There are a couple of key themes coming from my nutrition jumpstart that come up time and time again, across different areas of healthy living. How many of these resonate with you?
- many of us have a very all or nothing attitude towards life, often combined with a tendency to focus on the things we didn’t do so well. The output of this is that we typically overestimate what we can accomplish or change in a short period of time (particularly with healthy eating goals). And we underestimate what we could actually achieve in the long-term if we stuck to a well constructed plan.
- When it comes to change (like so many things in life), less is more. If we try to change too much in one go it becomes unsustainable – we either fall below our unrealistic expectations or burnout completely. And either typically has the impact of us giving up, generally feeling demotivated and often bingeing where food is involved.
- What’s that quote…the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result? Yet many of us repeat the same cycles when it comes to food and fitness, convinced there’ll be a different outcome next time. And yo-yo dieting is the perfect example of this. Have you ever restricted calories? Or eaten really clean? What happened initially? And what happened afterwards? Sometimes we need to try something entirely different to make the lasting change we’re looking for.
- The language we use when talking about our eating habits tends to be more about things we should or shouldn’t do, not things we will do and so lacks clear focus and action. Our goals need to be owned by us and be set in terms of positivity, with our actions being the simplest most effective thing we can do each day to achieve them.
- And that’s because success lies in consistency. Change is always the result of repeated behaviours.
- My final point is around the phrase “I’ll be happy when…” Try not to tie your happiness to a future goal – whether that be aesthetic, fitness related or otherwise. It’s really important to enjoy the journey in life – we’ve no idea what lies ahead and even if we reach our destination, it might not be everything we expected.
If you need any support with your eating habits, feel free to drop me a line. You might be surprised by how refreshing, yet effective my approach is.
Thanks for stopping by!