5 Tips to Stick to Your Diet
Are you tired of getting derailed from your fitness journey? Yesterday I blogged about Excuses We Use To Eat Crap. Each day I will be blogging about some strategies to overcome those common obstacles/excuses/justifications.
The number one thing that gets me off track more than anything else is:
#1 – Rebellion
I get so mad that my husband can eat literally anything he wants without gaining weight, but if I eat just one (1) grilled cheese sandwich I will gain three pounds over night. It isn’t fair!!!
YOU (?) can’t tell me what I can or can’t eat! I’m going to eat whatever I want to eat, so there!!!
I’m not quite sure who the “YOU!” is in my state of rebellion, but I can tell you that the authority figure in this scenario always ends up being my 40-something metabolism and she always wins the argument, because I just can’t eat crap all day and bounce back like I used to when I was 20. *sigh*
If this sounds familiar to you, and a feeling of rebellion is being used to justify you getting off track…
Here are 5 Tips to Stick To Your Diet
- Before you take a bite, think of the consequences. Can you eat the pizza? Of course. But remind yourself that you’re only hurting yourself and making your jeans tighter.
- Life isn’t fair, so sometimes you just have to suck it up and quit whining about it. Jeans don’t lie. Jeans don’t give a damn about fairness. Get over the unfairness of it all. Plus in the grand scheme of things it works out. I’m jealous of my husband’s metabolism, and he’s probably wishing he had a thicker head of hair like me.
- Get an accountability partner. Not good at making your inner child behave? Me neither, that’s why I work with a personal trainer who truly makes my life miserable when I venture outside the bounds of my pre-negotiated “overboard” weight.
I do this with my own clients too and I can confirm that a HIIT circuit combined with a leg workout will make just about anyone more willing to stick to their diet to avoid that agony. Even if you don’t have a trainer you can tell your friend your fitness goals and if you don’t follow through let her spank your inner child and make you feel like a dork for lacking self-control. So there! - Have a cheat meal. This may seem counter-intuitive but it sometimes helps. When I was first trying to lose weight I constantly cheated on my diet. The battles I had with my trainer were epic. Then one day he said I could have a cheater’s weekend: I could have whatever I wanted but just for that weekend.
In my case I ate so much junk food and felt so awful after, I put myself back on the healthy diet a full day early. Once the “fun” part of sneaking food was removed and all food, even “bad” food was fair game, my own body let me know it didn’t appreciate being fed high calorie processed garbage. So if you are a person who labels stuff “good” food and “bad” food, allow yourself the “bad” food every once in awhile to get that rebellion out of your system so you don’t then feel the need to binge. - Have a mini-mini cheat. This one, I have to admit, was a stroke of brilliance on the part of my trainer, Robin. Two things you should know about me: 1) I hate sprints and 2) I love chocolate. So when I was training for the Arnold Classic last year Robin said I could eat two (2) Hershey Kisses before cardio sprint days.
My cardio partner, Obidia, was in control of the Kisses bag (God knows I wouldn’t trust myself with an entire bag of that in the house). It worked out because I felt like I was cheating and the calories were easily burned off by the sprints. It also made me look forward to sprint days. Sort of.
So tell your inner child to behave and stick with the program.
Hope that helps!
Lisa 🙂
P.S. – If you’re serious about getting healthy, but need help getting started, try my S.L.I. Method for only 79! It gives you the tools you need to live a healthy lifestyle. Go to my main website to order now.
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Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two….and Original Cast Member of AMERICAN GRIT, starring John Cena, on FOX!!!
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