A few years ago, I made a perfect plan for managing the holiday season.
During the month of December, I was going to eat healthy meals, and exercise every day.
I was also going to avoid eating sweets and desserts, and limit myself to having one glass of wine not more than once a week.
For the entire 31 days of December, I thought about these intentions every day. Notice I said “thought about” them.
But… I didn’t do them. Instead, I kept sliding into patterns that were the opposite of my great plans.
Sure, I walked the dog, but only on days when it wasn’t snowing. I ate an apple or a banana most days, unless I didn’t have any because I hadn’t taken time to plan a trip to the grocery store.
Unfortunately, day after day, most of my good intentions turned bad!
Evaluate your intentions
Does this sound familiar? Maybe you don’t typically have as many “off plan” days as I did.
But I’m guessing that sometimes, you have a few struggles as well. So how do we get back on track with our intentions?
Here’s what did to fix my negative patterns. First I ’m renewed my commitment to my goals of healthy eating and exercise.
I also created a few more goals such as getting back into yoga and maybe learning Pilates.
But for the most part, I’m simply focused on the basics—eat right, move my body, and drink my water. Then do it all again tomorrow.
Over my years of my own weight-loss struggles as well as coaching others, I’ve learned a few things that help overturn intentions gone bad.
• Never give up
When you fall down, get back up. If you fall down 20 times, get back up 20 times.
I once heard that when people try to quit smoking, on average, it takes quitting ten times before they become a non-smoker.
Since that’s the average, it means that some people are successful after one try, but for others, it may take 19 attempts.
But here’s the secret. Smokers never know which attempt is the magic one that makes them successful at quitting.
In the same way, you don’t know which of your weight-loss attempts will be the one that sticks. I’m confident that you have a magic number as well.
So even if you’ve lost weight many times in the past, your successful attempt might be right around the corner. In fact, it might be the one you are starting today.
• Jump start yourself
When your weight slides up, push it back down quickly. Pull out a plan that works for you and jump back on it.
Don’t get hung up on looking for a new program or the perfect diet book. The best program for you is usually already on your shelf.
Think back to times when you’ve been the most successful with weight loss. Whether you went to meetings, tried out a new diet book or used an online program, if it worked before, it will most likely work again.
So don’t give up on an approach that works. Instead, just renew your motivation and commitment to it, and jump start yourself back into action.
• Focus on today
Lesson one in the book 100 Days of Weight Loss says, “Your past does not affect your future.” When you get discouraged and assume your intentions will fail, remind yourself of this great promise.
Then instead of letting past failure pull you down, use the next step of that lesson to remind yourself that TODAY is the one that counts most.
Good intentions are important. They help us lay out our path and become clear about our goals and plans. Just because some of them slip away doesn’t mean you should give up on them.
Renew your commitment to them, and put these steps in place. Within a very short time, you’ll be celebrating your success!