Stay the Course!

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."  - Will Rogers

In past blog posts, we have discussed how to get motivated to begin, and how to set yourself up on the road to achieving your goals.  That's all well and good, but there's a tiny little GIANT phenomenon that often happens next, which I call:

"I want results yesterday and when they don't come immediately I will throw in the towel because clearly this is not going to work fast enough."

Whooooaaaa!  Listen folks, we spend the majority of our lives eating as we please, contemplating exercise that we never get around to doing, and getting fat and out of shape.  This process usually takes YEARS.  We don't gain 50 lbs overnight.  The body holds onto it's natural good shape as long as it can under our years pf consistent abuse and neglect.

But one day we look up and say "Crap, how did I get like this?!  I need to change.  I need to change NOW!" So we plunge right into a diet and exercise plan, purge our homes of contraband food, and start making these calculations... you know the ones...  "If I lose 2 lbs a week, then by Cousin Murray's Bar Mitzvah, I will have lost a jillion pounds and will fit into a size zero and wow everyone with my gorgeousness."

Sometimes that's a good thing and it works for a time.  Problem is, after Cousin Murray becomes a man, our goal is reached and with nowhere else to go, we most often go back to how we were before.

I don't work this way.  When people come to me with this sort of regime on their minds, I see if I can talk sense into them and if I can't, a parting of the ways is what happens next.  There is NO quick fix, magic bullet, hang-on-with-white-knuckles-until-I get-there, flash in the pan funny business in my health coaching practice.  How it goes when someone comes to me, is that we decide together on 3-4 achievable goals or habits to work on every two week period.  Only when those are accomplished, do we move on to the next goals or habits.

This is the way to build the habits that will support life-long changes.  Trying to do everything at once makes your brain explode.  Trust me on that. 

It took me two full years to lose 70 lbs.  And another two years I think to really stabilize there.  Is that a long time?  What has happened with your weight in the last four years?  How many attempts at Hurry, Hurry Dieting have you made and where has it gotten you weight-wise?

The other thing, is that it's not like you are only perfect or feeling better when you get all the way to your goal weight!  You will feel skinny and awesome after losing only a couple of kilos.  (Just like you feel fat and lousy after gaining a couple).  The entire process is a joy!  If it's drudgery, you are on the WRONG PATH!  If it takes drudgery to get to your goal weight, it's going to take drudgery to stay at your goal weight.  Consider yourself warned.

Losing weight permanently requires patience and consistency.  It requires practicing your new habits every single day over and over again.  You should start seeing results in a few weeks, but if you don't, the answer is not to quit in frustration, but to take a good honest look at your nutrition plan (and yes you need to have one and be following it!) and your physical and mental training programs (ditto on these!) and see if you need to make any changes.  If something doesn't work, then you need to change it, not abandon it entirely!

One of my clients just passed the 20lbs gone mark!  Do you think she feels as though it took too long?  Or do you think she's just super excited to be 20lbs thinner??


And now in a brazen attempt at non-sequitor, would you like a new recipe??  If yes, please head on over to http://www.flavorsofisrael.com/2010/07/18/safer-and-healthier-grilling/ where I have written a new blog post on Safe BBQing and included a yummy Miso-Tahina BBQ sauce recipe and pictures!

As always, I would totally appreciate some positive comments over there.  I'm a little worried that criticizing the Universally-Adored-Grill and blaspheming hot dogs, is going to get me in a bit of hot water.  Any support, would be greatly appreciated!