Lets talk about the word “support.” More specifically, how support plays a role in how successful we are?.
My sister had her baby 5 weeks ago. Doctor’s have ordered her out of the gym for 6 weeks. She has been unable to meet me at the gym. And because she hasn’t been going I’ve really struggled to get myself to the gym too.Therefore I’m finding the pregnancy weight that my sister is rapidly losing. To her defense, she did workout with me up until the minute she gave birth (literally).
For years we’ve heard the term, “workout buddy.” We read about it on blogs and in magazines and see it on TV shows all advocating this as a major key to success. A workout buddy means having someone to keep you accountable. But why can’t we keep ourselves accountable? Why is it so easy to break the promises we make to ourselves? We do it to ourselves all the time.
How many of us have already started slacking on our new year’s resolutions? How many of us swore this would be the year we’d get the weight off and it’s still there? Why? Why! Why?!!!
Do we not want it bad enough? Do we not have the support we need? Or are we just breaking promises to ourselves that we would never break to another person?
Think of all the times we’ve started and then stopped a diet. Literally for all of us, it’s in the thousands. I’ll stay at work all night if it means succeeding at my job, but I don’t even think twice about throwing in the towel when it comes to dieting and exercise. The worst part… it feels SO good to throw in the towel. That moment when we make the decision to reset our alarms and skip the gym is euphoric. We crave that instant happiness of giving in, the moment when we dip that first piece of Italian bread into the olive oil and order penne vodka 3 minutes later. We justify, we rationalize and we make excuses. After all, we can just start on Monday.
And although it sounds like the best option in the moment, when we look back at all the time that has passed and the stagnant nature of our weight loss, it’s depressing. We feel sad when we think of those 10,20,50 pounds we’ve been carrying around that we hate more than our fourth grade year book picture.
It’s easy to let ourselves down, after all, no one has to know except us that we failed. And it’s so easy for us to pretend it never happened. We lie to ourselves all the time. Those lies are proof that we don’t respect ourselves either. And that needs to change.
One of my favorite quotes by Earl Nightgale is, “Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take the accomplish it. The time will pass anyway”
So how can we become more accountable to ourselves?
Let’s work together to make an action plan so we can finally reach out goals.
Here are some ideas:
- Put your goal into the universe. Anywhere. It can be as small as you texting one person or as big as writing it in your Facebook status. Regardless, get it out. You’ll be amazed at how much lighter you feel when you put it out there. In a way, you are making your burden someone else’s. (if you need an outlet, mondaydieter@gmail.com is a judgement free zone…send away!)
- Make an action plan. An actual action plan. A specific action plan. A plan that’s not too complicated. A plan that fits into YOUR schedule. Not a plan that becomes your schedule.
- Find a way to measure progress that doesn’t upset you.Maybe it’s a before picture, maybe it’s a pair of jeans, maybe it’s writing down every M&M you passed up for the next 3 weeks. Anything that keeps you moving forward.
- Identify your biggest weakness. Send an email to yourself addressing your biggest weakness. Have a specific action plan for that weakness.The specific plan to tackle this weakness will end up being your biggest strength.
- Give yourself a time frame. A short- doable one. (ie: from Monday until Thursday I am going to drink a smoothie for breakfast) then when you accomplish that establish another time frame. We can’t tell ourselves we are going to lose 20 pounds by our best friend’s wedding.
When we make promises to ourselves let’s take them seriously. After all, if we didn’t believe in ourselves, we would have thrown away our skinny jeans three years ago. They are still hanging in your closet for a reason…Go get em!
