3 Dieting Mistakes That Prevent Lasting Change Transcript
How often do you start a diet with the best of intentions, only for a few months later to feel like you’re back at square one?
My name is Aaron and in this video I’m gonna talk about the three dieting mistakes that prevent lasting change. When I see new clients one of the frustrating things they come to me with is their experiences of dieting in the past. This experience of yo-yo dieting where they’ve gone on one diet after another.
They just wanted to stop and have a lasting change. These common mistakes I find run throughout their experiences.
Mistake Number 1
The first one is too much in an already busy schedule. You are already busy and then when you are go on a diet you come up with one thing after another after another after another. You can go to the gym four times a week, you’re going to to eat at five meals a day, you’re going to have this amount of protein, you’re going to have this amount of carbs, your going to cut out sugar.
All these things you’re trying to think about in an already busy schedule.
This can be a mistake.
The reason being is because when ever you do something new your brain has to use more energy in order to think about it. Your brain doesn’t like using more energy than it needs to, that’s why we have habits. So it’s important that you don’t overbear yourself with too many things to i think about.
The solution is to be able to think about one thing at a time. Start with one thing, focus for example you go to the gym Monday and Thursday. Keep doing that for three weeks. Once you’ve done that, add to it as simple as that. If you feel that you could do two things that’s fine but do not start doing 3,4,5,6 things at the same time and expecting it to be consistent.
Mistake Number 2
The second thing is the slip off after success. I always say the two most dangerous times in a diet is the very start and the first time you experience success. It’s a couple of weeks then you step on the scales and you’ve lost weight. You celebrate, brilliant it’s working. The most common thing is you begin to treat yourself with the things that you’ve restricted on the path to getting that weight loss. You start to slip and explicit motivation starts to deteriorates.
Explicit motivation is what you experience at the very start of the diet where your drive to succeed is at its highest. As soon as you get success that starts to slip off and over time those old habits started to slip back in.
Eventually you start having a few more things, you cut back on those trips to the gym.
See these points as data points. You step on the scales to measure yourself, that data points not meaning points. You want to track what you’re doing but don’t place meaning on it. If you’ve lost weight, brilliant, continue what you’re doing to the point where you start to feel content with where you are at. Once you get to that point the whole idea of a diet is not for it to be permanent. You want to be moving to a point where it is not the case that you are on a diet so see these points as data points until you get to the point where you are content with.
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Mistake Number 3
The third mistake is ambiguous outcomes. Now in the solution for the first mistake I said to look at behavioural goals. These are goals that you can very definitively see you doing them. If there is a videocamera it is clear you are doing them. You’re going to the gym, you’re eating more salads for example.
The ambiguous outcome is where the individual says “I wanna lose a few pounds” or “I just want to get a bit fitter”. They are quite ambiguous because you can’t say for sure whether you have achieved it. So the problem with ambiguous outcomes is you never know where you are heading towards and also the ongoing drive, the ongoing motivation is not is a lot harder if the outcome is ambiguous. So in order to get specific outcomes it tends to fall within three categories;
a number “I wanna lose 9 pounds”
a Context “I wanna fit into a black dress, this particular black dress”
or time “by the 30th of September”
When you’re thinking about those three pointers in mind and really visualise where the outcome is, now once you’ve got the outcome let it look after itself. Once you’ve got that, focus on behavioural actions that you are doing in the days and the weeks leading up to that that eventual outcome.
Eventually it will become habitual but in this moment in time focus on behaviours and working towards that outcome.
So those are the three mistakes that tend to happen to prevent lasting change;
Too much in an already busy schedule
A slip off after success
Ambiguous outcomes.
In the comments box below I want to hear from you I want to hear what your common mistakes are when you are looking to diet and also ask any questions you have around diet and fitness and I’ll be sure to answer them. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel and to get regular updates with these videos on health fitness and well-being
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