It’s hard to wake up one morning and be a completely different person. But that’s exactly what we ask ourselves when we make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight at the turn of the year and assume that we’ll start on Monday all To the right. Depending on what your starting point is, that could mean a lot of changes at once! Prepare for success by incrementally rearranging your habits and rituals to make the change easier to manage.
Manage your transition by first looking at your diet and nutrition, then exercising. You can’t beat a bad diet. When you lose weight, 85% of your workouts will be in the kitchen.
Maybe you can relate to this: as I stare at a whole week’s new meal plans, I think about making a grocery list, scouring the grocery store for things I don’t normally buy, and following recipes for each meal. It feels cumbersome and time consuming.
One strategy for eating healthier and losing weight is to manage one meal at a time. For example, instead of planning every meal for every day for a week, focus on a breakfast routine. Think about your schedule, your timing, your likes/dislikes in the context of your overall goal.
Let’s go through what this thought process might look like. Let’s say your goal is to lose weight and you’ve determined that you need to eat 1,500 calories a day. From there, you could break your day into thirds: breakfast and morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack, and dinner and bedtime snack. You could schedule a third of your calories for each of these periods. In other words, you have 500 calories each.
Now you can customize your meals to your needs within these parameters. What is your morning plan? Are you an early riser and have a lot of time to prepare breakfast? Or do you rather run out the door and yell “Oh no, I’m late again?” What types of foods do you like? Do you like to eat the same thing over and over again or do you need more variety to be able to stick with something? If you’re an early riser who likes a set breakfast menu, then a shake or protein bar might work. If you’re a slow climber who likes variety, you might want to start your day with a gourmet approach and have several favorites in your repertoire.
The point is, learn how to conquer breakfast. Do it right every day. Once your breakfast routine has become second nature, tackle lunch. The same thought process applies. What are the circumstances surrounding your typical lunch? What do you like? What would work for you? Master it and then tackle dinner.
We call that a transition. You don’t have to change everything overnight to see results or see BIG results. By loosening up into new routines, the changes are more manageable and sustainable. We call that a lifestyle. See how easy that was?
Thanks to Stacie Dickerson
