“Would you rather make big, fast, painful changes only to stop doing them 6 months from now, or make slow, painless, changes that are so deeply ingrained you continue them for life?”
The secret to lasting and PAINLESS weight loss is through slowly building a PILE OF HEALTHY HABITS.
Starting a new habit is actually not that hard.
You just have to understand how it works.
This is a common scenario:
People suddenly get fed up with the status quo or they get a scary diagnosis or they become disgusted with themselves. Then they decide they have to do something big. “Go big or go home!” Then they embark on some intense diet or exercise regimen.
They go all-in for about a month (if they’re lucky). They lose some weight, gain some energy, and start feeling good. But because all the new habits are big and take a lot of effort, they end up quitting.
They may think it’s just TOO HARD!
They may wonder how healthy, fit people do it!
“It’s so much work and effort, it’s no fun, and how can anyone live like that with all those restrictions?”
The problem here is that this is absolutely the wrong way to do things.
There is a right way.
It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s powerful.
And it works.
And I’ll share with you what it is.
BUT, there is one catch that some people don’t like.
It TAKES TIME!
You will have to give up on “losing weight fast”.
So, what’s the secret?
You’ll be surprised how simple it is.
The secret is to make very small, tiny changes.
That’s it!
Let me tell you how and why this works.
It’s all about our human nature and how our brains work.
We do not like change.
Our brain does love ingrained habits. They make life easy. They leave space for deep thinking and concentration. They allow us to operate on autopilot, which uses less energy.
And the cool thing is that we actually crave indulging in any ingrained habit. This could be brushing your teeth or it could be getting to the gym. Your brain doesn’t care. All it cares about is completing that habit.
To us, this desire to engage in habits is experienced as a craving.
When it’s time to get to bed we actually crave brushing our teeth. You may not think of it this way, but that is what’s happening.
This is part of the reason that habits are so powerful. We CRAVE doing them!
But you see, when you start a new habit there is NO craving.
And where there is no craving, you’ll have to muster up some willpower to do that activity.
Now if the activity is fun and easy, it’s easy to have the willpower to do it.
But a lot of the things we want to do for a healthier, fitter, leaner body are not necessarily deemed fun.
But there is a workaround.
And that is, as I mentioned above, to move very slowly and take tiny, tiny baby steps.
Feel the difference between these two scenarios.
I come home from work and I’m tired and mentally drained. I still have to make dinner and the kids are grumpy. I’m grumpy too. But I do want to eat a healthy meal. I should make something like fish and salad. It is the New Year and I want to be healthy.
And I did commit to starting a new way of eating. But oh man, I can’t even imagine standing in the kitchen right now. UGH! I feel bad about this but I can start my diet tomorrow. I’m going to order a pizza.
VS this
I come home from work and I’m tired and mentally drained. I still have to make dinner and the kids are grumpy. I’m grumpy too. But I do want to eat a healthy meal. I should make something like fish and salad. It is the New Year and I want to be healthy. But I know it takes plenty of time to make big changes. So I’m just going to do that one small thing I promised myself I would do every day this week. I’m going to eat those carrots I have in the fridge.
Wow, that felt good. Okay, I’m still hungry so I’m going to order a pizza. Hey, I’m not perfect but at least I’m making progress toward my goal. I feel good about that.
Do you see how the second scenario is productive and the first is not?
As you work on building up habits slowly but surely, you start to crave doing those habits.
Once you do sense a craving, you are well on your way to having a very strongly solidified habit.
Until that time you will have to be patient and trust in the process.
Again, start any new habit with activities that are so easy that they actually make you laugh when you think about them.
You may question if you will ever reach your goals moving so slowly.
However, the beauty of these tiny, easy activities is that you can’t talk yourself out of them.
Even if willpower is low and you are tired, stressed, or frustrated, you CAN muster the energy to say, “I’m going to do this no matter what.” It’s so easy, how can you not do it?
Some examples of tiny new routines could include: buying one new vegetable a week and eating that vegetable every day, beginning your nighttime routine 5 minutes earlier every night, entering just one food or just your breakfast in a diet app every day, filling up a bottle of water every day, and so on.
Your new routine has to be aligned with what your goals are. If you want to drink more water then just by filling up the water bottle you will be moving in the right direction.
But it also has to be super easy and doable EVEN AT YOUR WORST MOMENTS.
This is how you make lasting change. This is ONE of the big secrets to painless weight loss!
If you are seeking a healthy, sustainable, and PLEASURABLE approach to weight loss and you are ready to take action, you are invited to set up a FREE strategy call with Jill to find out your next best steps.
