Break All Your Rules

I am pretty sure I’ve been on every diet on the planet. In fact, I’ve probably tried them all more than once.

Thank goodness, I don’t diet anymore and I didn’t diet my way to nearly 150 lbs of weight loss, but I remember those diets all too clearly (sometimes I wish I could forget the misery & voluntary insanity).

Here’s what I remember more than anything: feeling defeated & overwhelmed.

I chose the diets. No one chose them for me. I opted into them, hence why I think of them as voluntary insanity, but I found them incredibly overwhelming.

The rules were exhausting and I constantly felt under pressure.

Every time I broke one of the rules, I felt guilty.

I felt defeated. I became deeply disappointed in myself and lost confidence in my ability to reach my goals.

I was overwhelmed. The rules, guidelines and restrictions were a huge burden that I felt I couldn’t escape.

Even in my Fat Loss Fast Tracks where there are no rules (only tools), my clients often feel overwhelmed.

I think that comes from the fact that they treat the tools like rules because we’re just so darn used to dieting and they’re striving for perfection at the expense of progress.

Since this is such a common issue in life, in the pursuit of our best health and even in my Fat Loss Fast Tracks, I thought I’d share my $0.02 on how to best respond to feeling overwhelmed.

Simplify.

Step back and identify what MUST be done.

Step back and look at what choice will make you feel your very best today.

Let the rest go.

Don’t create a list of optional, non-essential to-dos.

Don’t create a plan based on your best case scenario.

Take a deep breath & get real.

What will make you feel your best?

What CAN you do today?

What can you let go of for the day?

What things are you adding to your plate that aren’t required?

No one is grading your effort on this day.

No one is judging what you do or don’t do.

This is your journey.

Be gentle with yourself.

Do your best.

Your best will look different each day.

That’s normal. It SHOULD look different each day.

Now, that’s not a license to make crappy choices when you’re overwhelmed because honestly, will that make you feel your best? No. Not likely. It will probably make you feel even worse tomorrow.

Don’t try to be a hero.

Identify what is non-essential and let it go for today.

Be honest about what you can do, about what will make you feel your best and do that think.

Simplify.

Stop acting like you’re being graded on your adherence to a list of rules you opted into.

Simplify.

Relax.

It’s a journey.

250: Motivational Minisode – Focus On This

250: Motivational Minisode – Focus On This

There are so many things competing for your focus. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and like the deck is stacked against you.

It’s easy to focus on what you can’t do. Maybe your schedule isn’t conducive to the changes you want to make.

Maybe your spouse isn’t supportive.

Maybe you’re overwhelmed.

Maybe you have a long history of giving up on yourself and you struggle with belief.

I get it. Those are all very real.

But, focusing on those things don’t help you and focusing on those things isn’t your only option.

In today’s motivational minisode, I’m challenging you to focus on this: what you can do.

What you are willing to do.

What step you can take.

What options you do have.

What progress you are ready to make.

Do not miss this powerful motivational minisode!

Listen Now

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250: Motivational Minisode – Focus On This

249: Ending Excuses – I’ll Start Tomorrow

Today is about ending excuses, especially that tried & true excuse of, “I’ll start tomorrow”.

Here’s the reality: it doesn’t matter how motivated you are, it doesn’t matter how great your plan is or how much you want it if you are in the habit of talking yourself into delay, deferral or excuses.

Instead of focusing on what to eat, when to eat or the latest, greatest diet, I encourage you to look at the ways you talk yourself into not doing the work, and focus on overcoming those limitations.

We’re doing that together in today’s episode. Don’t miss it!

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Ending Excuses: “I’ll Start Tomorrow”

Yes, tomorrow exists. However, it has nothing to do with what you can do today.

When we put off our plans, when we defer our goals to tomorrow, it’s just a way of making ourselves feel better about not doing the work.

We don’t want to say “I’m not going to eat healthy” so instead we say “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

What you can do tomorrow doesn’t have anything to do with what you can & should do today.

When you defer the work until tomorrow, you reinforce a pattern of delay.

The more you use that excuse, the more likely you are to continue to use it.

Become increasingly aware of when you’re avoiding taking action.

Replace thoughts of what you pledge to do tomorrow with reminders of what you’re capable of now.

Tell yourself, “I’m a person of today. Right in front of  me is an opportunity to make progress and I won’t pass it up.”

Do not delay until tomorrow what can be done today.

Nothing will ever be attempted
if all possible objections must first be overcome.”

— Samuel Johnson

If you look for an objection or reason to delay, there will always be one.

Stop searching for excuses and start looking for opportunities to act.

Resources:

Breaking Barriers: How To Overcome Emotional Eating & Self-Limiting Beliefs

Wanna Help?

If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is!

250: Motivational Minisode – Focus On This

248: Are Evenings Hard? How To Improve Evening Eating Habits

The other day I asked my Fat Loss Fast Track veterans (folks who have been through more than one Fat Loss Fast Track with me) where they feel strong in their fat loss journey and where they don’t feel so strong.

One of the most common areas of struggle was evenings. Nighttime choices. The choices made after work and during/after dinner. I don’t think they’re alone in that struggle.

Are evenings hard for you? They used to be my biggest area of struggle, for many reasons, and today we’re talking about how to improve your evening eating habits and get to a point where you feel confident in and proud of your nighttime choices.

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How To Improve Evening Eating Habits

There are many reasons for the evening struggle. Unfortunately, we tend to focus on what’s wrong with the evenings instead of focusing on how we can make improvements.

Think about it, it makes sense that evenings are hard.

  • We tend to be more tired in the evening and have more energy in the morning
  • There’s more downtime in the evening. Most snacking happens during down time & screen time and there’s less of it in the morning
  • We’re great at “beginning” – we’ve started countless diets and beginnings start in the morning, for most of us, so we are just more practiced at improving our first choices of the day than we are improving our last choices of the day. We aren’t unskilled, we’re unpracticed. 
  • We tend to have less structure in the evenings than we do in the AM
  • We haven’t built up trust and follow through

But we have power. We have opportunity. In today’s episode I’m sharing several strategies that will show you how to improve evening eating habits, build confidence, accelerate your progress and get results. Definitely listen to the whole episode! Lots of great strategies in there, including:

  • Change your attitude – stop arguing for your limitations and focusing on how hard nights are. Instead, focus on what you can do to make improvements today
  • Practice building back trust in small & large ways (this can be practiced throughout the day by doing what you say you’ll do instead of negotiating with yourself)
  • Focus on improvements – instead of being a Debbie Downer and judging yourself for suboptimal choices, look for the improvement. Choose what represents even a marginal improvement for you
  • Finish strong. No matter what happens, decide that you’ll finish each day strong, even if it’s the last 10 minutes of the day

Resources:

Interested in the Fat Loss Fast Track? The fall group is currently closed but you can get on the wait list for our first group of 2017!

 

Wanna Help?

If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is!

New Thoughts On All Or Nothing

New Thoughts On All Or Nothing

Totally random episode here! So random it doesn’t even get a number or official show notes! Take a listen to this short episode I recorded while pacing in my living room with my new thoughts on all or nothing thinking and what yoga taught me about the on/off approach to nutrition & fitness.

Listen Now

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Resources:

Breaking Barriers: How To Overcome Emotional Eating & Self-Limiting Beliefs

Wanna Help?

If you find the Primal Potential podcast help, it would mean the world to me if you’d take a minute to leave a rating & review! That helps show platforms display my podcast to new listeners! Thank you so much for your support! I can’t tell you how valuable it is!

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