Have you noticed a pattern?
You’ll spend a couple of weeks eating clean, exercising and losing weight, but then the pendulum swings and you spend the next week or two indulging in your old unhealthy habits.
After enough chubby days you’ll get back to your clean habits, and so the yo-yo goes.
This is a vicious cycle that never brings you all the way to your goal –but instead just keeping you comfortable enough……yet FRUSTRATED!
I don’t think it’d be a losing bet to say that every single female on the face of the planet has gone through a bit of yo-yoing in her life.
Lets’ not talk about the starvation calorie levels or unrealistic workout schedule that causes a lot of women to abandon their plan. Those all play a part, but even with a reasonable nutrition strategy and workout schedule, thousands of women still yo-yo every day.
Here’s why: When it comes to weight loss, we’ve been brainwashed to focus all of our efforts on the “results”. Your desired result is the ideal body that you dream to have – it’s your reason for passing on dessert and the image you hold in your mind as you toil through burpees and mountain climbers.
News flash: If you can only feel satisfied and rewarded when you achieve your end result, you’re likely to fail.
What?!?
Think about it. Results are abstract. And if you’ve been yo-yoing for a long time, no matter how much you try, results may seem like an unattainable dream.
Oh sure, you can picture it in your mind with crystal clarity, but what reach does that image have on you when you’re lured into the drive thru?
I can clearly remember thinking at times “I’m already chubby. This one X (something sweet I’m sure) won&r squo;t hurt.”
Let’s face it in the face of temptation to eat something off plan or to take it easy now- future results are easy to lose focus on.
So how to the people that end up as success stories all over studio walls and Facebook pages get there?
They embraced a mindset shift. Instead of just focusing on the goal, they learned to find their reward in the process, not in the results.
The Process: this is the act of working toward your goal – your meal plan, your exercise routine and your healthy life style choices.
If you had a map of where you are today (blue dot) and where you’ll be when you reach your goal (red dot) the process is that black line connecting the two.
When all you’re focused on to reinforce your journey is the promise of results, it’s easy to wind up lost.
“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results”
Finding Reward in the Process: Make a new habit of feeling rewarded after every day on your chosen path. Choosing whole, real, unprocessed foods each day and completing your workouts needs to become its own reward.
At the end of each day take a moment to be proud of yourself for the choices you made for the simple fact that it feels good to make healthy choices.
When you find reward in the process, the results will take care of themselves.