Advice On Staying Consistent!

wgm2pow27

Hello,
I'm Charlotte, the hot mess Gyal. I found out about this App on YouTube from one of the User. She's had great success with program so that's how I ended up here. I'm a busy executive, with bad eating habits 30% of the time. So far I love the app, I didn't realize how much junk food I was consuming! I fell off the wagon my first week is that normal?

Rxman1971

Get back on the wagon. U can do it

AnnPT77

A very smart person here (not me!) once said that there is no wagon, so we can't fall off. Personally, what I think is that there's just life, and life is made up of time. The question is how we spend that time, either advancing our goals, staying stuck, or backsliding over time.

Perfect every single day isn't necessary for success. Pretty good on average most of the time will work OK. As a starting point, just better most of the time is a good on-ramp.

Weight loss isn't a melodramatic battle between good and evil. IME, losing weight, and keeping it off, is a matter of finding new, practical, reasonably enjoyable (at least tolerable) eating and activity habits that eventually can run almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging (because they will).

It's the daily humdrum routine that matters most: The habits we have day in and day out, most days. The majority of our days deliver the majority of our outcome, not that one day we eat too much cake, or work out for 5 hours. If a day goes haywire, think about why it happened, and adjust tactics. Spend no more than 10 minutes on that, then just log it and go on with the revised plan.

Finding new habits - ones that fit an individual's unique preferences, strengths, limitations and lifestyles - is a process of analysis, experimentation, practice and adjustment. Some of the experiments will fail. That doesn't make you a failure, it's just learning some particular tactics you can cross off your list, because they don't work for you.

In a lot of ways, I'd bet this is similar to long-term objectives you have as an executive: You make a plan, and work the plan. Some days, there's more progress on the plan, some days a bit less. Do you give up on the "less progress" days? I'm betting not. Do you give up if some part of the plan isn't working? I'm betting not. I'm betting you shift tactics in that part of the plan until you find an approach that works adequately. Weight management works that way, too.

You can do this, I'd bet. And if your experience is anything like mine, the results (in improved quality of life) are very much worth the effort. Best wishes!

Lietchi

Falling off the wagon is normal. No one is perfect. And you don't need to be perfect, just good enough most of the time.
I would argue there is no wagon to fall off of. There are good days, bad days and anything in between.

It's also easier to be consistent when you don't make things needlessly hard for yourself.
So, in case it applies to you:
- it's better to make gradual changes, rather than overhaul your diet in one go
- no need to be perfect, perfect is the enemy of good
- most people are impatient, but aiming for a quick weight loss rate makes it harder to stick to. Slow and steady wins the race.
- no need to eliminate your favorite and familiar foods - tweak your diet gradually if you feel it needs improvement. Even junk food is fine in moderation.
- it's always good to have a backup plan on hard days: fur example having an easy meal in the freezer when you don't feel like cooking or even a few go-to takeaway meals that you know are reasonable in calories

Edit: I typed so slowly that Ann beat me to it 😄

Hobartlemagne

The wagon will always let you back on.

Maybe try to make wrong choices less convenient.

Corina1143

Dont make it hard. Improve a little bit at a time. Expect to fall as part of the learning process. Think of a baby learning to walk. It's not perfect the first time. Even a grown up stumbles and falls occasionally. Doesn't keep them home in bed. Just keep learning.

springlering62

This makes me think of the late, great Herman Cain, local notable and subsequently, presidential candidate, and his saying:

Them that’s going, get on the wagon. Them that ain’t, get out of the way.

Sometimes, we need to get out of the way of our own expectations of how this should be.