How many of you think that in order to be healthy you have to be “perfect?” That you have to eat only “good” (i.e. bland/healthy foods) and restrict your “bad” foods. That it is either feast or famine in order to achieve your desired weight?
What if I told you that there is no such thing as “getting off track?” That while diets don’t work, there is a way to achieve sustainable wellness, without always feeling deprived? As we head into the holiday season I want to share with you four tips to help you implement a subtle yet powerful mindset shift to carry you through the holiday season and beyond.
First, let’s start with a little background – diets don’t work. There are plethora of studies out there and various numbers stating this fact, but I like how Yoni Freedhoff puts it in a US News article, “95% of diets fail people.” Read that again carefully, he’s not saying that people fail diets. He’s saying the diets fail people.
I agree with him wholeheartedly. Diets don’t work. Why? Because they are based on creating restrictions and limitations. Yes, you probably will lose weight eating 800 calories a day, but this is not sustainable and you will likely feel miserable in the process. Once you return to your normal eating patterns, you’ll gain that weight back and possibly more.
Another way of putting it is summarized in a quote by Carl Jung, “What you resist, persists.” The more you tell yourself that you can’t have those potato chips or that chocolate bar or the delicious homemade apple pie — the more you want to eat it.
How do you get out of this quandary especially if you want to lose weight and/or live a healthier lifestyle? The answer is not solely in what you eat, but rather in shifting your mindset. Let’s start by removing the word “diet” from our vocabulary and talking about our lifestyle. A diet is a temporary state, while a lifestyle is a way of being. It is how you live your life every day and the habits that support your lifestyle.
Once you have banned “diet” from your vocabulary, how do you begin to adopt habits conducive to a healthy lifestyle? I’ll share with you four tips to help move you in the right direction:
- Progress not perfection
- Removing “good” & “bad” from your vocabulary
- Empowered decision making
- 80/20 rule
Progress not perfection. This is the main tenet of my philosophy. So many of us get caught up in being perfect, about eating the right thing that we fail to begin. News flash; you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to start.
The difference between a lifestyle and a diet, is that with a lifestyle you never have a cheat day. There is no getting off track. We are focusing on the small habits that accumulate to help you build a healthier lifestyle. Start small. Do you want to drink more water, but currently only drink one glass per day. Well, for one week focus on drinking two glasses per day. Once you have achieved that, move to three glasses of water. Seem slow? Yes – it is, but you have to start somewhere and small changes are more likely to become habits and habits become your lifestyle.
Remove “good” and “bad” from your vocabulary. Let’s all agree to stop labeling our food “good” and “bad.” This gets back to the mindset of limitations/restriction and suffering As I said before, diets have “good” and “bad” foods, lifestyles do not.
This use of “good” or “bad” sets us up for shame and blame . For example, if we eat one cookie our entire day is thrown off and we spiral into thinking, “I’ve made a terrible choice, now my whole day is off. I might as well order that cheeseburger and 3 martinis.” We punish ourselves for being human and thus get into the feast or famine cycle.
I’ve been there. I know these feelings first-hand. I used to have good and bad days. I would eat perfectly one day, then the next I would “slip” and have a cookie/brownie or another treat and all would be lost. The rest of my day, I would succumb and continue making choices that I didn’t feel good about. Another glass of wine, sure, I already messed up! French fries with my burger, why not? Tomorrow I’ll just have a salad and run an extra mile.
Sound familiar? Please remember; we are human and we are meant to enjoy our food. All is not lost because you had one cookie. Which leads to my next tip…
Empowered decision making. So often we feel that we are victim to the “bad” food that we eat. A plate of cookies is put in front of us, and without thinking about it, we stuff one in our mouth. If we paused for a moment beforehand, we may actually realize that we didn’t want that cookie.
By incorporating a moment of pause before we put the cookie in our mouth, we are taking the power back. You can choose to eat the cookie and enjoy it, or you can decide not to have the cookie and move on. Either way, you are not longer the victim. You have made a conscious choice and can move forward with confidence in your decision. It may seem like a subtle shift, but I encourage you to give it a try and see how it feels to you.
80/20 Rule. While I don’t recommend diets, there are some guidelines to a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. One that I particularly love is the 80/20 rule. What does this mean? 80% of the time eat whole, real, unprocessed foods (think fruits, vegetable, meat, whole grains etc). 20% of the time you can enjoy and relish the treats that you love without guilt because 1) most of the time you eat well-balanced, nourishing foods and 2) you made a decision to enjoy this food, without guilt.
As you adopt a healthier lifestyle, I find that your taste buds naturally shift. You are better able to tune into your body and what it needs and feed it nourishing, delicious food. You keep moving up the scale towards better health and you enjoy the journey – without shame or regret.
I hope you finds these tips helpful and that they come in useful over the holiday season. Remember, be kind to yourself. We are human and meant to enjoy food – one treat or one meal does not throw you off the path to wellness.
If you need more support, I’m pleased to announce a 7-week online, group workshop that I will co-host with transformative life coach, Lydia Randolph. In this course you will:
- Learn tools to guide yourself to health,
- Reframe how you live from a “diet” to a “lifestyle,” recognizing that there is no “getting off track,”
- Establish your wellness goals & create a roadmap to achieve them, and
- Join a supportive community that provides encouragement & accountability.
This will be a small, intimate group so limited spots are available! Early bird special $397 until 11/30/20. Full price $600. Reserve your spot at paypal.me/yourtruenorth or email me at mandy@mandysuarez.com for more information.
Kick-off your 2021 armed with the tools to be the healthiest you – I hope to see you there!
Yours in wellness,
Mandy
