Brand New Diet Trick – Patience!

Sometimes it’s so overwhelming and such a struggle you just want to give up, quit, and be done with the whole thing. What am I talking about? If you’ve been there, you already know. I’m talking about the frustration and depression that sets in when you are doing every single thing right, and yet you just can’t seem to see any results at all from your efforts. And, even worse, and this has happened to me as well, you gain weight over the course of the week!

What is going on? What can you do? Is it all worth it?

Let’s address “what is going on” first. There could be many factors involved in your fluctuating weight. [pullquote]If you stop giving up, you won’t have to keep starting over again.[/pullquote]First, you may be bloated. If you eat a lot of salt, or salty foods and sauces in your diet, you can retain a good deal of water. I have also found, personally, that artificial sweeteners tend to bloat me as well. It may be the normal hormonal rhythm of your body, as your weight will naturally fluctuate a bit during the month. You may also not be drinking enough water. When you don’t drink enough, your body holds on the water out of fear. When you give your body plenty of water, it flushes out your system and releases excess water.

What can you do? Let’s see – you could give up. Where would that get you? It would probably lead to entire day of “eating whatever you want” because you’ve been so “deprived”. Then, usually, that one day of indulgence turns into a whole weekend of indulgence, because it’s the weekend after all, might as well finish it out. And, if you really tumble far when you fall off the wagon, you may even be off track for a lot longer; a week or weeks, or God forbid, a month.

How bad is this? You will definitely set yourself back. How far you set yourself back depends on how long and how over the top the damage is. If you sit around eating pretzel m&ms for a week (been there done that), when you finally do get back to business, you will have taken several steps backwards. And, guess what, it’s not going to be all water weight.

If you’re fine with the constant back and forth and ups and downs of starting and stopping over and over again, then, by all means party up. But if you’re sick of getting fatter and more lethargic and more depressed with every cycle of stop/start, then just stop stopping.

If you stop giving up, you won’t have to keep starting over again.

Learn to stick with the program. Just about every program out there will yield results, if you stick with it long enough. You have to stay in the game to win the game. You have to stay through the ups and down of burning off body fat and getting to your dream body. There will be many ups and downs. It’s not a straight line.

Take your head and your emotions out of it. Become a robot and give yourself no choice. [pullquote] You have to stay in the game to win the game.[/pullquote]You do the workouts you have planned, when they are planned, and you eat the food on your list. That’s it. No, it’s not “easy”, but it is very very simple.

If you quit or give up now, you will only hate yourself more the next time you have to “start over”. You have nothing to gain by beginning again except additional body fat.

You may, however, need to learn to be a bit more flexible in your thinking. Just because you went over by a hundred or a few hundred calories yesterday, does not mean life is over. So what. Get right back on your plan and continue. If you were driving along and all of the sudden you accidentally went off the road onto the shoulder, you wouldn’t say “oh well” and keep driving into the field. You would say “oops, I veered off the road there for a second” and you’d steer yourself right back onto the road and onto the path of your dream body.

Lastly, make sure you are not only judging your progress by your scale weight. If you are truly sticking to your program, you probably are making progress, even if it’s behind the scenes. It may not be evident in your scale weight, but you might notice improved measurements, lower body fat, looser clothes, more stamina, etc.

You must be patient in your fat burning journey. If you quit, you will only have to start all over again. If you ride out the ups and downs, before you know it, you will be arriving at your destination point and you’ll be glad you just stuck to the plan. There are scientific laws in effect here; if you are consuming fewer calories than you are burning off, you will burn off body fat. It’s just a fact. So, keep doing what you’re doing. Stick it out and ride the waves of ups and downs, knowing that they will occur. And, above all, never ever ever quit. Patience, Grasshopper.