Here's your Tuesday motivation for tiny steps to get you closer to your health goals. Doing something tiny even if it's as simple as using one less packet of sugar or doing 10 sit ups in between commercials is better than nothin'!
When beginning new health goals like dropping weight or quitting smoking, most people will go the cold turkey and "Gung-ho!" route. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've done that myself. For example, "Starting Monday I will not eat anything with wheat, and I'll eat 500 calories less a day!"
Your Inner Resistance Monster starts to have a field day because previously, you normally ate wheat at every single meal of the day, and you regularly consumed around 2,000 calories a day, and are now trying to cut out 25% of your dietary consumption. That's too sharp and too dramatic a change in a short amount of time, and you are doomed to fail because your inner resistance will win out because of all the instant deprivation. No need to be so rough on oneself!
A more effective long term tactic is to ease into new lifestyle changes by taking the approach of cutting back slowly versus cutting out huge chunks, so both your body and your mind can work together and help you be successful in reaching your goals. Here's 3 tips to cut back versus cut out:
- We talked about this earlier, reduce by using one less. For example, when you sweeten your coffee or iced tea, use one less packet of sweetener. Eat one less bagel or one less cup of pasta a week. The "One Less" concept feels effortless yet is still helping you take action.
- Slow down. Rome wasn't built in a day. Those extra pounds didn't just pile on overnight although sometimes it feels like it did. Change takes time. The more you rush yourself, the more you get panicky and stressed out. Cutting back versus cutting out may seem initially like it will take too long but if we look at all the times you did the cutting out strategy, did it work long term? Better to go for milestone markers over time markers.
- Split food with others. For example, there is a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread that Whole Foods sells that I absolutely love, but if I buy the whole loaf, I'm gonna eat the whole thing. Not so good. I found out that pal Diane loves the bread too, so what we do now is buy one loaf and split it between the two of us. This way we get to enjoy the bread in a much smaller portion. You can do this kind of split with a whole variety of foods, drinks, or treats.
Got any other ideas for cutting back versus cutting out that have worked for you. Please share!
