I have been on a personal journey in search of a diet and lifestyle that best sustains my energy, elevates my mood, brings mental clarity and helps me maintain a healthy weight. Friends and family seem to think that I stick with my healthy eating and workouts 100% of the time, but the truth is I have my share of days when I have to convince myself to stick with it and some days when I honestly know I need to I give myself a break. I skip workouts, eat sugar and stay up too late, I’m human and I don’t ever expect to be any other way! For me, cultivating an outlook that allows for me to not be perfect is what keeps me going. In my studies, I’ve discovered a few tools that have helped me, what I like to call my Keys to Keeping Up the Good Work. I want to share these tools with you so that they may help you as well.
- Have an open mind and heart. Think of yourself as a researcher or scientist. You are trying to learn what works for you and this may take some experimentation and trial and error. Honestly, your experiment will last the rest of your life! If you can get curious about yourself, your journey and your motivations you will open up the possibility of discovering what works best for you. If you realize you were able to resist the box of cookies in your cabinet all week until you had an argument with your sister and then devoured all of them, if you can tell yourself, “that’s good information to have about myself, I was able to resist the temptation until I was upset” rather than, “I have no willpower! I give up and am gonna go ahead and order a pizza now!” you will be able to use your mis-steps as clues about what works for you rather than as fuel to feel bad about yourself. Being curious about your experience will help you be aware of yourself when you are tempted to sabotage your progress without being too hard on yourself about it.
- Tap into your determined nature. Are you feeling hopeful and determined to succeed in finding a healthy lifestyle that works for you? If you aren’t feeling this way (it’s okay if you aren’t feeling that right now, this process can seem overwhelming!), think of a time you felt determined to complete a task or accomplish a goal. No matter what the outcome was, tap into that feeling of determination or intrinsic motivation. No matter how big or small the task at hand may have been, you motivated yourself and you still have that ability! You have the determination within you right now to get you through the tough times during this process, and remembering that about yourself will help you to be successful in the future. There isn’t some special strength that some people have that you are lacking, you have the innate ability to succeed with your health goals. Inner resolve isn’t something you inherited at birth, it is something you cultivate and strengthen over time.
- Be kind to yourself! You may have things you want to change about yourself or your life (we all do, it’s human nature!) but if you aren’t friendly with yourself about it or constantly push yourself to be ‘perfect’, you may feel discouraged when you aren’t able to live up to your own high standards for yourself. Being kind to yourself can also help you to be realistic when setting goals, if you tell yourself “I’m going to the gym every day this week, will cook all of my meals at home, will stay away from all sweets and get 8 hours of sleep each night” and all of these are new to you, you may find it hard to keep up with all of it. Sometimes being kind to yourself may mean giving yourself a break when you need it, or it may mean pushing yourself to keep at your goals when you know you are making excuses and just need a little motivation. Giving yourself credit for your progress and for meeting goals, no matter how small you think they may be, is a way of showing yourself kindness. Being kind to yourself will look differently depending on the context of your life, but it will help you in many situations.
- Find the humor. When a recipe doesn’t turn out as expected (or you have left out a key ingredient of a recipe and it’s too late to add it, speaking from experience here), you drop the pot of chili on the floor or you show up to the gym without your workout shoes, it can be frustrating and make you want to give up. In frustrating situations, remind yourself that it’s not the end of the world, take a big sigh and tell yourself, “Oh well, I tried!” or tell yourself something else that sounds a little less like Charlie Brown, if that’s When you can have a sense of humor and not take yourself too seriously when things don’t go as planned, you will be better equipped to continue on with success rather that to see challenges as failures or reasons to give up.
- Remember that life is workable. The fact is that our existence is temporary and always changing, which means that nothing is permanent. If you have a rough day, week or month, remind yourself that what you are currently experiencing won’t last forever. If you are avoiding certain foods for a period of time to see how your body will feel without them, remember that your favorite foods will still be there if you choose to have them again in the future. Rather than telling yourself, “I can never have a cupcake again! This is terrible!” (that would be terrible, if you ask me), telling yourself “I am choosing to not have cupcakes right now”* will help you to continue in your journey. Also, knowing that life is workable means that you also know that it’s never too late to make a change or take better care of yourself, even if your efforts feel small and incremental.
*I’m not trying to call out cupcakes as ‘bad’, they are not ‘bad’ and neither are you if you’re eating one right now. Seriously. Enjoy yourself.
These are my main keys to keeping up the good work, there are many other tools that you already may have in place that you might not be giving yourself enough credit for. Is there anything else you’d add to this list? Have you tried any of these techniques I’ve mentioned? Have they helped you in your day to day life? I’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks for reading!
It’s the beginning of a new year and many people are making resolutions to improve themselves in the coming year. The new year is a great time to think about your goals.
Maria's Clean Plate 