Today, I want to talk about how we sabotage our healthy eating and weight loss efforts.

But first….a quick announcement that my Online Group Coaching Program, The Small Change Project, designed to get you on your way to losing your next 10-20 pounds, increasing your energy, and feeling happier and more confident in your clothes this summer is open for enrollment until Sunday, 6/12/2016.  The program starts June 15, 2016.  Grab Your Spot Here.

Now back to self-sabotage…..We’re all tired of feeling like we’re always starting over, but we just can’t help ourselves.

We’ve done a ton of diets &/or meal plans that are restrictive or packed with foods that we don’t like, but we continue to white knuckle and willpower our way through every miserable moment of it.

But then, LIFE HAPPENS, and we “fall off the wagon” and have a “forbidden” food not on the plan, and we feel bad (guilt and shame ourselves), which usually leads us to go “balls to the wall” on a binger and eat everything in sight.

Then we find ourselves starting over again, but this time on an even stricter diet or meal plan (because we feel guilty about the binger).  We think if I could just be a little more restrictive and extreme, than I’ll be able to lose some weight quickly and keep it off.

“I just want to find some balance and eat healthy,” you may be saying or thinking to yourself.  But there is no balance in the above scenario.  We’ll never find BALANCE in the binge/restrict cycle.  We’ll just find more STRESS! #aintnobodygottimeforthat

4 Ways We Sabotage Our Healthy Eating Efforts

1.  Making Too Many Changes at Once.

Nothing drains our willpower faster than making too many changes at once.  Starting a new meal plan or diet that has us shopping for a lot of different foods and ingredients to make a bunch of new recipes that we normally don’t make is a recipe for disaster.  We’re most likely going to be headed for take-out about mid-week because we’ll be exhausted, because we’ve also promised to go to the gym everyday this week, too.

It’s proven through research that focusing on 1 task at a time makes that habit more likely to stick to and be sustainable. We even do okay with 2, but start adding any more tasks or habits, and our chances of solidifying any of those habits takes a nose dive.

2.  Thinking we are going to eat foods that we hate.

It’s unrealistic to think that you are going to stick long-term to any meal plan or diet when it’s packed with foods that you don’t like and avoiding foods that are considered “off-limits”.

I don’t like asparagus, so it’s not likely that I’m going to eat it, because I think it smells like sh*t.  So now what do I do, when that’s scheduled on my meal plan all week?

In the end, we have to LIKE the way we eat to make it sustainable.  Also, what if a couple of bites of chocolate on a Tuesday, keeps you from binging on 3 chocolate bars on the weekend because you restricted yourself from it all week?  I think we probably do less damage with a couple of bites earlier in the week, don’t you?  Maybe foods don’t need to be “off-limits”.  That could be the cause for overeating those foods once we get the chance.

3.  Unrealistic Expectations.

Most diets have definitive start and stop dates.  Just think about all the 21, 30, 60, & 90 day challenges out there where we’re all cheering each other on to eat foods that we don’t even like, and can’t wait to stop eating once the challenge is over, but we’ll make it through this together for the next __________ days.

What happens after those challenges?  People definitely lose weight and get results.  We see it in testimonials.  But, I’m willing to bet that some serious binges and weight gain also follow them, too.  We just don’t always see those testimonials….that’s underground knowledge 😉

Not too mention, that we feel let down when our bodies don’t do a total transformation after all that restriction and exercising we did during those challenges.  But controlling outcomes is impossible, I can’t control how much weight or inches I’ll lose from doing X,Y,Z.

Putting too much emphasis on appearance and outcome goals can be dangerous.  We have to want the healthy lifestyle for more than just appearance goals to make it sustainable.  I’ve found that people relax so much more when we stop focusing on outcomes and start focusing on the daily habits and behaviors that we CAN CONTROL.

4.  The “Back on Track Monday” Mindset

OMG…I hate this saying.  What the hell is so special about a Monday?  Last time I checked…Monday has the same amount of seconds, minutes, and hours as a Friday, Tuesday, or Sunday.

Why can’t it be Back On Track at my very next meal or scheduled workout?  What’s so sexy about Monday?

Actually, I never want to start ANYTHING on a Monday.  Aren’t Mondays tough enough as it is?  You may be hung over from a Sunday Funday.  You usually have tons of emails, appointments, and phone calls to catch up on at work.

Not too mention, distractions from co-workers and new deadlines for the week from the boss…now we’re going to pile on top of that a new diet and workout routine….COME ON…are you really that surprised that your headed to McDonalds for a Big Mac by noon?  I’m not, because every task and demand is whittling away your willpower.

Using Monday, as a crutch to get “back on track” just perpetuates the binge/restrict cycle.  If you have a little slip up, which wouldn’t likely happen if you’re only focusing on 1 thing at a time, then the time to get “back on track” is not Monday, but RIGHT MEOW!

Maybe There’s a Better Way….

If you find yourself in any of these ALL or NOTHING extremes in the above scenarios  and are ready to find a little more BALANCE and make healthy eating a LIFESTYLE ONE STEP at a time, instead of follow a diet for a definitive period of time, then enroll in The Small Change Project HERE.

This program is all about HOW we eat food and our relationship with it, and not about WHAT we eat, so there are no meal plans or certain foods you to have to eat.  We will just be practicing tools and techniques that you can implement forever no matter what you choose to eat.

It’s time to end self-sabotage for good!  Life is so much easier when we enjoy a variety of foods and find a little BALANCE!  Whose with me?  Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tommie