-ups and you are sick? Dial-down.
Most important is to adjust. For starters: A chocolate can become a banana. And an evening beer a walk.
An unspoken truth
Do you remember my phrase: The key is exercise and persistence is key?
That’s absolutely true. But my experience did show another truth which most people don’t talk about. It’s something I had confirmed after many exercises and talking to a lot of people exercising on a regular basis:
Exercises will always (and need to) be hard. Only two things change: the amount you can do and your feeling.
At the beginning I barely could to a sit-up and wasn’t even thinking about jogging… after several months I was jogging and doing exercises at home. And later on I hit the gym. But that unspoken truth was true: it was always hard but my feelings changed… where it hurt in the beginning I was more capable later. Now, a good work-out is still hard but I feel great during the training. I feel exhausted after and I feel great because I’ve achieved so much. You can, too!
Final words
I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini series and it helped you to adjust small things in your life. I’d be excited to read your comment or an e-mail about you, your progress and your achievements.
Everybody is built different and some might like some guidance with a diet. And they all differ greatly. I myself am working on an e-mail course, which we will release as soon as it’s ready. In between we are working on easily digestible diets for those who are looking for this king of guidance.
Stay safe and well. Maybe with following the simple steps I’ve described 😉
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