Everyone starts with good intentions. Motivation is sky high and you are shopping for your next budgie smugglers already (slim fit of course). There comes a time when your old habits start to creep back in and you soon revert back to your whatever you were doing before. It’s time to change that and I want to share with you some tips to give you the best chance of long term success.

You Will Fuck It Up, Just Don’t Give Up

There are going to be times throughout your dieting adventures that it is not going to go to plan. Let’s accept that fact now. You are going to fuck this up at some point. There are going to be days that you have too many lemonades at the works night out, grab a kebab on the way home or ‘accidentally’ finish the entire pack of cookies in one sitting. These are obvious fuck ups and they happen to most people.

Whilst these mistakes do happen to most people, it’s what we do afterwards that is going to determine our long term success. If you decide to say “fuck it” and go on a 5 day food binge until the next Monday arrives, the chances are you are not going to have long term diet success. If you decide to accept that you made a mistake, brush it off and continue the next meal without massive restrictions, your chances of success are a little higher.

Accept that the only dieting mistake you can make is to give up completely. Get back on your metaphorical horse and get back on with shit.

There is Nothing Magical About Monday

Following on from the previous point, I would like to remind you that Monday contains no magical powers of dieting wizardry. “I’ll start again Monday” has to be the most common phrase used by dieters around the country and this approach is killing results and motivation.

For some reason, dieting is portrayed as an “on” or “off” scenario. It’s either cookies or kale. There is no in between. Instead of this light switch approach, think of it like a dimmer switch. We can adjust the intensity to make it more difficult and get results faster, or we can turn it down to take a slower approach.

Instead of “starting again Monday”, just don’t stop. Instead of being ‘off’ your diet you can just take a slower approach and continue with what you were doing for your next meal. If you had a puncture in one of your tyres, you wouldn’t slash to rest of them just to prove a point. Instead of waiting for Mondays to arrive and save the day, continue with the plan for the next meal.

Don’t Be Too Restrictive

If someone is telling you to cut out an entire food group, any form of a social life and all foods you enjoy, you need to tell them fuck off. You can absolutely have all of those things within your diet, but the amounts you consume need to be controlled carefully.

Food is much more than just a source of fuel. It gives us happiness, a time to socialise with friends and family members and a time to stop a reflect throughout the day. If you remove all of these things from your life you will be pretty miserable.

I would highly recommend easing into things at the start and make one small change a time. If you are used to eating nothing but cakes and KFC, the chances are you aren’t going to be eating kale and cucumbers the very next day. For example, you could just try and add a portion of fruit or vegetables into every meal for a week and see how it goes. Then build on this habit by adding or changing one other variable. Small steps in the right direction are going to be better than a giant leap to being miserable.

Track As Much As You Can

The more you can track, the more you can control. Instead of blindly hoping your program is working for you, track often and accurately and make adjustments as necessary. Weigh yourself daily, carry out body measurements every two weeks, take progress photos once a month or use a performance related goal to measure success.

Choose one or two things to measure and carry them out consistently and as accurately as you can. If you see a general trend heading in the right direction, you are winning. If the results are not heading in the right direction, you need to make some adjustments and change your plan slightly. I would recommend changing one thing at a time to understand how the changes are affecting your body and your results.  

Do What You Enjoy

If scientist founded a brand new diet that lost an extra 2 kg of body fat, would you do it? Possibly. What if I told you that it comprised of nothing but cat shit and goats testicles? Of course you wouldn’t.

The biggest indicator of dietary success is adherence. This is your ability to sticking to the plan. No matter what diet you choose to take part in, it needs to be one you can stick to. For example, If you love carbs, enjoy a drink occasionally, it wouldn’t be a good idea to go low carb or on a keto diet. If you love breakfast, then I wouldn’t recommend intermittent fasting. You need to find a plan that aligns with your enjoyment.

Find something that can easily fit in with your current lifestyle whilst minimising the friction it causes. The bigger ball ache your diet becomes, the less likely you are to continue. Don’t choose a diet based on a latest study, newspaper article or your mate Dave’s recommendation, because they do not have your lifestyle. Do you what you enjoy and what gets results.

I hope you have found these tips helpful and you can apply these to your current situation. Don’t forget to share on social media or tag a friend who could find this useful. If you need help applying these tips to your lifestyle, contact me here and I will be in touch shortly.