Why Starting Tomorrow Never Works For Weight Loss Diets
Every diet starts on a Monday, it’s like science.
I mean why would you start on any other day?
Unfortunately for most people, no matter what walk of life they’re from, what job they do or what their goal is, tomorrow never comes.
There will never be the ‘perfect’ time for anything. Waiting for all the stars to align and shine down on you with heavenly light and an unbreakable motivation is nothing more than a way of saying ‘I can’t be bothered’ ‘I don’t want it enough’ or ‘I have no reason to’.
There will always be something more urgent. You will never have enough time. Something unexpected will always crop up. But these are all just part of life and finding a way round these obstacles is the only way to be successful in achieving your weight loss goals.
Little Black Dress Season
Recently I have been talking to clients a lot about the ‘Little Black Dress’ season. Or the work Christmas party as it’s more commonly known.
The chance to show your colleagues that you do in fact scrub up quite well. Even if the person they see every day might have scraped back hair, misplaced make up or an odd choice of outfit as a result of being in a hurry or dressing in the dark.
The Christmas party is that chance to invest some time and money in yourself, let your hair down and unwind. The karaoke and drunken dancing are optional.
What better excuse to leave your husband at home with the children and remember what it was like to go out when you wanted for as long as you wanted and let your hair down.
What About The Little Black Suit? – My Story
One of the biggest problems in the media is that women feel obligated to look like the cover model to prove their worth. This is often commented on but little is said about the same thing in male culture.
Yes some men like to wear nice clothes or stay in shape but not much is said about how men find it just as hard as women to deal with their own body image.
It’s not just the fear of being overweight either. Sometimes it’s actually the total opposite in fact.
At 6ft 2 I have always appeared relatively lean. But being lean doesn’t necessarily mean happy.
Anyone can look in the mirror and not like what’s staring back at them.
When I looked in the mirror I saw Mr Muscle. You remember the man from the TV advert? Yeah – him.
I always felt too skinny and comments from overweight people who would say ‘you’re lucky to be so skinny’ only made things worse.
So when it came to the work Christmas party one year (in my pre-fitness, Bank managing days) I at least felt assured that I would look and feel good in my smart suit that I wheeled out once or twice a year for weddings or important events.
I still don’t remember why but I remember thinking to myself that I should probably try the suit on as a ‘just in case’ kind of thing.
This was especially odd as I was one of the least organised people you can imagine but even though it was October I decided to give it a quick try.
Luckily I was one of those people that never puts on weight no matter what they eat so this was going to be an absolute formality for me. Bank Manager to James Bond in the blink of an eye.
But something was wrong………….
The trousers didn’t fit!
I managed to pull them up but securing them at the waist was never going to happen.
I just couldn’t understand it, they were my trousers, they were the right size but no matter how much I breathed in they just wouldn’t do up!
Any comfort I used to take from being lean as a compensation for my rather slight and weedy physique had all but vanished.
There were just two options – lose weight or buy a new suit.
Have you ever tried to get money out of a Bank Manager – I decided to join the gym!
Tight With Money But Not My Waistline
Although the initial shock of not getting into my trousers made me join the gym eventually, I didn’t go and do it the next day.
As was common with me, I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off again!
My plan was to join the gym next door to my work so that I could workout before work. For this plan to be successful though I would actually have to join and not just think about doing it.
I kept telling myself that the pile of work on my desk and the inbox full of e-mails was more important but that I would get round to joining the next day.
Towards the end of the week I would tell myself the classic ‘I’ll do it on Monday’. Well that never happened either.
The reason I put it off is because on a day to day basis my now paunchy belly didn’t bother me, nor did it affect me in anyway.
My baggy old work trousers fit me just fine and my jeans had been worn so many times they deserved a lifetime achievement award.
What tipped the scales for me was meeting up with an ex colleague who had left the Bank. He said ‘I’m glad I’m out of there mate, it was bringing me down. Looks like you might have been comfort eating to get through the stress though’.
Of course I just laughed it off but now it WAS affecting me.
Just knowing that it must be obvious to other people was enough to kick start things for me and drag me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone – something that I have never been good at.
I joined the gym the very next day. I was absolutely determined to wear my suit and to FEEL as though I looked good in it too.
The problem was that I now only had 6 weeks before the party.
This meant working out every day (or so I thought). I poured everything into it. The workouts were tough and my diet was infinitely more sensible.
A Bank Manager is not an expert in these things so I did a lot of things wrong.
So wrong in fact that when I went to try my suit on with a week to go the trousers still didn’t fit.
I had slogged my guts out and worked ridiculously hard on my diet and my trousers still didn’t fit.
Luckily they were too big!
A decent belt is always a handy thing to have and it ultimately saved the day and saved me splashing out on a new suit.
But while this was a success by the fact that I achieved my goal, it was not a success in terms of how I felt and how my life had been over the 6 weeks.
I was tired, achey, miserable and hungry!
Not to mention I had become a proper scrooge at work, a really grumpy boss. I wasn’t all that fun to be with at home either it has to be said!
If I had to do it all again I would have taken a much more sensible and steady approach to it so that I could still enjoy my life as well as hit my goals.
Tomorrow
Never Comes
If you are one of the people that likes to always put things off until tomorrow, next week, Monday etc then just consider the long term implications.
Eventually there will become a point where you either CAN’T achieve it due to time, poor health etc or the cost of doing so is too much and will interfere with your lifestyle and the sacrifices become too great.
So if you’re considering starting
a weight loss routine of some kind but are already planning on leaving it until after Christmas I would urge you to think again.
Do you think it’s going to be easier AFTER Christmas?
To help you get started you can download some free fat loss recipes by clicking on the button below.
Leave A Response