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I have a coaching client who’s working on reducing her wine consumption. She had a little bit more than what she had planned one night this week, and the next day, she chose to be nice to herself. She chose not to beat herself up for overindulging in the wine, and guess what?

Her next day of eating was phenomenal.

Why did this happen? [Read more…] about Why You Should Be Nice to Yourself

If you’ve been dedicated to a plan for eight weeks, it’s time to change things up. I’m going to suggest you do something that might feel outside of your comfort zone:  Eat your maintenance calories for a week.

If you are in that maintenance mindset, you have to take a very long-term approach to this. It’s not about immediately dropping the weight on the scale. [Read more…] about How To Know When To Change Things Up

We’ve been talking lately about getting stuck and having a hard time getting re-motivated. Well, I have been stuck in my own way, in regards to my strength training, as of late. I haven’t been wanting to go above 185 pounds on my deadlifts. When you are in maintenance, a lot of times, the things that keep you motivated are those fitness goals, those personal challenges.

Well, today, I did a 200-pound rack deadlift for four sets of five. I really pushed myself, and I just felt so accomplished. It felt really awesome to break past a plateau that I had been mentally and physically kind of stuck at. I wanted to share that with you because you’re not the only one who gets stuck sometimes. Everybody does in different ways.

The most important thing is to pay attention to when you do break through it; then you have that moment to reflect upon later when you inevitably will get stuck again. You’re not going to go through your whole life and everything’s going to be smooth sailing.

There will be times when you get stuck, and those times that you broke through it will allow you to reflect and say, “OK, I’m going to keep at this. I know the scale will move. I know I’ll get better at these things, because I’ve already proven to myself it does happen over time.”

I just wanted to share with you my little victory, and I wanted to remind you that we all have this from time to time, so don’t take it personally. Just realize this is part of the process.

Leave a comment on Facebook and share a time you broke through a plateau and how it made you feel.

I’ve offered several tips (go here to start with Tip #1) for what to do when you feel like you’ve gotten knocked off track and you’re struggling to get back on.

I have one more tip, and that is to honestly evaluate whether what you are doing is maintainable. The closer what you’re trying to do — the program you’re following, the workout you’re doing, the way you’re trying to live your life — is to what you were doing before, the better your chance of being able to sustain it.

Say, for example, you were eating fast food for breakfast, fast food for lunch and whatever you could scrounge up for dinner. If that was what you were doing, and now you’re on a Whole30 Program, or now you’re on 20 grams of carbs a day, those are two totally different lifestyles. No wonder you might find it a struggle to keep doing what you’re doing.

When I work with a coaching client or a community member, I always start by asking, “Where are you?” If you’re eating that much fast food in a day, that’s what your life looks like. It’s better to take that and gradually start to implement healthier habits at different times, and throughout the weeks, as opposed to doing it all at once.

A lot of times, people get knocked off and they can’t get back on because what they were doing wasn’t sustainable. Look at what you’re doing and ask, “Is this sustainable? In 30 years, am I going to want my life to look similar to this?”

If the answer is no, you need to start creating healthy, long-term habits. I wrote about this in my book on breaking the diet cycle. We start out with really good intentions. I’m going to do this, and this, and this. You follow the program, and then you get to a place where it’s like,

I don’t know if I can do this anymore. Your body starts to tell you, I don’t know if you can do this anymore. Look at what you normally do. If you’re not eating a healthy breakfast or you’re skipping breakfast, try planning a healthy breakfast for a week. That’s it! Maybe a bowl of oatmeal or some eggs, something very simple.

Don’t try to recreate your entire life all in a matter of a week. If you find you’re eating fast food seven days a week for lunch, see if you can scale that back to three or four. Pack your lunch the other days. Those kinds of small habit changes are not sexy, I will give you that, but they will get you to your goals, and with fewer setbacks.

When your life doesn’t look drastically different, there isn’t a panic mode of “Oh, no, I screwed up” and “How do I get back on track?” On track is pretty much your life with a few slight adjustments. That’s what we want it to be:  your life with a few slight adjustments. Not your life completely overhauled and scary and unusual, and now a struggle to get back into.

Is what you are doing maintainable? Is the calorie level you’re at maintainable? Are the carbs that you’re eating maintainable? Is the food restriction maintainable? Ask yourself these questions, because if the answer is a resounding no, then that’s probably why you’re struggling.

I know it’s hard, because once you buy into something, it’s hard to let it go. You don’t want to say maybe you made a mistake, maybe this isn’t for you. Sometimes that’s the healthiest thing to do. Mental health is a big component of this.

Is what you’re doing mentally healthy? If you’re finding you’re obsessing about food, stressing about food, to the point where you don’t know if you can even get to your goal weight, then that’s a problem.

I hope this series of tips was helpful. Please like this post and share it. You are not the only one who struggles with this. Anybody in any type of weight loss situation, chances are, has hit a moment where they feel they can’t get back on track. Pass this around and help out some other people today.

Something I typically work with my coaching clients on is writing out or at least talking about their why. A lot of times we get so caught up in the scale, the weight loss, the program, that we lose sight of our why. Why are you doing this?

Every day you’re waking up and you’ve already pre-packed your lunch, and you have a healthy breakfast option, and you’re drinking your water, and you’re getting in your exercise. Why are you doing that?

Chances are, there are several reasons, and you need to refocus on your why continuously. Often when people “get knocked off” and struggle to get back on, it’s because they aren’t connecting with their why. If you don’t have this, I urge you to do it now. Create a list of whys. Don’t worry about how superficial your reasons sound.

Don’t worry about sounding like you’re being selfish in what you want. Put it all out there. Maybe it’s wanting to be a better mother, wanting to be a better wife, or just wanting to look better in pants, wanting to be able to buy clothes in a regular size store. It could be for things that are medically related. You could need to get off your medication. I get it all. Write it all out.

Write your whys down and reconnect with them on a daily basis, keeping in mind there is no end to being healthy. I’m continuously working on getting healthier. I’m continuously working on getting stronger. There is no cutoff where you say, I am now healthy. You’re constantly working at it, just like maintaining a car.

You’re doing things every day to keep that going, right? I don’t look it as you’re on or you’re off or you’re good or you’re bad. I look at it as degrees of health. Are you being the healthiest version of yourself today?

That can be something that depends on the person. If you’ve been extremely strict with what you’ve been eating and you decide you want to have that piece of birthday cake at a party, that might be the best thing you can do for your mental health in that moment.

You have to ask yourself, is this healthy for me physically, mentally and emotionally, and am I enjoying my life? If the answer is yes to all those things, then you’re doing the right things.

Throughout this process, connect with your why. Never lose sight of why you’re doing this and working toward swinging your life in a healthier direction. It’s not on and off. It’s varying degrees of health.

You are not the only one who struggles with getting back on track when you’ve gotten knocked off. Comment below or on Facebook to share your whys.