About 30 years ago my love for food and my desire to be fit seemed to be on a collision course. Something had to change. The problem was I am a selfish and stubborn individual and not willing to give up anything I currently enjoyed eating or drinking.
One size does not fit all. Because people are different, they process thoughts differently. If you happen to find yourself in a position of not enjoying the food you eat all of the time, some of the following ideas may help you out:
To jump start positive changes in personal health I did the following:
- Excuses - Stop making them.
- Honesty - Stop believing your own BS. Shallow commitments will drown out quickly.
- Patience - It takes a long time to drift out of shape. Don’t try to fix it in a hurry.
- Responsibility. If you don’t accept 100% responsibility nothing will work.
- Process - Do NOT over-react. Slowly modify current habits over time. Improvement may not be readily noticeable but over time it can be dramatic.
- Sacrifice - As little as possible. With a little effort I find plenty of room for fried fish, mashed potatoes, and beer, along with lots of other goodies.
- Activity - Obviously, the more active one is the more food and drink can be had. You need to decide what the optimum balance should be.
- Attitude - Make sure food is your friend and not your enemy.
- Passion - If your food experiences are not fun, you are doing something wrong.
This may be over simplification but the most proven way to gain or lose weight is to simply eat more or less respectively. If one does nothing else differently, this will still work. No tricks, no complexities, no rigid requirements. Figure out the details that work best for you.
Too basic? Identify two or three things that you eat or drink which you know are not healthy and cut back slightly on these items. Big sacrifices aren’t necessary. You may discover that some of your bad eating had nothing to do with desire but were just habits you had gotten yourself into.
Want to get detailed and specific? Go ahead and map something out. Remember, this is your plan, you are responsible, do it your way. Keep your attention focused on the future:
- Start out slow and simple. It is much easier to ramp up the effort than be forced to cut back. This is not a race or competition.
- When you slip, and you will, get back on track as soon as possible. A day or two won’t hurt but a week or two is likely a show killer.
- Recognize oncoming discouragement up front. It comes with the territory and the more prepared you are for it the better you will handle it.
Not working? Make sure your head is in the game. Do a process check to test your attitude:
- Have you accurately assessed your current eating habits and health status? If in doubt, do it again. Be truthful.
- Is your commitment strong enough? Lack of commitment is a show killer.
- Are you moving too quickly?
- Did you set too high of an expectation?
An inaccurate self assessment, weak commitment, moving too fast, or setting unrealistic expectations will quickly derail the road to better health. A person at this juncture has two choices they can make. Quit OR try it again!
If you chose to try it again, good for you. Check out the other rest of this site for help. If you chose to quit, I hope you try again on another day.
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