MYST 172: Someday Might Start Tomorrow

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes to us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”
John Wayne

I know the name of the show suggests that “someday” never comes, and “tomorrow” is not a real day. And yesterday already happened–it cannot be changed. This show is about today.

But, as with almost everything in weight loss and in life, nothing is absolute.

Yesterday plays an important role, as does tomorrow. Let’s talk about yesterday first. Here is an important idea: If your yesterday was excellent and you made progress, you have learned a lesson. You know what works for you. Now you need to repeat it. Maybe not copy your food exactly. You don’t need to eat precisely the same foods, but simply repeat the concept of the meals. But maybe you will want to eat exactly the same food. If it tasted good, and you enjoyed it, and it brought you more success–well the saying goes, “don’t fix what’s not broken.”

However, maybe yesterday threw you a curve ball and you struck out. The scale showed a minor weight gain. But you know that in weight loss, even minor gains can lead to big problems. So use that gain as an indicator that you were given a learning lesson.

 

Photo via Pixabay, by GreekFood-Tamystika

Go back and evaluate your actions. If you look–and you probably won’t need to look hard–you’ll see where you went off-track. Unless yesterday was your first day on your weight loss journey, the “wrong choice” will stand out like a cherry on top of a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

What changes do you need to make? Ah, now that is where I can’t give you exact advice because it all depends on the “wrong choice” that you found. It could be:

  • you simply need to get back to basics.
  • you need to make a total change of plans.
  • you need increase your exercise program
  • you must stop eating your trigger foods
  • you should purge your food kryptonite from your home and office.

I don’t know what you need to do. That is very specific to you, but for every “wrong choice” there is a “new option”.

And more than a “new option” there is also a “new day”. Tomorrow. See, when we have a bad day–bad month?–we always keep one option available. We can make changes tomorrow. A bad day yesterday–or today–may help us have a better day tomorrow. Tomorrow is that new slate. Tomorrow is a field of snow unmarked by any human footprints. Tomorrow allows us to change ourselves into what we see ourselves to be.

So, look at yesterday as a test, and if your score was not a passing grade, use tomorrow to make necessary changes.

The tests in life never end, but also we never stop having the ability to make new choices. And that is where we will find our lasting success.

Next week, I will talk about what has been happening to me, my self-evaluation of my actions, and the changes that I put in place to break my slump. Yes. I was in a slump.

If you are in a slump, come back next week.

Picture via Pixabay, by

_________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen!

All images are Creative Common Zero.

MYST 166: One Step

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”

You have just started a new weight loss plan! That is always exciting, and maybe a little daunting, but you are full of enthusiasm.

You went to CostCo bought drums of protein powder to refuel post-workout, as well as new shoes and a new yoga matt (okay, your first yoga matt). You bought a membership at an “Anytime Fitness Center” so you can exercise either before or after work. You saw some secret supplements on Dr. Oz that are guaranteed to boost your metabolism and burn fat, so you bought a monthly subscription for delivery. Amazon will deliver the exercise bike that is wifi-linked to Alexa. You found some excellent recipes on Pinterest, and bought a 50-pack storage container set for all the food prep and home-cooking that you will do. And you bought Premium LoseIt.

And for a few days, you actually follow your plan.

Then, on day four, you wake up late and skip the gym. You can’t go on your way home because you need to pick up the kids. You think protein powder tastes terrible. You were the only student in the yoga class, so the class was canceled. The supplements gave you heartburn and diarrhea, and Alexa yells at you because you are using your bike as an auxiliary closet. Cooking in real life is not like Food Network, and you needed to take the battery out of the smoke alarm. The kids—and your spouse—won’t eat the crappy low-calorie foods you make anyway. You don’t like logging all the food—who can remember everything?

Don’t do what I just described. Don’t try to change everything in your life. Weight management is a lifelong process. I don’t care what event is on your calendar, trying to tackle weight loss from every possible angle will not work.

Take a single step. Do one thing that is new on your weight loss journey. The first thing morning, the day of your “first step” weigh yourself. Write that number down. Now ignore the bathroom scale. Set a reasonable budget (for most, that will be 1 pound a week.) Eat those calories. Log the food. That’s it. Develop a new skill set—measure and log all your food. Do that for a month. Don’t worry about “special diet foods”. Make the food everyone loves, just make certain you portion your plates correctly and log it all. Do that for a full 30 days.

On day 31, weigh yourself again. Compare this number to the first number. You probably lost weight. Maybe you lost three pounds. Maybe six or more. That doesn’t really matter. What matters is you’ve taken the first step.

Now, take your next step. Find an activity you enjoy. Do it. Keep eating the foods you love, and logging everything you eat, but don’t eat your exercise calories. Whichever activity you’ve chosen, try to gradually increase your workouts, but only as possible and tolerated. Do that for 30 days.

On the next “day 31”, weigh yourself. You probably lost three to six pounds. You finished step two.

Now you will either reduce or eliminate one food, or make one other food change. Maybe stop drinking diet soda. Maybe drink more water. Maybe you want to stop eating foods with added sugar. Pick one food change. Focus on that new change (while continuing to log your food, good portion control, and increased activity) for 30 days.

On the next “day 31”, weigh yourself.

By now, you understand my plan. One change for 30 days, then a new change every 30 days. And you only weigh yourself the day of a new change. That concept is the most significant part of this. By making a single change and then measuring at set intervals, you can determine if the change you made had the effect you wanted. If you eliminated added sugar and that month only lost 1 pound, maybe that change isn’t worth the effort. But you cannot know if you change everything at once.

Will you lose weight as fast as the Biggest Loser? No, but as I said in part nine, the speed of loss is unimportant. Continued loss, or continued maintenance, is the goal of this entire journey.

Photos via Pixabay by 5132824

__________________________

Music composed and performed by Jason Shaw, courtesy of Audionautix.com

Voiceover courtesy of Matt Young. Matt is a professional voiceover artist. If you have any need of voice-over work, for your podcast, radio spot, or whatever, you can reach Matt by a variety of methods. He is on LinkedIn. On Twitter. And Google+. Follow his Facebook page to learn how to better use social media. Matt was also my guest on MYST 54. Give his story a listen!

All images are Creative Common Zero