AKA
You’re feeling awesome because it’s Friday and the weekend is upon us, right?
And it reminded me of an email I got from Rosie (who’s recently been on one of my programmes):
“Still on track, and learning to monitor how I feel when I have eaten certain foods…so occasionally learning the hard way ! Like you and the Chinese”
^^^ Referring to the ‘I could now eat a horse’ moment I get 2 hours after I eat Chinese
But the key part in this?
‘Learning the hard way”
^^^ Is how Rosie described understanding exactly how certain foods make her feel.
But, when you actually think about it, is this actually the ‘hard way’?
Is it actually the only way?
Unless you just give up all of your favourite foods for a few months
Only to crave them even more
And when you do eventually ‘give in’, binge and fail…
You’ll eat all of the stuff you restricted (and loads of it) and won’t actually know which ones COULD be making you feel tired, bloated, and fat anyway (so probably won’t end up knowing)!
For me, restricting all of the ‘bad’ foods is the hard way.
Because you’re not going learn the basics of how much and what you need to eat to lose weight and ditch the bloating.
You’ll just know that when you go on an extreme – probably unsustainable – diet…
That you lose weight.
Which is all well and good for a few weeks
But not if you plan on keeping the weight off and having the tools to know why and how you lost the weight in the first place!
Because the moment you have to rely on a ton of willpower and motivation…
You’re setting yourself up for failure.
Now, of course.
There needs to be some motivation and willpower involved (particularly at the start)
But if it really means you’re hating every minute of how you feel, what you’re eating, and you’re not having any fun…
Then the chances are you’re willpower probably isn’t going to last very long.
And you’re going to fail once again
^^^ A bit like me when I was doing 5k, 10ks and half marathons…I hated it. Needed 3 coffees to get me out there. And then I’d ‘reward’ myself for completing any run with a big plate of CARBS and FATS (And I wondered why I wasn’t as lean as I am now…training 4 times per week, doing stuff I enjoy).
So if you have NO reason to do it and you hate it…
Why are you doing it?
You don’t have to pretend that green smoothies taste good…
You don’t have to pretend that you enjoy getting super sweaty and muddy…
Just like, you don’t have to pretend you like going to a gym full of guys leaving dumbbells everywhere…
^^^ In fact, just getting to the gym (getting changed, organising child / family care, driving to it, working out, showering, driving back)
Will take a ton of willpower if you aren’t even enjoying the exercise you’re doing…
And it comes back down to having the tools to develop ‘the best diet in the world’ for YOU…
Because THIS is the one you’ll do!
The one that makes you feel full of energy, ditches the bloating, doesn’t restrict your favourite foods, and empowers you to make better-informed decisions so you never have to aimlessly drink green smoothies again and blame willpower for piling the weight back on
Matt ‘diet starts Monday’ Fruci
