You wake up Monday morning, you had a fun weekend but the aftermath of too much eating and drinking along with late nights and very little exercise have left you feeling unmotivated and a little depressed. You told yourself to drink more water every day and try to go out at least for a walk each day but that did not happen again. It seems like this vicious cycle continues and you must re-start every Monday. How can you achieve your goal of losing weight when maintaining it has been an issue for the last year? You feel defeated, ashamed of yourself for lack of discipline when you know better. How do you stop this cycle and get on a consistent path toward a healthier you that you really want to become?
Goals do not happen on their own since you want them to and motivation will only last if temptation does not take over. True change can only happen when you formalize new habits, and new habits will only happen if you have a plan. If your overall goal is to lose some weight and keep it off, you need to create a lifestyle and not a diet that will support this new you. You may have an overall goal of losing a certain amount of weight so set that as your overall objective. Now you must focus on what you will do from now until then to get there. This road may be very long, and you may not know all of the directions right now. You do not need all the directions TODAY to start. What do you need today? What are you able to do today? What can you do today that you can maybe also do tomorrow or the next day?
Just start when you are not exactly ready to see the end in sight. Start today with small bite size changes that move you forward. Your task today may be to set yourself up for success tomorrow with some movement and start drinking water throughout the day self-monitoring how much you are drinking. Your task today may be to create a list of activities you like and have easy access to on most days. As you start with these small goals, they MUST fit in a lifestyle you can sustain and enjoy. Do not set yourself up for obvious failure like getting up at the crack of dawn when you have a hard time with early mornings. Maybe some day you will find mornings are a great time but until that happens find a REAL time that would most often work every day.
Just start means making a commitment to yourself to make changes that will move to habits that will move to a new lifestyle that you enjoy, embrace and can share with the people you love the most. Do not create a situation that isolates you from your network of friends and family. Do not create changes that are so extreme you feel like it is a form of punishment.
Just start knowing you will find things that do not work or that possibly even completely fail. This is a time to learn your new version of you so keep it real and flexible. Do not feel setbacks mean you are not strong or disciplined. Learn from the setback and RE-SET. Go into this like a new journey where it is uncharted territory. You are excited about the adventure, but you are not sure exactly how everything will go. You realize some days and experiences are going to challenge you more than others and you may have to turn around and go back to get on the right road to get to where you want to go.
Just start today, make a small sustaining change and then set yourself up for the next day and the next…..
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