Throughout the past 5 years of coaching people towards success and weight loss, we've learned a lot of lessons and facets of success along the way. We know that balanced nutrition makes a difference, sleep, hydration and healthy habits all set us up for success. But, there's one piece you DON'T think about often that plays a major role in your overall success.
You mindset and how you approach your relationship with food and goals will be the biggest predictor of your overall success.
Let's talk about it.
The person you talk to MOST in your entire life is you. Throughout the day we have a narration of our inner voice talking to us about what's going on, interpreting actions of ourselves and others and more. This little voice in our head can make or break your progress and goals.
How? You ever talk yourself out of doing something or called yourself "stupid" after something happens? This is that exact thing that happens we sabotage ourselves on our diets and weight loss goals. Most often, we spiral into a cycle of negative self talk, talk ourselves out of it, or convince ourselves of stopping the process.
When we keep attacking ourselves and talking down to us, we talk ourselves out of action and showing up for us. We also end up making excuses for us to get back on the path we were on and succeeding with. We do this because we believe, sometimes without realizing it, that we need to be perfect. The conditions have to be right to get started and make progress.
Life happens whether we like it or not, most times when we are getting ready to start making change or taking action. something will come up. It's going to keep happening but we are given the choice to either let that derail us or let that just be a speed bump on our way.
Successful people figure it out, people who reach their goals do the work whether there's a shift in life or something throws a wrench into their plans. Once we can come to terms with something always being there or coming up, we can make progress.
On a client call this week, a client was telling me that she feels like she can have 1-2 solid days but when something comes up like a meal out with freinds or a day away from home, those days immediately turn into days she feels like she can't reach her goals on.
We decided on her call that we were going to focus on the things we can control with the days that have fun things and meals out in them, like getting color at those meals, ordering water and being mindful of portion sizes.
We aren't going to be able to control what food is offered or if there is a huge dessert table or not, but we can control what we eat, when we eat and the portions we consume. When we roll with it as just another day, rather than a day long of feasting, we find that we can be successful in any situation.
Take a step back, reflect on your thought patterns and see how you can start to change the way you think around food.