26 Oct Keeping on Track

Keeping On Track.

We all tend to put restraints and restrictions on foods and dive into these diets at some point in our lives. With restricting yourself from all of the delicious foods comes either incredible self control or a ridiculous amount of guilt when you break the restrictions. The other side of this is you’re incredibly healthy and on the ball for a certain period of the challenge however the set period is so long and so the last few weeks are a drag with a heap of little slip ups. So how do you overcome the slips and falls?

As a whole we tend to look at these challenges as too big a piece in time. “It’s only 4 weeks I can do this.” Then a week deep you’re feeling drained and restricted and give in because there’s no way you can go on like this for another x amount of weeks.

The other version is those who are great Monday to Friday but cut loose on the weekend. This isn’t an 80%-20% split. In fact, it’s actually closer to a 70%-30% split and that’s just based on 6 cheat meals (3 Saturday & 3 Sunday) not the actual amounts of foods consumed in this time.

As a broader approach you need to simplify it as best as possible. This isn’t weeks or days or hours but break it down into meals. If you’re living meal to meal it makes your brain tick a little differently. You’re less likely to think of any restrictions you may have on yourself and you’re less likely to cheat on your eating.

It’s a lot easier to give up that quick treat from the service station if your mind is on your next meal. What’s it going to be? How can you add herbs and spices to make it exciting? How can you cook the meat to make sure it’s desirable? It’s kind of like going for a run where you feel like death but you some how manage to talk yourself into still running. “Alright, just to this power pole then I’ll stop… Ah that actually wasn’t that bad I’ll go another power pole… Still not that bad, just get to the corner and reassess.” The further you get the more momentum you gain.

From little things big things grow. Take the domino effect: a situation in which one event causes a series of similar events to happen one after another. Without disruption to your meal plan/ challenge, you can achieve all the goals you ever desired, however you need to get past the initial steps.

Set yourself up for success by thinking meal to meal and not looking at it as a 4, 8 or however long the challenge may be. Ideally your making a lifestyle change so it shouldn’t realistically have an end date. If you’re unhappy with where you are you need to change it for good otherwise you’ll always resort back to the exact same old you.

For more information on your own personalised meal plan to help achieve your own goals you can contact us through our website thechieflife.com

-Matty