It's the first week of December, everyone (well, almost everyone) is getting ready for Christmas, planning gift buying and Christmas dinner already. For me, things are a bit different, as I'm doing gift shopping because for the charity event, I need to be ready in a week or so and I'll have a foreign guest next week, who is going to fly out of the country way before Christmas, but Christmas dinner is not in my focus yet and will be in a very different way, compared to other years.
What makes me smile already is the posts I'm going to read (or see as I'm not sure I'm going to read them) on Hive and stories I'm going to hear in real life, about New Year's resolution and the nonsense that comes with it. I think it was last year, or the beginning of this year, when I did a post about why I don't do New Year resolutions and why most, if not all people fail at reaching these goals.
The reason I'm not planning Christmas dinner yet is because this year it's going to be very, I mean very poor dinner. Not because I can't afford it, but because I'm on diet and planning to not deviate from my plan. I remember at the beginning of the year I said my main focus is going to be on my health, but ... yes, there's always a but and as I'm not better than the rest, have failed miserably, till last month, when I had enough.
It's been 27 days since I started my diet and it's going exceptionally well. This time I did things differently and was really prepared mentally. The whole thing started when my brother visited his dietician and got a plan for himself. It was a personalized plan, based on his condition, lifestyle, health and needs, but it served me well for creating my own. He not only got a menu for a week, but a list with healthy food and ingredients too, so I thought this is my chance to do the right thing.
What I liked about the menu was that it limits drastically food like bread, but does not exclude it. It has even chocolate, a tiny piece of it, of 80% cocoa, which can serve to stop cravings. Trust me, after you eat a piece, you don't need more as it's not sweet at all, but it's good.
Getting some guidance was a good incentive to start my journey right, but the majority of your success lies in how consistent and persistent you are and this is why I always say, this is a mind game. Knowing yourself also helps a lot and I tell you why.
This is not my first challenge and I bet there will be a lot more in life, but it is a very important one, which can have a lot advantages if I do it right and serious consequences, if I fail. Don't get me wrong, the few kilos I have to lose is not life threatening, not by far, but the more you postpone or procrastinate taking care of your health, the harder it gets, both physically and mentally.
It's interesting how the human brain works. As I mentioned, last year and this year as well, I had several start dates, but then there was always an event or better yet, a reason to convince myself that making an exception is ok and this is where the key to success lies, or should I say, this is where you fook up.
If you convince yourself once, that it's ok to break the rules, you are going to convince yourself on other occasions as well and there will always be a reason not to stick to your diet. Life is full of temptations, you leave your home and on your way to wherever you go, there's temptation on every corner and reasons to convince your conscience are many and as I said at the beginning of my post, knowing yourself can help a lot.
My approach to quit drinking coffee was a very straight forward one seven years ago. It was a heavy addiction and instead of looking for substitutes and all kinds or tricks, like decaf or instant coffee, I decided to cut the black liquid out of my life completely, without any exception and I had not one drop of it ever since.
This experience served me as a good lesson of what I'm capable of, what is working for me and what isn't. It's been 27 days since I started my lifestyle change, as this is not just a diet and can report that there were no missed days, no fookups so far and I intend to keep it this way. There has not been specially difficult days so far, which is surprising, but very good. Whenever I am offered something I can't eat, instead of imagining how good the dish would taste and make an exception, I am thinking of my goal and this gives me more strength to continue.
Christmas and New Year's Eve is coming and if these two events don't mean temptation, then I don't know what does, but not for me. I'm not going to deviate from my plan.
You most likely know those who always plan to start on Monday, on the 1st of the month, next week and so on. New Year resolutions usually say everything starts on the 1st day of the year, which is never respected as you're drinking champagne at 00:01 and eating as well, so you're breaking your resolution from the first minute of the year.
The truth is, you can have the best meal plans, training plans, protein shakes, supplements or whatever weight loss crap is en vogue these days, but if you're not strong mentally, you'll never succeed.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you want more. The food that got you where you are? Or your goal.
So my Christmas gift for myself will be a good few kilos less and don't need a New Year resolution. I'm continuing my journey till I reach my goal and that's enough for me. Will be nice to start the year with a good part of my goal accomplished. This motivates me more than anything.
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