You signed up to a gym, went on a diet, started a wellness course and finally decided to take control of your health and life.
The first week goes with a bang, you are enthusiastic and determined to achieve your goal of the body of your dreams.
You threw out all the cookies in the house and you are now proudly saying “NO” to the cupcakes at the office.
However, after a few days, weeks if you are lucky, your motivation and determination begin to deflate. Maybe your weight has stopped going down, maybe you got tired of steamed vegetables, maybe your favorite restaurant with its unique desserts is calling your name so you decide that it can be done just this once. Then one more time and another and so on… And you do not notice how your goals are getting away and how food cravings took over leaving you disappointed and upset.
If you constantly lose motivation and you fail to commit to your newly chosen healthy lifestyle, then perhaps you did not have the proper start and didn’t build the strong foundation needed for success.
The secret to success lies in your ATTITUDE and not in the amount of physical activity you do and food you consume.
Achieving the desired result, that is, the body of your dreams and sticking to it (you don’t want to be like an accordion – gain and lose weight all your life which is exactly what happens to 99% of people who start a diet) is a lifelong journey. Therefore, many give up quickly and all the effort put in and progress achieved go to waste.
Elena Sabelnikova, Mind And Health Coach, is giving some tips that will help you make healthy lifestyle a way of life, rather than a temporary patch and your persistence in the implementation of these tips is going to give you a beautiful, healthy body for life.
- Set realistic goals
The very first step before you start buying broccoli and throwing chips out of cabinets is setting realistic and achievable goals.
Goals such as losing 10 kg in 2 months are not only unrealistic, but also harmful to your health. Even if you don’t have to chop off your arm to reach the desired number on a scale, you are simply dooming yourself to failure from the start.
Set precise, easily achievable goals for short periods of time. Set specific goals for each week, for example, go to the gym 3 times, follow a specific nutrition plan, decrease your weight by 1 kg, and when this goal is achieved, you will have a sense of accomplishment, success and therefore, a new boost of confidence to move on .
- WHY do you need this goal to be achieved?
You must identify your underlying why’s, which will make you “shiver” every time you think about it. The true “why’s” will motivate you every time when you face an obstacle in achieving your set goals.
- Give yourself time.
Success and change do not happen overnight. If you want to lose weight and have overall good health, you just NEED to be patient. No cucumber-lemon diets and detox style programs that promise “10kg per week.” People who suffer from hunger become irritated and inevitably decrease their chances for success. If you reduce your food intake by 200 calories (for example, replace the donut with an apple), you will not even notice it, but “muffin top” and “love handles” won’t be part of your body anymore.
Remember, the optimal weight loss rate of 500-900 grams per week.
- Be prepared for setbacks.
We are all human and prone to temptations. It’s only natural in a moment of weakness you eat your favorite dessert in a restaurant or drink champagne at a friend’s party. The important thing is that this temptation doesn’t take you on a month of binge eating and drinking when you think, “Well, I’ve already ruined everything with this cookie …. I’ll eat the whole pack and screw the diet”! NO, you have not ruined anything with a piece of cake or a bag of chips. Just with the next meal, return to the preset mode and continue to lose kg.
- Get rid of perfectionist thinking.
What are you going to do if you ate a jar of ice cream last night?
Ice cream is just an ice cream. But you, most likely, perceive it as a failure… failure and reason to give up and, thus, a pleasure of 500 calories turns into a binge and self-punishment worth 3000 calories. Stop giving products meaning that doesn’t exist. Food is just food. And it does not identify you as a person. You are the one who gives meaning to actions and situations. So, assign a meaning to that cookie.
Tomorrow is a new day, a day full of health and new possibilities.
- Choose your circle.
Changing your lifestyle can be difficult if you are alone or even worse, if you are surrounded by people who are constantly trying to pull you back.
Find friends who are on the same page with you, who already practice a healthy lifestyle and spend their free time not in the clubs or in the kitchen with a bottle of beer or a box of chocolates, but outdoors, at the beach, cycling, hiking, dancing or simply meditating. When your willpower is exhausted or you have one of those “days”, they can always support you and lift up your spirit.
- Be patient.
Each time you change your diet with the goal of losing weight, your body will sooner or later enter the stage of the plateau when you will stop losing weight for a while. This is absolutely normal.
Congratulate yourself – you are on the right track. Just stick to your new rules and the progress won’t be long until is generally shown.
Also, you can change the type of your training to further increase energy burn.
- Celebrate your successes.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while always eating wholesome food can be quite challenging at the beginning. Reward yourself for your efforts and progress. This will help you to move on. Every time you reach a mini goal, celebrate it with a small reward just for you. Just keep in mind that that these rewards should not be related to food. Celebrating the loss of 5 kg of fat with a box of chocolates is not what we are talking about 🙂
- Create an action plan after losing weight.
Create a maintenance plan. Most often, it’s not so difficult to lose weight, it’s how to keep it off in the long run that people struggling with.
It is important for you to remember that healthy lifestyle is the goal of a lifetime.
Therefore, you need to create a strategy – an action plan to maintain the result.
Use the knowledge of professional psychologists, trainers and nutritionists. They will help you maintain your new health habits for good.
Elena Sabelnikova
Mind and Health Coach
Physiologist
Personal Trainer
