It is usually around weeks 3-4 that I receive an email, phone call, face-to-face remark from an individual new to this health and fitness lifestyle wondering when they will start seeing results and feeling change.
“But I am not getting anywhere”
In this day an age I can hardly blame them.
7lbs in 7 minutes, 14lbs in 2 weeks, new you in 2 weeks. I mean when will this bombardment of absurd claims and boasts ever end?
Celebrities should be lined up and shot. Yet we model ourselves and our expectations on them.
Are you that naïve?
You aren’t, you just can’t stay immune to the effects of this body image propaganda.
In the 30s it was the Fascist state and ‘Big Brother’. Now, ironically it is the Closer Magazine and the mumblings of worn out haggard looking 80s pop rejects dispelling all they know about ‘how to get in shape’ with arms that look like they are fresh out of a ‘gulag’
Please don’t buy it. Even if you do think it is nonsense.
It is not your fault you want results. It is like everything. Now. This instance. This minute. Instant gratification. If we don’t get it, we go in search of it. Our search becomes a frenzied and dogged look (depending on how much you want to change) under every nock and cranny that life can offer.
Change takes time. If you have come from a diet and lifestyle of coffee, skipped meals, no breakfast, over-sized portions, zero exercise and stress bulging out of your eyeballs for 10 years (in the average case I deal with) then how can you expect results in 2 weeks?
How about 12 weeks? (a realistic time frame) or even more? A time frame that allows you to tackle each habit one at a time – with success.
Not try and tackle all of them all at once only to fall flat on your face and into the nearest cake tin to spill your sorrows.
For years the average person that comes to me has tried everything. Each time they lose weight, then within the year, it piles back on with interest. Bad habits creep back in to spoil the party.
Motivation will only get you so far. It does well for a couple of weeks and then BANG – you head away, stress piles up, holidays, kids return to school and suddenly you are back to square one. You fly off the handle, lament about life being ‘too tough’ and then try another approach because the last one just wasn’t good enough.
It was – you weren’t.
Life is as tough as you make it. If you think life is a headache then guess who will literally suffer from migraines. If you think that you find it hard to shift the weight then guess what! You will find it hard to shift the weight because subconsciously all you are thinking about is ‘stubborn weight’ that just won’t move.
What if I was to say to you – take your focus away from ‘losing weight’ to ‘how many times you exercise a week’ or how many times you ‘drink water’ or eat an alkaline breakfast. Weight loss is a by-product of performance based thinking.
Instead of focusing on what you don’t want, focus on what you want – all of the time!
I don’t get tired of recovering this type of comment. It is a necessary step on the realisation that you need to jump off the diet train sooner rather than later if you want to get results.
Celebrate your success one step at a time. If you didn’t eat breakfast and now you are in the habit of eating one every day then great! What an achievement! If you drank nothing but coffee and diet 7-Up and now drink 2 litres of water a day- wow! What an achievement! If your idea of exercise was a walk to the fridge and now you complete a 10 minute walk every day – then awesome!
Every one of these steps and milestones will add up.
Ironically, results do come quickly.
Picture this. Mary heads off on her 12 week diet plan and each week she has the sole focus on one habit at a time. Sure she is tempted off the plan. But her focus is on each week improving, one thing at a time. At the end of the 12 weeks and a year later Mary is still 2 stone lighter and finds life and eating healthy easy.
Ciara on the other hand starts her 12 week body blitz with a 2 week fast. She loses 10lbs. However, after an argument with the hubby she turns to food for comfort and because of the extreme measures taken has depleted herself of iron and her serotonin levels are low. She binges on sugar for the next 2 weeks and puts it back on.
Ciara keeps the motivation going and grabs the next diet plan. She does well again but, again, struggles to keep going. The 7 lbs she loses are put on. She finds another plan and does well on this too but the pattern emerges. After 12 weeks she has lost a stone. After a year however, 2 stone has crept back on.
Why? She failed to look at the habits that underpinned her eating in the first place.
So, are you making progress? Of course you are! You may just not know it. Measure it. Apply it and celebrate the baby steps. They work every time.
John Lark www.john-lark.com – visit his web site for you free fat loss report
