Day 12: The “Biggest Challenge” & Making the Most of Your Meals and Time

Today's Overview:

In mapping your course, you'll need to be ready to deploy strategies that can stir up your motivation and mindsets that can guard you against discouragement. From an action standpoint, you'll need ideas on making the most of each meal and day. I'll cover all this today.

[Reading Time: 4 min 20 sec]

Mindset: The Benefit of Slow Progress is Lasting Results

What's the most significant challenge we all face when losing weight? Discouragement. Usually, we start feeling this when our progress isn't "fast enough." 

But here is a truth you rarely hear: Quick results don't last.

Don't believe me? Think about how often you've seen this in your own life (not just with weight loss, but in anything).

If you're experiencing a slowdown in weight loss, consider it a blessing. You're experiencing at least two different things. First of all, you're experiencing your body's resistance to change. Your body likes to maintain a stable state: same weight, health status, etc. It requires a lot of momentum to make a change in your body. Your body's resistance is for your benefit. Could you imagine if you gained a pound every time you ate a donut? That would be terrible. In the same way, your body has seen that you're making changes, and it is resisting that change. However, once it realizes that you're not giving in, it'll get with the program, and you'll gain another chunk of progress toward your weight loss goal.

The second thing you're experiencing is a call to grow personally in your thinking, lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise. The book title "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" sums up my point nicely. What you need to do to lose the first 3 pounds is not the same thing you'll need to do to lose the next 3 pounds. The first step for you to begin your weight loss journey is to increase awareness of what you're eating, how you're living, your mindset, and your physical activity.

Perhaps the next area of growth you'll need is developing a mindset of perseverance. Maybe to reach the next 3 pounds, you'll need to step up your day-to-day preparation. Or perhaps your physical exercise lacks the required intensity and frequency to reach your weight loss goal. Or could it be that you should be focusing on eating more nutrient-dense foods instead of only eating less?

So, in short, understand that your body is preventing you from discouragement in the future by slowing your progress now. If you were to lose the weight quickly and could not maintain it because you never had a significant change in mindset, lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise, you'd become discouraged. In the ancient words of King Solomon, "An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end." We could also say, "Weight lost quickly, in the beginning, will not be blessed at the end." Sooner or later, those who go for the quick results always end up back where they started. However, my goal for you is to see you transformed from the inside out. You'll have profound and lasting change resulting in long­-term benefits. So, to summarize, the benefit of slow progress is that you'll gain lasting results.

Key Takeaway:
Understand that slow weight loss progress is to your benefit.

Lifestyle: Track Your Time Expenses

Looking at the amount of time you're investing in working on your mindset (reading the materials I send, journaling, reading positive and motivational materials in support of your goals), lifestyle (planning and preparing), nutrition (preparing meals, grocery shopping), and exercise can give you a window into whether or not you need to modify your effort. Do you know how many hours you spent last week working on these areas? If you do, you can make adjustments based on the results you're seeing. If not, I recommend that you start tracking these times in your journal. Keeping tabs on how you're spending your time is even more important than how you're spending your money. You can always make more money, but you cannot make more time. It is the one resource you can leverage to make the most considerable dent in your weight loss goal daily.

Key Takeaway:
Be aware of the amount of time you invest in your weight loss endeavor.

Nutrition: Taste the Rainbow!

An excellent way to maintain balance­­ getting all the nutrients in your body­­ is to be sure that you're eating foods of a variety of colors. If all your meals are primarily brown and white, you'll make it very difficult for yourself to lose weight. However, if your plate always looks like a rainbow, you'll make weight loss less of a challenge. Make the most of your meals by getting as many powerful nutrients in your body each time. You drastically increase your rate of progress.

Key Takeaway:
Eat foods of a variety of colors.

Exercise: Leverage "Instant Gratification"

The desire for "instant gratification" is a bad thing most of the time. But instead of fighting it, we can use it to our advantage. For example, you could use a pedometer to count your steps. Every step you take gives you a little more gratification, making you feel like you're moving toward your goal (which you are). As I mentioned in a previous lesson, you can use a heart rate monitor with your cardio exercise, watching how many calories you're burning as you're exercising. So, as you are on this weight loss journey, you'll be constantly bombarded with negative thoughts. But with this strategy, you can overcome them with the action you take at any given moment.

Key Takeaway:
Use instant feedback strategies to stay motivated to take action.

In Conclusion: 

You now have strategies that make you more resistant to the negative effects of discouragement and impatience. You also have a check for the quality of your dinner plate and your level of investment (time budget) in your self-care.

Complete the Following Sentences:

• "Slow results make me feel [emotion],"
• "I'll make a time budget [when]."
• "My plate is usually [colors],"
• "Action I can take now is [action]."