Never a Perfect Time

I’ll start again tomorrow… I’ll start again next week… In a few weeks I’ll focus back on my weight… I have had these conversations with myself through my weight loss journey.  Over and over again. A lot of the physicians I work with, have the same conversations with themselves. But here’s the thing I learned (through lots of trial and error)….  It never got easier.  No matter how long I delayed restarting healthy eating it still was a challenge.  It didn’t matter the reasons why I delayed the start, none of it made it easier. Starting never got easier and the days and weeks would tick by.  Much quicker than I thought.  And I kept gaining weight while feeling tired and run down. All that waiting and all that frustration at myself. And the perfect time never came.  That’s because a perfect time for creating healthy habits doesn’t exist. I’ve learned a lot since those days of constant delaying. I’ve learned how to get back on track with my healthy habits quickly, and (more importantly) easily.  Without the struggle.

Here are my tips for making a fresh start.  Now.  Today.  Not tomorrow and not next week.

1. The important thing is to just start.  Just take one small step towards your goals.

2. Let go of perfection.  Thinking you have to change everything at once will stop you faster than quicksand. Promise yourself you will start to make imperfect change.  Overtime, that imperfect change, done consistently can get you to your goals.

3. Try picking a non-food change to focus on first.  This is easier to get started on than having to get back to a “Diet” right away.  One of the first things I do is get back to my journalling and start managing my stress.  This then allows me to have more mental space to make other changes.

4. Find support.  Forming new habits is so much more fun when you do it with friends.  Find a friend, join a support group or come join my free Back on Track Bootcamp to get help directly from me.

Ask yourself these questions. I have found them to be useful to get myself fired up to get back to my normal eating when I have strayed off path. What if this very moment was the perfect time? What if your next decision was the perfect time to get started with your weight loss journey? How would that be different than waiting until tomorrow morning or until next week? How could this be easy? What would you need to think to make it feel easy? Let me know how it goes.  And be sure to check out the podcast episode for more tips about making this moment the perfect time to lose weight.