Unfortunately, even with the most carefully prepared and organised plans even with the best intention in the world, life has a nasty habit of going a lot differently than what you wanted, or hoped for. We intend to begin a new hobby or start our diet regime and then out of the blue there is a major upheaval which throws our carefully made plans to the wind meaning that we do not have the time or the energy to return to our original intended plan.
Lets be brutally honest, it happens to even the best of us, a worthy ambition thwarted by some petty, trivial incident that ends up totally spoiling our plans. However, success can be measured by how high you bounce after a setback and it is important to appreciate that whilst life will be full of obstacles and hindrances, it is how you deal with them that is important. Rather being overly negative about life,
It’s not what happens but what you DO with what happens that matters. The best approach is one-day-at-a-time, or even lesser intervals depending on what you are attempting to do. If you’re trying to quit smoking, you might want to take things half-an-hour at a time. With food or eating it can be one meal at a time, one hunger pang or craving at a time, or whatever interval works for you.
Choose your Time Interval then Make it Happen
If I had a nickel for every time someone I knew claimed that they were swearing off a particular vice (whether it be smoking or alcohol) I could confidently build a tower to the moon with the coinage. As soon as you mentally ban yourself from a particular thing, as soon as it is classified as forbidden and prohibited, this means that it becomes tempting and alluring. Whilst you may be able to resist the urge to indulge in that particular vice for some time, there is a very strong chance that you will end up caving in and simply indulging yourself anyway.
There’s a real rush of accomplishment when you wake up and realize that yesterday you did follow-through; you accomplished what you set out to do. And that’s when it’s easier to decide your intention for that day (or that hour) once again. Each accomplishment builds onto the next, and it gets easier and easier. Learning to follow-through takes practice.
Let Successes Build, Lapses Pass
Regardless of what skill or ability you are trying to develop, it will take time and patience as well as repeated practise in order for you to become proficient at it, so make sure that if at first you do not succeed, you stick at it until you do. In the context of your dieting plan, at the beginning, you will no doubt be rather ambitious as to the various goals you want to try and achieve, be it in terms of the amount of weight you lose, or be it in terms of the number of times you go to the gym. As time goes on you will gradually come to appreciate the various difficulties and pitfalls as well as drains on your routine. Just because you have perhaps had a lapse in your diet plan does not mean that the entire diet plan is now ruined, it just means that you have made a small mistake. It is crucial that you maintain a degree of perspective, so that small failings and mistakes are not blown out of proportion.
Doing this allows you to pre-plan when you know you’ll not stick to your eating plan, thereby making it okay on occasion to over indulge. People who maintain a healthy body weight do this all the time without thinking about it.
Set Things Up So You’ll Succeed – No Matter What
Rather than being overly negativistic and focusing on everything that can go wrong, try and ensure that you identify any (potential) problems and then plan accordingly so that you are well prepared in the event that they do arise.
If you thought about it beforehand you may have realized that things would often come up Friday evenings, so you decided to work out on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, or some other schedule. Thinking about what might interfere is why many people do their exercise in the early morning hours.
Scheduling your exercise regime for the early morning is a good idea if you want no distractions or interruptions, given how most people tend to still be in bed at that time, you will have full use of the park for yourself.
Be realistic about your habits and your abilities, as well as your preferences. Try and structure change so that it can be readily incorporated into your routine rather than you having to drastically alter your routine simply to include it. For example, a common resolution made by people before they embark upon a diet plan is that they want to get up early so as to exercise, which is not always the best option. This can be problematic if you live with a partner or spouse who may be rather put out at the fact that you are getting up at 5 AM in the morning simply to exercise.
If you are aiming to get up early, or indeed any other drastic alteration to your usual routine then you should consider as to why you want to do this. Before implementing any changes, make sure that you are well aware of any and all potential pitfalls and problems that may arise, by covering all angles, by covering every potential negative outcome, then you will guarantee success.
It is imperative that you come to terms with the fact that despite your best efforts, things will not always work out in the manner which you want them to, or hope that they will. The holiday season can be especially problematic for a gym workout regime, because most places will tend to be closed on Xmas day. Therefore, you need to have a back up plan and remain flexible so that your carefully made plans progress with a minimum of fuss.
Use This Process on Any Change You’d Like to Make
If you do plan to make some changes to your eating habits make sure that you gradually phase bad habits out rather than changing them totally. For example if you eat fast food on a regular basis, you will be much more likely to have long term success if you were to cut it down from 5 times a week to 4 times a week than going from 5 to 0. Habits are nothing more repeated patterns of behaviour that derive us some sort of comfort and so if you gently phase each negative habit like I have just mentioned then this will not be such a shock to the system.
Trust me on this, whilst cutting back on your habits may seem like a major tall order, as you reach each new milestone, that will eventually become the new level with which you are comfortable with which means that you can continue to build on your successes.
That way, in the event that such a special occasion should happen to occur you will be well prepared and know exactly what to do, which will allow you to simply enjoy things and not be constantly fretting about the consequences. If you do choose to deviate from your plan for a little while for whatever reason, that is OK as well, make sure that you actually enjoy yourself and have fun before you start again. If you are eating more, then try and be more active even if it is something as simple as using the stairs instead of the elevator, or walking instead hailing a cab.