I’ve been lucky enough to work with thousands of clients through my online training courses, workshops and in-person workouts at my gym over the last 10 years, and of course I have seen trends emerge in the way people approach their weight-loss or fitness efforts. Patterns start to appear that separate those who get caught in yo-yo dieting and quick-fix solutions, versus those who embrace a new way of living and truly welcome the much-talked-about lifestyle change.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with thousands of clients through my online training courses, workshops and in-person workouts at my gym over the last 10 years, and of course I have seen trends emerge in the way people approach their weight-loss or fitness efforts.
Patterns start to appear that separate those who get caught in yo-yo dieting and quick-fix solutions, versus those who embrace a new way of living and truly welcome the much-talked-about lifestyle change.
Here are my top six perspective shifts that can help to ensure you create sustainable change that inspires you to continually build upon your journey.
Think about your future, not your pastOften I would have clients who had lost a lot of weight tell me that their goal now was to “keep the weight off”, or we would have new clients coming in saying they wanted to “get their body back” from 10 years ago. Focusing on maintaining a certain level of fitness or on reclaiming a past result is less inspiring than sitting down and crafting a compelling future. I encourage people to map out what they’d like to achieve in the next 12 months, with regard to their health. Rather than fixating on weight loss, focus on an event, a challenge or an adventure that will get you training consistently. The weight will take care of itself as you stretch yourself toward this goal that is currently beyond your reach. Remember the goal isn’t about the destination, but about your growth along the way. Simplify:The greatest thing I see that holds people back today is complexity. When we make life, health, work or any other area more complicated than it needs to be, we get overwhelmed and don’t take action. As a result, we end up losing confidence. Ask yourself now: “What two changes could I make this week to my diet to improve the way I look, feel and move?” Just do those two things, no less and no more. Remaining consistent with those changes for three to four weeks will help you build confidence. Then you can ask yourself: “What is my next step?” Other times we know exactly what we need to do to get started, but instead we take on more and more information from others and confuse ourselves further. You’re chasing a feeling:Every goal we have is really about a feeling. A weight loss target isn’t really about standing on a scales and seeing a certain number, it’s about the feeling that standing on those scales will give us. Ask yourself: “What feelings am I trying to bring about from my goal?” If your answer is “confidence”, then look for ways you can bring more confidence into your life everyday of your plan from day one. Many people tell themselves without actually verbalising it: “I’ll be miserable on this plan for 12 weeks and then when I see a certain number on the scales I’ll feel confident and happy.” It’s hard to take consistent action when you feel miserable, so look for ways you can cultivate the feelings you want. We don’t “get” feelings, we produce them. If I feel more confident horse riding than I do going to the gym, then that is probably a better option in terms of training and will lead to me staying consistent. Become publicly
accountable:It’s easy to fail in private, but hard to fail publicly! Here’s a way you can use your ego to your advantage. Look into ways of making yourself publicly accountable to your goals, whether it’s by hiring a coach or trainer, posting your goal on social media or organising a group of training partners and telling them what your goal is. I’ve used this strategy myself more times than I can count, sometimes to the point of sharing a completely “unrealistic” goal with all my friends and family and using any doubts from others as fuel to my fire. Track your “mini wins”:Last year I completed my first half Ironman in Barcelona, a goal outside of my comfort zone at the time. I hadn’t done much swimming and so was delighted to be consistently getting to the pool three to four times a week for six weeks. Then I missed a week’s training due to travel and quickly began to beat myself up about it. Commonly in the past I would have thrown it all out the window. It’s the equivalent to having a flat tyre and slashing the other three as well. Clients who get caught in yo-yo diets often do this instead of counting their wins. I reframed my experience by “counting my wins” and recognising the progress I had made in the weeks prior. This got me back on track quickly.Learn from the past:I run a podcast (The Pat Divilly Podcast), which interviews two successful people each week from different walks of life. A common thing I’ve noticed with them all is that their approach to positive thinking is more like “realistic thinking”, being realistic about the struggles and roadblocks they will face and then having plans in place for when this happens. In contrast, the people who fall into the trap of yo-yo dieting often convince themselves that “this time everything is going to go to plan”. I recommended looking at your past “failures”, asking where you stumbled and putting plans in place if that happens again. A real failure is only a failure when we don’t learn from it. As an example, if last year you struggled with fitness goals due to 1) lack of motivation and 2) not being able to stick with the diet plan, this year you might commit to 1) getting a training partner to help you stay motivated and 2) easing into the diet by making it less restrictive and building some momentum with your efforts. 
Pat Divilly is an author, speaker and trainer from Barna, Co Galway.
Pat
Divilly is an author, speaker and trainer from Barna, Co Galway. An MSC in Exercise and Nutrition Science, he speaks globally on personal development and self-leadership. His company WellInTheWorkPlace.com provides online and onsite training for companies of all sizes, and his online training courses for weight loss are available at PatDivilly.com.
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