Are you as sick as I am of all the posts about New Year’s Resolutions and good intentions that you are seeing all over your feed?
That doesn't make you a negative person…you’re what I call an Informed Pessimist. You have probably heard (and witnessed) that most New Year’s Resolutions (some studies state 90%) fail by February 1st! The good news for us non-Resolution people is that there is still hope….we CAN kick off the New Year on the right foot AND come out further ahead with our health goals, making our best intentions at diet and lifestyle stick long-term!
Your WHY has to be strong enough. You most likely have a big list of goals for yourself... for your body & your health, your future, your finances, your lifestyle... but do you know WHY you have those goals? Most people are good at defining their goals but skip over the most important part... the "why"! The "why" behind our individual goals is the motivating factor that keeps us most committed and focused regardless of what happens in our lives. It is the fuel to the fire. For example: Your goal, perhaps to eat healthy and lose some inches around the middle is the what. The driving force, or the why behind your goal might be to role model a healthy example for your family and to be around to raise your kids. Our 90/10 Lifestyle program is your how! You know your goal and you now have the tool or system to get there, but it is the power of your WHY that will determine your commitment and overall success!
Diets Don’t Work. Americans spend $33 billion each year on diets and weight loss products and yet diets have a 95% failure rate. You wouldn’t put your hard-earned time or effort into anything else that was proven to fail or be not true. It just simply isn’t sustainable to cut out a major food group, survive off of a kit of space-age powders, bars and potions, over-restrict yourself or commit to complicated and time-consuming meal prep and hard-to-find (and maybe even pronounce) ingredients. So at this point, you might be asking, “Well, then what do I do?” The key to making sustainable diet changes is to make habit changes. Experts say it takes 60-90 days of consistently doing something new for it to become a habit… whether that’s packing lunches, eating only clean ingredients, exercising, or drinking more water. Science shows that committing to these small micro-actions will naturally cause you to stack additional healthy micro-actions with them. After 3 months, you will start to feel better and that will further propel your intention to have a healthier year! You start getting a dopamine response to making small successful changes that are good for you instead of searching for chocolate or scrolling social media to create a positive feeling of reward. You literally rewire your brain to associate healthy changes with feel-good hormones so you actually WANT and look forward to doing more of the same. Now that’s cool!
Be Realistic. Perfection isn’t the goal. We have built in a formula for success based on human psychology. We don’t believe in deprivation, over-restriction, sacrifice and then the self-sabotage that comes from the failure of trying to follow a too rigorous or unrealistic program. In 20 years of practice, we have found that following a 90/10 principle works best. Here’s what we mean: if we ask patients to aim to stay on program 90% of the time, they will make lifestyle choices that stick more often than not.
The 10% is the motivation as well as the staying power. It isn’t realistic to expect to stay on a program 100% of the time, even for the strong-willed and the most health-minded individuals. That’s largely because our schedules change. We aren’t always around the same food sources or in a controlled environment 24/7. Rather than fool ourselves that we won’t give in to the pleasure of our favorite snack food or something convenient out of a box or package, we can build that into the plan. When we know in advance that celebrating a birthday, saying yes to seconds at a friend’s house, or special occasion treats were part of the plan, we save ourselves from the guilt and self-sabotage that comes from “falling off the wagon,” or “cheating” on our diet. The psychological switch from telling yourself “You are doing something wrong” to “it was in the plan all along” keeps your spirits and your self-talk up! When you don’t feel like the 10% was you failing, you’re less likely to throw in the towel and quit altogether. You just pick up where you left off and continue on with the program. When you have done this long enough, you will find that you look forward to the 10% a lot less often than you used to OR when you have your reward, you make healthier choices overall. Remember, your palate and your internal chemistry changes for the better the longer you work at getting the bad stuff out and replacing it with cleaner swaps. A sweet potato with a little cinnamon and butter starts to taste like dessert now.
So there you have it…. a fool-proof plan to do better than short-term resolution-making! By following these simple 3 steps, you can be on your way to swapping out current habits with healthier ones with staying power. You don’t have to become a statistic come February with all the failed resolution makers. You can do better than them and have your best year yet! Say goodbye to frustration, overwhelm and melancholy that can come with the new year. Say hello instead to growth, learning and new habits. By making some small doable adjustments and taking on a new approach to enjoyable and non-restrictive eating, we can help you start feeling better and begin to see changes in your waistline and start releasing weight in as little as 14 days!
This year, join our 90/10 Lifestyle online course. Reset your metabolism, Recharge your mind, body, and spirit, and Refine your life!