It’s Monday, time to undo all the damage from the weekend… or is it?
Three reasons why you go “off plan” at the weekend
1. Your plan is too restrictive
Whether you have a diet plan, an exercise plan or no plan at all – if what you’re doing is too restrictive it’s not sustainable.
You may be looking at your initial weight loss from your juice diet and thinking
“If I can just do this for 6 more weeks I’ll lose *this much* and then everything will be fine”
The truth is that life, and your physiology, doesn’t work that way.
The longer you stay in a calorie deficit the more your body adapts, you burn less calories as you move less and your body becomes more efficient at doing all the things it has to do.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that weight loss stops, it just slows down. Meaning you need to endure that terrible spinach smoothie for longer than you thought.
Surviving off liquid diets is not enjoyable, it’s not sustainable and as soon as you get an excuse to quit that diet – you will, and you’ll likely overeat when you do.
2. You have the good/bad mindset
There are no bad foods. Seriously.
There are whole foods and junk foods, everyday foods and sometimes foods, but neither is good nor bad. Both make up our varied diet and lifestyle.
If you think that highly processed sugary foods aren’t part of a healthy diet then explain birthday cake to me. If you don’t have cake, I’m not coming to your party.
Having a black and white mindset when it comes to foods automatically puts certain foods in the “no” category, and as we all know, once those foods are off limits you want them even more.
Rules are there to be broken and DAMN it tastes good when you do. Except – you’re more likely to eat as much as you can because “this REALLY IS the last time” that you’ll go off plan…. right?
3. You see your new lifestyle as a chore
If you see your new exercise plan and nutrition as a chore, something to be endured Monday to Friday like a boring job then come the weekend you want some time off.
And why shouldn’t you have time off if you find your plan so terrible? I mean, no-one wants to suffer forever on a diet of chicken and broccoli and water with a bit of lemon in it.
The truth is that if you can’t see yourself doing this forever then it will not work. Choose foods that you enjoy, choose exercise that makes you happy and it won’t feel like something you have to do, it will be something that you want to do.
What to do instead…
I might be biased because it’s my way of coaching and I know it works, but the best way to make long lasting changes to your life is to make small changes to your daily habits.
What we do every day becomes a way of life for us, and if you want to achieve a healthy bodyweight and an uncomplicated relationship with food, working on those daily habits is the easiest way to change.
Your body and your mind are complicated systems that will fight against weight loss if it’s too quick, too drastic or too restrictive so we need to take small steps to make lasting change.
Want to find out more? Here you go, all the info you could need on my coaching.
Ainzlie
p.s – got questions about my coaching? Get in touch here
