I’ve recorded this email as a video as well. You can find it on Facebook or Instagram.
There are some things which one needs to take into consideration when trying to lose weight. They can be seen as pretty inconvenient and can make the road both harder and easier at the same time.
The first is that you have to take action. Waiting for the right moment, waiting for the motivation to strike or holding out for a clear spell in your diary are all ways of not taking action.
Action doesn’t happen because the stars have lined up the right way, and motivation doesn’t usually strike on cue. Action happens because you have decided that right now is the time to start. Even if that’s 3.25pm on Friday afternoon.
The next is that you have to be consistent. Eating absolutely perfectly and getting up extra early to fit a workout in every day for a couple of weeks before you burn out is going to give you less results over the long term than doing about 80% of what you ‘should do’ but doing it consistently day in, day out – for months (or even years).
In all likelihood, you’re not going to get where you want to be in just a couple of weeks; you’re going to need to be on course for much longer than that, and very often, loosening the reins a little makes staying consistent much easier.
Next, we have to think about discipline. This means sticking to your plan even when you don’t want to. Even when you haven’t seen the scales move for a few weeks.
It doesn’t matter who you are or how committed you are, no one is fired up all the time, and you will have times when you are desperate to do anything other than stick to your plan.
In life, there’s always stuff you don’t want to do, but you have to get it done anyway – I’m sure you can think of a million examples.
Remembering these unpleasant truths allows the questions to change.
It’s no longer: ‘can I be bothered to go and do a workout?’ and instead it’s: ‘let’s go and do today’s workout’.
It’s no longer: ‘what do I fancy for lunch?’, instead it’s ‘I’ve planned lunch, time to go and eat it’.
Motivation or willpower isn’t a factor, it’s simple discipline and sticking to your clear plan consistently.