[The Diet Cycle] Falling Short of Goal
January 17th, 2012
·
by Jodi · Filed Under: Nutrition · Ponderings
It is 2 days before our wedding date and guess what? We didn’t make our goal. Our seamstress didn’t have to let the gown out any more, but we don’t look like the cover model that we thought we would and we didn’t hit our goal weight either.
Dang it!
Yes, I know…sad. But true, nonetheless. And we didn’t make goal in a few ways, not just on the scale, because our virtual diet is going to have a real ending as opposed to those commercials that make you think everyone is successful. Everyone that is…except you.
Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Walter Anderson
I want to stress this point until I sprain a finger typing on my laptop keyboard: realistic goals = success. Dreams are great motivators only to the degree that the 1 size-too-small pair of pants hanging in your closet is. In theory they are great to keep us going, but in reality they cause tremendous disappointment because they are so out of proportion to what we can expect as the outcome that nothing could satisfy our hearts at the end. I am all for motivating quotes and rah rah shishcoombah type encouragement but only to a certain extent. Then after that, we need to be yanked out of the clouds and have someone slap some sense into our heads. Here are some facts:
- You will not diet into a great shape the first or second time around. Maybe the third, though. Even then, you will still be able to pinch something, jiggle something or point to something that you do not like because it’s not your body that is lacking, it’s your sanity that is.
- You will not maintain it without some level of work. If you want something extraordinary, you have to put the ‘extra’ in to get it.
- The scale weight does not necessarily reflect the way your body looks. This goes both ways. I have seen folks excited that they hit goal weight and they look like someone beat them down with a bag of flour and I have seen women fall short by 5 pounds but be absolute stunners in the process. Get over the number. If it means that much to you, tape it on the scale and it will always read that and you’ll be good to go.
- Just because you “stopped eating” the junk does not mean that you will automatically begin to lose. Where’s your sacrifice?
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Peter F. Drucker
We would be able to go back and see where the disconnect happened in our plan if we were 100% on it. I’m not saying that we cheated or anything, no—we were “following” it the whole time. But the plan we were on was a hybrid plan. See, we all do it. We get our plan from our coach or from whomever we charged with the responsibility of dieting us at the time and upon opening it, decided that they were no longer qualified to do the job. What were they thinking to tell us what to eat and when? And don’t they know that that would make us hungry or possibly even cranky so there is no way we’re going to stick with that? And we don’t have to let them know that we know better than they do, we’ve been dieting ourselves for years. They just learned about us yesterday. So we’re going to eat whatever we want for meals 3 and 4, do as much cardio as necessary and lift the way that we want to lift and if it doesn’t work out….well that’s their fault. They should know we didn’t really want a plan to get us to the goal, we wanted our own plan—the one that fictitiously works in our mind—validated. Affirm us that we were on the right track and all we needed was for someone to tell us about some new egg whites and oatmeal that we have never heard about before so we could get on with the weight loss thing. Sheesh.
- Either you’re in or you’re out. Get off the fence and stop being a couch coach.
- Get over yourself. Yes, you read a lot. Yes, you know a thing or two about nutrition. But objectivity is impossible when you diet yourself so you are not hiring someone who necessarily “knows” more than you or even “knows” you; you are hiring someone who is not you.
- Once you change a plan you negate the outcome. Period.
Sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield.—Mark Knopfler
We’ve done everything right, according to the book and we had a very realistic goal and we still didn’t make it. What gives?
- If you’re healthy and nothing medically stands out, you have been dieting too long. Time for a break.
- You may have something medically going on that you are not aware of. Only healthy people lose weight easily. Keep that in mind.
- Things you may not be aware of: birth control, thyroid meds, food intolerances, stress, liver issues, chemicals in your diet, heavy metals in your body and the list goes on. Depends on how your diet goes to be able to figure it out. There will be telling signs.
That was the longest diet I have been on in years. What was that, 7 days total? I think I cheated at least 4 times since we started. Shame. Next series is on obstacle races like the Tough Mudder and such. Not sure when that starts but it’ll be within the next few days. Hang tight and hit me up below with questions or via my email if you like: Jodi@trans4mationstation.com. Cool? Woop woop!


