Avoiding little quits when you want to lose weight
How often have you given up on yourself when trying to lose weight? I’ll bet before the Big Quit there were a lot of little quits.
Here’s how avoiding those little quits will help you reach your goal weight
So many of my clients are decisive women – they have to be. They manage departments, run entire businesses, raise their children, manage a household…and a surprising number of my clients are, like me, single moms. We make decisions easily, quickly and move on.
Except when we don’t…and one of the times we really aren’t decisive is around food.
I get it. It’s often that little escape, a wee bit of freedom to choose in the moment. “What am I hungry for?” seems an innocent question, right?
And yet it opens the door to a little quit…which, if you eat off your plan, leads to feelings self-frustration, shame and despair.
The tip for avoiding the little quits is to make your food plan decisions ahead of time.
I remember being on a weight loss program about 15 years ago. It was a no flour, no sugar plan, and I had to call my accountability partner in the plan every morning with my food for the day. Calling it in was not a problem.
Sticking to it, that was the problem. I always changed it up. I had chicken instead of fish, rice instead of potatoes, wine instead of no wine…
Don’t get me wrong, I lost (some) weight. I did not get the stellar results that others did.
Why? Because, in part, I never built the skill of self-trust or self-commitment around food – I never learned the power of making decisions ahead of time.
Why making decisions ahead of time matters
I know there are areas of your life in which you make decisions, and honor them. For example, you decide you are going to work on Monday, and off you go. For most of us, unless we’re sick or an emergency comes up, we decided when we were hired (or started our businesses) that we’d show up for the required period of time. When you make a decision ahead of time you access your prefrontal cortex, that highest part of your brain, to honor a decision that you’ve made.
But if you don’t make the decision ahead of time you get into confusion, which is a bit of an indulgent emotion. Or you plain to decide in the moment.
None of that’s inherently awful. But it is problematic for emotional eaters. Deciding in the moment can-and frequently does for my clients-lead to self-sabotage.
The Little Quits that lead to the Big Quit
I coach seriously amazing women who have — up until now — not been able to solve their weight loss issues. They decide how much weight they want to lose. They even decide on what their food protocol/plan is going to be.
And then the little quits set in. Tiny moments of off-plan behavior and eating that ultimately lead to the Big Quit.
The plan didn’t fail them. Their goal remains the same. But each time they try to lose weight, their self-trust and self-commitment are not where they need to be to get it done.
Making decisions ahead of time about food + honoring them
Your primitive “reptile” brain loves instant gratification – it sees the cookies, the wine, the leftovers, the chips…and the message goes out that you should eat. Never mind you aren’t hungry. Your primitive brain always thinks it’s one meal away from starvation (and back in the cave it might have been).
How do you get around the urges? You strengthen your commitment to yourself, your goal, and the decisions you made about what to eat.
And that means meal planning. Hear me out.
Meal planning is a fundamental weight loss skill. Every time you make a plan and stick to it, it strengthens your commitment to your goal. Every time you don’t, you chip away at that commitment.
Some of my coaching clients complain about meal planning, they think they don’t have time – and it is hard – which of course is just a thought they have about meal planning.
What if it gave you freedom to live your life in the security that you’ve done everything to fuel you body so you reach your goal?
Try this out: after you read this, decide what you are going to eat tomorrow. One 24-hour plan. Here’s mine:
Oatmeal in a jar with mixed berries, sliced almonds
Spinach 7 Mushroom Frittata with mixed green salad, dressing. 1 tangerine.
4 oz Turkey breast, asparagus, quinoa and apple.
Here’s the thing: if you are planning your food for the next day – or even week – you’ve taken a decision that frees you up from mini-decisions you may make that sabotage your results. And we want those weight loss results, right?
Click here to download a weekly-meal-planner1 template – and let me know how it goes!
