LEARNING NOT TO QUIT – Part II

Let’s look at other strategies that help us overcome obstacles, and reach our goals.

You might need to find a different “How.” If your current approach isn’t working for you, perhaps you need to try something different. Life changes can bring new challenges along the way. What you did early on may not be as feasible now.

Perhaps you were eating out a lot (even if making good choices) and started to lose more slowly – or even stall more often. You may need to start planning more meals at home. You don’t have to be all-or-nothing in your approach… just make a plan to pick 1 or 2 days a week you will grocery shop, and make a couple of easy recipes that will cover multiple meals.

You may have to purchase a crock pot, so you can cook proteins in larger amounts when you are away from home. If you are a picky eater and not getting a variety of vegetables, you will need to rethink your strategy and introduce yourself to a greater variety of them. Your body gets used to the same old things and that does not challenge your metabolism. Your metabolism gets lazy.

If you are skipping meals or elements of your meals, it will affect your metabolism, so you need to figure out how to work around that. Perhaps you can drink a shake for breakfast if you feel you don’t have time in the morning to make breakfast or lunch. It takes 5 minutes.

Be ruthless in forgiving yourself. You will be surprised at how much less pressure and anxiety you will feel when you allow yourself the grace to forgive your own mistakes. Sometimes, a little perspective helps out with that forgiveness. For instance, take the time to realize just how far you’ve come – it’s a great strategy.

It’s perspective and unrealistic expectations that get in our head and cause us to stumble. Looking at how far you’ve actually come can be the fuel you need to keep moving forward. Sometimes you may have to be more realistic and give yourself smaller steps.

Just because you don’t see the results you want yet, even when you have been working hard on your goal, doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Your breakthrough might be right around the corner, so don’t give up! Keep chipping away…

We actually had a client, who was 100% dedicated on her plan. Do you know that every month she didn’t lose even one pound for 3 weeks? Then in the 4^th week, she dropped 6-7 pounds, and this happened every single month. If she gave up in month 2 when her weight was stalling, she would never be down 42 pounds by month 6.

Another great strategy for helping yourself when things are tough, is to find a mentor. With a click on a computer screen, you can access some of the top motivators, deep thinkers and inspirational minds in the world. They have all run into tough times. Tap into them to see how they stay the course.

Achieving lifetime or lifestyle goals is never easy. Somewhere along the way, you are likely to want to quit… to give up. But don’t. Give yourself permission to make mistakes, to learn from them, to regroup, to take small steps, to remember why you started this journey in the first place and to figure out how you need to change things to make it successful.

Be forgiving of yourself, but don’t make excuses. There is a balance there. You can do this. You’ve probably already been successful at something in other areas of your life. Remember what you did to make it happen in that area, and then apply it to this aspect of your life.