Whenever we try something new, we can expect it to feel challenging, foreign, and out of place.
These are all reasonable things that happen when taking on new experiences like a new job, getting promoted, taking classes, first day at high school, and hell, even dating.
Based on our past experiences with failure and confronting conflict, we know that we can get through everything life has thrown at us thus far. We already know how to handle a new uncomfortable situation based on our past experiences.
It’s funny when it comes to weight loss we very rarely lean on these past experiences for help. It is as if weight loss lives in a vacuum from every other life experience. That is just not the case.
Here is how you can make weight loss easy by changing the context and using past experiences for help.
Weight Loss Is Like Starting A New Job
Think back to the first day of a new job. You felt out of place, not sure what exactly you were supposed to do, and there was a good chance a lot was thrown at you all at once. Now fast forward a few months.
The job has become routine, you know what to do, and you know what to expect. Starting your weight loss journey is no different.
Changing your eating habits will be hard, you will at times feel overwhelmed with information, and question if this was the right choice. Thoughts of quitting my start to creep in but reminding yourself you have done this many times before will help bring confidence in your ability to make it through.
Every time you started a new job or got a promotion things changed and things were hard in the beginning, but guess what? You made it through. You put your head down, and when you made it to the other side, you were better for it.
Strategies that will allow you to succeed in the workplace that transfer to weight loss:
When you make mistakes or “fall off,” you learn from the mistakes and try and do better next time.
You have an environment where people want to see you do well (a gym community, family, friends).
Ask people that have been there for help and be humble enough to hear it.
Weight Loss Is Like Spending Money
The science doesn’t lie. Thmost significantst factor in weight loss is caloric intake. Tracking what you eat can feel odd and challenging, and at times overwhelming.
If you have a household budget, you track your income and spending. Tracking calories is the same thing. Calories are your money; food is what you buy with it. Some food cost more than other foods.
The first thing you need to figure out is how many calories you can eat (your daily allowance). A quick way to do this is to multiply your body weight by 9 or 10. For example, a person who weighs 180 lbs has a caloric budget of 1,620 to 1,800 calories per day. That means that the person from our case can consume between about 11,400 and 12,600 calories in a week. As long as you are at or below your weekly number, you should lose weight.
Now that you know what your budget is, you can plan your week accordingly.
How to use your budget:
Daily planning is excellent when nothing is going on; you just need to stay within your budget and maybe saving some calories for meals you plan to eat more of.
Event planning is essential if you are going out on the weekend, or have a wedding to attend, or some event you want to enjoy yourself at. But you are eating on a budget, what do you do?
From the example above, if you ate 1,600 for six days (saving 200 calories a day) before your event, you would have an extra 1,200 calories to spend at your event. That would afford you a nice time.
Weight Loss Is Like Planning A Vacation
If you have ever planned a one or two week vacation, then you know how much planning goes into it. First, you have to find where you want to go, then figure out how you get there, followed by finding a place to stay, what and where to eat, and what you are going to do when you get there.
You guessed it; weight loss is the same thing. Weight loss is not a year-round event; it happens at precisely planned pushes through the year. You don’t just show up on vacation without some level of planning and research and hope to have an enjoyable time.
All too often people think they’ll start a diet, but have no idea of how they are going to plan their meals,l overcome possible challenges, and don’t even have an end date.
It’s like saying I want to take a trip to Rome for two weeks. I fly over there with nothing in hand and no place to stay or any idea of what to do. We can all agree that is going to be a bad experience, right?
What you need to do.
Think of weight loss as planning a great vacation. Here are the steps:
Pick a date and time frame. Weight loss is not a year-round event. It should happen in 6 to 8-week sprints.
Pick a time that works for your schedule. If you are a social person, don’t pick a time when you have a lot of events planned or things that will pull you away from your goal. If there isn’t an ideal time to prepare your weight-loss sprint, due to work or life in general, you need to decide what is truly more important to you.
Plan for things to go wrong. No matter how well your plan is laid out, there are going to be times when things go wrong. That is OK; you will just have to figure it out. Don’t lose sight of the goal and enjoy these moments for they are, what makes any journey genuinely memorable.
Wrapping It Up
Weight loss doesn’t have to feel like a strange, foreign event. If you take a step back you will realize that weight loss is no different than any other event that requires you to plan, budget, learn, and overcome obstacles. You have done that hundreds of times before in your life; you can do it again.
Your Fitness Sherpa,
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