When I left for my recent nine week holiday I had great intentions of not veering too far from my usual eating regime. The intentions were good, but the willpower weakened progressively as the weeks went by and by the time we got to England, seven weeks later, I was scoffing clotted cream fudge and enjoying every mouthful!
I think like most people, I find that getting out of routine sets me up for making decisions around food that aren’t always particularly wise and the thought ‘I’ll sort it out when I get home’ prevails. That’s fine, as long as you do, before the habits become ingrained.
How to get back on track after a break in routine
- Firstly, I think it is really important that you are ready and that you have made the commitment. If you are wishy washy about it, then most likely you won’t make a success of it. I’d had enough of the sweet stuff and how it made me feel and was ready to get back into good, healthy food when we got home.
- Having the ‘right’ food and limited access to foods that are not going to be helpful makes it much easier too. If you have a cupboard full of treats, it isn’t going to work. Don’t put temptation in your way.
- Have a plan of action in place. Get out your nutrition plan (or see me for a new one), plan a few meals (at least) and shop accordingly. Be organised and plan ahead.
- Go back to basics. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to measure portions and it is a well proven fact that people who keep an accurate food diary are 50% more likely to be successful with weight loss than those who don’t. Portion sizes and awareness of what you eat count.
- Have a good reason as to why you want to lose weight/change your body composition/improve your health. If you have clothes in your wardrobe which you want to wear but you know are too tight, try them on, feel motivated. If you have injuries which are aggravated by the wrong diet and carrying extra weight, do you want to change that situation? Find your personal reason and hold on to it. Remember, you are the only one who can do this for you.
Exercise is only a small part of the weight loss equation. What you put in your mouth on a day to day basis is way more powerful than exercising a few times a week. While we were away I was clocking up around 125,000-130,000 steps per week, but those steps couldn’t keep up with the gelato, French cheeses, Swiss chocolate and – the dreaded clotted cream fudge. I didn’t expect they would and while they did mitigate the damage to some extent, it is always about the food.
Everyone is different in how they approach weight loss and changes to diet. Some people like to make a lot of changes at once and others prefer to just make a few changes at a time. Both ways are fine, it is more about sticking to those changes long term.
Remember whatever way you choose:
- It needs to be healthy
- It needs to work and
- You need to be able to keep doing it long term to keep the results.
Fad diets, low calorie diets and diets which exclude everything you like are most likely not going to be sustainable.
August is a great month to feel inspired and motivated to drop the extra kilos gained over winter. They won’t go away unless you make some changes.
Contact me now and let’s put a plan of action in place.
Looking forward to catching up with you soon.
