FITNESS,  FOOD,  HEALTH,  Personal Development

Excuses and Missteps: Things that Can Derail Your Diet Goals

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Goals, goals, goals.

I have posted a lot about goals during January. This will remain a topic of interest this year but I am going to branch out a bit. Each of us have planned some goals for the year — now we can get into more details about specific goals and how to make them come true — and all that that entails.

So for a goal related to weight and diet — a diet goal — first let’s consider the biggest issue — mindset.

Block Out That Little Voice!

If you want to get down to a healthy weight, you have to stop making excuses.

You know what I’m talking about.

It’s that little voice in the back of your head that tells you that you deserve to eat that doughnut because you’ve had a rough morning. Or the one that tells you that it’s too cold to go out for your nightly walk. We all have that little voice in our head — I personally am battling that voice every day! In truth, we also all have a choice each time that voice speaks up. We can listen to it, or we can choose to ignore it.

Ignoring that little voice and not making excuses isn’t easy, particularly in the beginning. But here’s the good news. As you start to ignore it more and more often and go work out, or say no to the high-sugar, high-calorie treat, the softer that little voice gets.

Don’t Let Yourself Down

Here’s what it comes down to. Anytime you listen to that little voice or are making an excuse, you’re letting yourself down. It’s time to stop doing that. In fact, it now is the time to honest with yourself.  Realize what you’re doing is sabotaging your success and Stop It! You’re important and so is your health and well-being.  If you haven’t believed that yet, now is the time to start putting yourself first because no one else will.

Whenever you’re tempted to skip a workout or indulge in an extra treat tell yourself that you won’t let yourself down. Put on those walking shoes and head out for a workout. Make smarter choices about the food you eat. Skip the soda and reach for a bottle of water instead.

Remember Your Self-Worth

You are worth the effort and hard work it is going to take to get down to a healthy weight. You are worth a healthy body that will support you in all endeavors for years and years to come.

Furthermore, we tend to focus on getting thin and more attractive for other people. Instead, do this for you, because you know deep down that you are worth it. It’s a much stronger motivator. No matter what happens with relationships along the way, your diet goal won’t change.

You Deserve The Best

You deserve a long and happy life. Moreover, you deserve to be able to go on that beautiful hike in the mountains. You deserve having a fun game of tag with the kids in the park. You deserve to be the person you already see inside yourself.

Stop making excuses and remember that you are worth it, you deserve the best and don’t even think about letting yourself down.

Getting Back on Track

The first part of this post was very rah-rah about working towards your weight and diet goals.

Unfortunately, it’s not going to be as cheery and all those positive thoughts will not always be in your head.

No matter how motivated and dedicated you are, chances are good that you’ll fall off your diet at one point or another. It may be because you had a rough day at work and fell back into the old trap of making yourself feel better with food.

It could be that you were invited to a friend’s house and she served some delicious homemade cake. Or maybe you “took a break” over the holidays to indulge a bit in all your favorite treats.

Perhaps you got sick and needed some comfort food to make you feel better. There are hundreds of reasons why we get off track of our goals. Let’s accept that getting off track with your diet goal going to happen. No need to beat yourself up about it. What’s important is what you do next.

How are you going to get back on track and keep this cheat meal or that indulgence day from turning into days and weeks of eating junk food, undoing all the hard work you’ve put in so far?

First: Forgive Yourself

First and foremost, there’s no sense in beating yourself up. What’s done is done. Forgive yourself and vow to do better in the future. Without forgiveness, you’ll beat yourself up for “failing” instead of just taking the next step forward.  That’s all you need to do to be successful.  Just keep on moving forward!

What Are Your Triggers?

After you’ve gotten back on track, take a look back and see if you can figure out why you slipped up. What caused you to reach for that tub of ice cream or why did you cave into eating that pizza after having the best intentions of sticking to a grilled chicken salad?  Emotional triggers are huge saboteurs of an otherwise healthy eating plan.

As a rule, recognizing what’s causing you to give in will help you avoid future slip ups.

Make A Plan To Avoid Future Slip Ups

Speaking of which, come up with some scenarios on what you can do next time to stay on plan.

For example, if you were meeting friends for dinner and ended up ordering the pizza or burger because you were just too hungry to consider getting the salad, have a snack before you leave the house.

If you’re so busy that it was easier to pull through a fast food drive through then think about planning ahead a little better.

If you had a bad day and found yourself reaching for the pint of Chunky Monkey in your freezer then consider not even bringing it into the house.

I hope these tips help you work towards your weight loss goals.

For a more in-depth look at achieving your goals, here is a book called Crush Your Goals from my Shop at Life: The Reboot. There is also a Crush My Goals Journal on Amazon.

Loving Life–The Reboot!

Dominique

My Amazon Author Page

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Shop at Life: The Reboot

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