The New Years Resolution diets are upon us! This used to be one of my favorite things to do. I'd decide how much weight I wanted to lose and I'd write down how much I needed to exercise and what I should be eating and when I'd weigh and measure myself. I am SUCH a good planner, but very much so a less good implementer. As such my big beautiful weight loss plan would be out the window in a matter of days as soon as I had a stressful day at work or someone brought candy or donuts to the staff meeting.
As I was working with a client tonight, I was reminded of my black and white tendencies around dieting and New Year Resolutions.
We are SO SO SO married to black and white solutions when it comes to our bodies and we've been convinced by the diet industry that quick fixes are not only possible, but that we are failures if they don't work for us.
Which lets be honest, they never really do. And so we wind up feeling like a failure and then turning to food to cope with our shitty feelings about ourselves, then hate ourselves for turning to food and so the cycle continues.
The piece of advice I gave my client, which I'm sharing here is this: incremental improvements. It's not sexy, its not mind blowing. What it IS is long term success, peace of mind and losing the crazy around food and body.
In each snack/meal/binge or whenever else you find yourself eating, ask yourself, what just ONE SMALL improvement I could make to what I'm eating right now?
If you're eating fast food, perhaps its skipping the soda, or not eating all the fries. Maybe its just adding some veggies to your meal. But let it be EASY AND INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENT.
The body clock moves much slower than our minds want it to move. If you want to make new habits start a pace that you can stay successful with. Drastic, extreme diets and food plans are not a way to find lasting success.
Incremental improvements are.
Don't do it from a place of "I'm bad and something is wrong here and needs to change" but from a mindset of "I want to do better for myself because I know I can, I deserve it and I can show myself more love and care through making small, long lasting changes."
Some suggestions:
A 10 minute walk after your evening meal
Adding veggies to whatever you're eating at any given meal
Having one less cup of coffee each day
Swapping out the processed food for home cooked food one meal this week
Going to sleep one hour earlier than normal
Choosing water instead of soda one time a day
"But its not enough!" (I can hearing you silently panicking as you read this). But I assure you, that it is. We are moving one step in the direction of your health and freedom from food obsession and compulsive eating. Master the first step and then the next and then the next and suddenly you've hiked to the summit.
The way to find happiness with your body isn't in a quick fix kind of way. You wouldn't look for quick fixes for your kids, your love life, your car or your home. You want sustainable long lasting change that remedies those issues. Let it be the same with your body.
Incremental improvements lead to long lasting peace of mind around food.