15 Sep 5 Reasons Why You might not be achieving your goals even though you’re following your meal plan:

1. You’re eating too quickly and mindlessly

Time is money and you’re always in a rush to get onto the next thing, but poor health is money also. When you eat too fast it’s easy to overeat and you don’t get the opportunity to truly notice how that food makes you feel. Perhaps that pasta dish is something you are sensitive too and now that excessive fullness you feel from overeating is also partial bloating due to the sensitivity. Slow it down and take your time without any distractions (like the phone).

TRY TO CHEW AT LEAST 20 TIMES BEFORE YOU SWALLOW

2. You’re not getting enough physical activity

We need to be moving daily. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day with a walk to the bathroom on occasion is not enough – even if you eat all of the right foods. Lack of movement means that we have poor metabolic health, poor emotional health and loss of physical function/mobility. You don’t have to join a gym or become a power lifter but you should definitely be going for walks or jogs outside in the fresh air for at least 20 minutes a day.

FIND A MOVEMENT YOU ENJOY AND EXERCISE WON’T BE A HASSLE

3. You’re not recovering adequately

Sleep is one of the most underrated things known to man. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep prevents optimum repair and effects your psychological demands or cognitive function. If you’re not sleeping you’re not recovering and if you’re not recovering your breaking down. You will age faster, feel crap, not be able to recognise fullness cues and will store fat.

SLEEP FOR AT LEAST 8 SOLID HOURS

4. You have the all or nothing mindset

Many people who fail on their weight loss journeys either follow rigid and controlled plans to the letter or fall off the wagon and allow themselves complete freedom which turns into over consumption and binge eating. The missing link here is consistency. Consistency is not perfection and giving up all that you love forever in the way of food. It’s about making better wholefood choices more often, listening to your hunger and fullness queues and forgiving yourself for the moments you let go (just as long as it is not a regular thing).

JUST BE CONSISTENT

5. Your current environment doesn’t support your goals

People often get caught up thinking that they don’t have the ‘will power’ or the discipline to stay on track and then they simply give up. The thing most people fail to recognise is that ‘will power’ doesn’t have to come into play if our environment supports and encourages us to reach our goals. Our environment includes:

• Our home and what we keep available in the cupboards – if we know in the back of our minds that our favourite chocolate chip cookie has been saved in the back of our cupboard “just in case” we are 90% more likely to eat it in a moment of stress.

CLEAR THE CUPBOARD OF ANYTHING TEMPTING

• Our social networks – when all of our friends are out at the pub on a Friday night after work drinking alcohol and ordering pizza, are we really supposed to go and just sit there with a glass of water?

MAKE A NEW FRIEND WHO IS COMMITTED AND ON THE SAME PATH AS YOU

If any of these ring true to you, then it’s time to analyse, re-evaluate and make a plan to give yourself the best chance possible.