Welcome back!

It’s the last week in our series, Make 2023 The Year You Lose Weight. If you’ve been keeping up in the series, you already have learned how you make the decision to lose weight, how you do it differently than you have in the past so you succeed, and last week you learned how to make your own personalized weight loss meal plan. If you missed any of that, go back and get it so you’re ready for this week!

This week I want to help you learn to work your plan. You spent the time creating it, so now you want to make sure you can stay on it! But often that’s not what happens. So let’s get to what that looks like and how you avoid the pitfalls ahead. There are two BIG ones I want you to look out for and catch before they trip you up…

 

 

First, the most important thing about working your plan is that you STAY on it. Sounds obvious, right? But that’s not what we do. We intend to stay on track, but we make mistakes. For example, we plan to eat a salad for lunch but there are chips in the breakroom and before we know it, we’re eating a handful of chips we didn’t plan to eat. Or we’re out with friends for dinner and we’re having a good time, but we forget to slow down eating enough to recognize when we’re full. So now we’re too full and we haven’t kept to the “politely full” part of our plan. Or we accidentally left our packed lunch at home and instead of figuring out a similar substitute, we order burritos with the rest of the office. Here’s a common one: There’s a bag of cookies left on the counter from one of the kids and we’ve eaten half of what was left before you hear that little voice in your head reminding you that you didn’t put those cookies on your plan and you don’t really want them anyway.

Here’s what we do in these situations: We decide that we blew it. We finish the cookies, we give up on our lunch plan, we decide the chips mean that our plan for the day is shot.

But it’s not. There’s another option.

You can decide that you will get back on plan IMMEDIATELY. Like, as fast as humanly possible. You could be mid-bite of the cookie and drop the rest in the sink and run water over it. You could realize that even though you’re too full, you will not eat another bite until you feel real hunger again. Instead of giving up for the day or the week or weeks later when you find another new plan, you commit back to the plan again. Right away.

It’s like a train that makes many stops along its route. Even though it could arrive faster at the end if it never made the stops, it will get there. Even if it backed up a little, as long as it keeps going forward it will get to the end of the line. It’s a lot different than if you take the train offline for a week or a month or even a day – all that is time that the train won’t go forward closer to the destination.

You stay on track. Keep moving forward. No more taking your plan offline.

It’s normal to make mistakes as you’re growing and changing. You will make mistakes as you practice your new plan, but if you keep moving ahead you WILL get to your goal.

 

 

The second pitfall we fall into is that we give up on the plan. We have a plan and we stay on it as long as we can, but then life happens. A child gets sick and you’re so busy taking care of her that you don’t get in the kitchen to meal prep. Or you’re up so much in the night taking care of her that you don’t get enough sleep and you feel too tired to get a meal together. So you decide that you can’t keep on your plan, that it just doesn’t fit your life. So you chuck the plan and decide to search for a better, newer, updated plan.

Here’s the thing – you’re not going to be successful on ANY plan that you don’t stick to. You also won’t succeed at a plan that doesn’t take your life into consideration. But you’ve built a customized, considerate, and reasonable plan with your conscious mind. You can’t get a better plan than that!

You have to learn to trust yourself and your higher self that made this plan. Jumping from plan to plan will only slow your progress down. Your plan is excellent. It’s perfect for you. You may adjust it in the future as you lose weight, but for now, you MUST work the plan you created. Give it a chance to work. It will work!

 

 

Last thing to watch out for: When it comes time to stick to your plan, you won’t want to do it. You’ve spent YEARS letting yourself make exceptions and deciding on the fly what you want to eat. Anytime you put a structure on yourself when you’ve been without one you’re going to resist staying within the boundaries of the plan. Even when it’s your plan. You’re going to tell yourself you feel restricted and deprived and confined – but it’s not true. You’re actually doing something very kind and helpful for yourself. It’s just new, and the brain doesn’t like new. It likes familiar – it’s easier. So expect your brain to throw a fit when you remind it to stay on track. The more you train it, the faster it will do what you want without kicking up a ruckus. It’s all normal – just keep going!

 

If you missed the webinar and course sign-up for Weight Loss For Black Professionals, you’ll get another chance in the spring. In the meantime, keep working your plan. Having a coach to guide you through successful weight loss is a gift. If you want to invest in yourself to help you be better for yourself and those you love and serve, make a consultation appointment and we’ll get started!

 

Here’s your video help for the week – I go into greater detail about how to work your plan here!