5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Eating THAT

As a health and fitness professional, I see and hear more often than anything else that nutrition is the toughest part of developing a health and fitness lifestyle. I can certainly attest to and agree with my clients on this one.

There are times when I even make impulsive decisions that cause me to feel terrible about my moment of weakness. These decisions don’t leave a huge immediate physical impact on my body, but they often mess with my head, make me feel a little mental fog, and lose some of my energy. Then what happens? Sometimes I end up falling off the wagon completely because I feel like I’ve already failed, so what’s the point? I don’t think I have to ask for a show of hands for how many of us have experienced this situation, do I?

The reality of the matter is that it really doesn’t matter how others see us or what they think, it’s how WE FEEL about ourselves. We are the ones who suffer the consequences of our actions and impulsive decisions in moments of weakness.

So how do we fix this? The first thing we really need to do is learn to be less impulsive about the things that could interfere with what is truly important to us. Take these next few steps:

STEP 1: Grab a couple pieces of paper and a pencil (ancient, I know) and sit down with your thoughts.

STEP 2: Write down and clarify your goals and what’s important to you.

STEP 3: Determine and write down all the things that could possibly get in the way of you and your goals. 

STEP 4: Go through each of the scenarios you’ve come up with and create a solid plan of action.

I find that a lot of people are impulsive simply because they aren’t clear enough with themselves about what it is they truly desire. So when the moment of derail approaches, they are more likely to cave in because they haven’t thoroughly thought everything through. Without a clear idea of where you want to end up, you can’t create a good roadmap for how to get there.

So now that you have your roadmap and directions for your destination, when you encounter those moments where you have the opportunity to go off-roading, hopefully you’ll check back with your directions and stay on course. If you still find it difficult in that moment of weakness, ask yourself these additional five questions:

QUESTION 1: How will the decision to eat this make me feel physically tomorrow?

QUESTION 2: How will the decision to eat this make me feel mentally tomorrow?

QUESTION 3: How hard or long am I going to have to workout to burn this off?

QUESTION 4: Am I WILLING to workout that hard/long to burn this off?

QUESTION 5: Is eating this RIGHT NOW going to feel better than how I will feel when I hit the goals I want to achieve LATER?

If the roadmap doesn’t sway you from off-roading, hopefully the answers to these 5 questions will put a bitter taste in your mouth and cause you to push that (fill in the blank) away and stay on course.

Yours in Health,

Tanya

Achieve Your Goals!

If you don’t know where it is you desire to go, how in the world do you expect to get there? You can learn all the details about fitness and nutrition, but without an understanding for how you got to where you are and setting goals for where you want to be, you haven’t got any kind of target to successfully help direct you to your final destination.

Goals are fantastic because they are something you are completely responsible for. The goals are yours, the commitment is yours, the work is yours, and the outcome is yours and something you can be SO proud of. You will be designing your body and life and that is a powerful thing! My personal goal for you is that you reach nothing less than your potential.

I always encourage people to develop what I call 3-dimensional goals: fixed goals, limitless goals, and outcome goals. I find that most goals are 2-dimensional and focus primarily on things like losing weight or getting fit for an event. These goals are fine, but what happens is that when you lose those pounds you desired to lose and make it to that event, what is your motivating force afterwards? This is where people rebound and gain weight back. Health/Fitness is a lifestyle and if you think of that way and set goals to reflect that, you’ll be much more successful.

Fixed Goals: These are goals that are surface goals…your 2-dimensional type of goals. They are often physical in nature such as adding an inch to your biceps, losing an inch around your waist, or fitting into your size 8 jeans. These might also have a date associated with them. For example, a wedding or vacation coming up.

Limitless Goals: These goals are going to internal in nature and answer the question WHY? Why have you decided to embark on this journey? Why do you want this to be a lifestyle change? Why did you feel the need to take action now? Some of these goals might be having higher self-esteem, building a better self-image, having more energy, or feeling more confident. These goals should be a really strong motivator. Make your WHY big enough so that when you think about it, even on the days when you don’t feel like doing anything, it will get you off the couch.

Outcome Goals: These goals are the things you have the ability to do because you’ve committed to living healthier and fitter. These goals might be becoming a fitness model or personal trainer, inspiring other people to live healthier, living with less stress, playing with your kids, etc.

Do you see where I’m coming from here? Having these complex layers of goals not only keeps you moving on the path to a healthier lifestyle, but gives you various levels of motivation for your day-to-day life. These goals will give you a strong foundation for this lifestyle and keep the pressure off of physical results alone. If you’re setting and focusing on the lifestyle in general and all the benefits you get from it, you’ll notice the physical results will happen naturally.

Make sure the goals you are setting are realistic yet challenging for where you are in your journey. Refer to the photo above on how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

• Specific – Instead of “I want to lose weight” say “I will lose 5lbs.”
• Measurable – Make sure it’s something you can clearly tell when you’ve achieved it.
• Relevant – Is the activity you’re doing going to get you to that goal? If your goal is to be more flexible, yet you’re not attending flexibility classes, you’re not going to hit that goal.
• Attainable – Make sure you’re setting goals that are realistic. For example, it’s not very realistic to lose 100lb in one week, but it is realistic to lose 2lbs in one week.
• Time-Bound – Create that sense of urgency and hold yourself accountable by adding a date to your goals. Without a date, you might allow yourself to skip workouts and cheat a little too often on your nutrition.

Examples using the S.M.A.R.T. technique:

• ” I will lose 2lbs this week!”
• “I will log my nutrition every day this week!”
• “I will lose 100lb by January 1st 2015!”
• “I will fit into my size 8 jeans by March 1st 2014!”
• “I will drink a gallon of water/day this week!”
• “I will perform yoga 1 day/week for 4 weeks!”
• “I am scheduling/blocking out time for 6 workouts this week!”
• “I will not consume any alcohol this weekend!”
• “I am affirming 3 positive characteristics about myself today!”

POWER BOOST: If you want to accelerate the power of your goals, write them down daily right away in the morning or at night before you go to bed, close your eyes, and imagine what it would feel like to attain each of your goals! Adding emotion to your goals is a powerful motivator and momentum builder!

When you’ve achieved a goal, don’t forget to celebrate it! It doesn’t matter how small the goal is. The more celebrating you do, the more it boosts your desire to keep moving forward. There are just 2 rules to follow when celebrating or rewarding yourself properly:

1. Never reward yourself with the things that helped put you on the path you’re trying to come off of (your triggers). For many people, this can be food. A reward like a cupcake, for example, usually triggers the desire for more cupcakes or other foods you crave.
2. Set up an appropriate celebration-to-success pairing. So if you drank your water every day this week, that probably doesn’t mean you should treat yourself with a vacation to Mexico. Try something more like a night out at the movies or a relaxing bath.

Happy Goal Setting!

Yours in Health,

Tanya