For many this is probably the worse time to start a new diet, there is much delicious, decadent food and lots of opportunity to take advantage of free food too.
In my first #noloafingloseit post I talked about how I have done this before and in the detailed plan I talked about the 5 dimensions. Well for the first few weeks, the time from NOW to the New Year I'm really focusing on dimension 4 and 5. Creating Habits and Inner Work.
Creating the Habits
There are a few things that I'm doing here, but one is definig the type of person that I AM, am I a super fit instgram model, or a healthy middle aged GenX. And what does that even mean?
The goal is to picture the type of person that I want to be and then BE that person. Am I a runner? Well then its a easy decision to go running.
I don't have that defined, but I'm taking a few minutes every day to free write in a journal about who I am.
The end of the year is a perfect time for this. It is already a time for reflection and I'm just focusing that energy into something VERY specific.
When this self-image starts to form and solidify I will be able to start building habit-stacks that will move me in the right direction.
Inner Work
This is something that is still very out there for me. But I'm getting there.
It really comes first, figuring out WHO I am and why I make the food decisions that I do. Why do I get fries every time I'm at a restaurant for example. When I think deeply about it I think that it comes with the invisible scripts I tell myself. These scripts originate from how I grew up.
It goes like this, when I ask my parents what they thought about a place they went out to eat they say something like, "Really good, lots of food."
There is nothing about the taste, quality, etc. It is about "value". How much food did you get for how much money. Inherently I will feel more full if I have fries vs salad with my meal. Its the "better" value.
This is something I fight with every time I eat out. I'm eating out, I need to either:
- Get good "value", or
- treat myself
The problem with this is that I eat out a lot more than when I was a kid. I make more money, live in the city and have to treat vendors, clients, colleagues, etc relatively often. Couple that with a busy life and ordering takeout at least once a month, that stacks up to a LOT of "treating myself".
This is an example, I'm sure there are other food associations that I need to work on. With the added stress of the holidays I'm hoping that keeping this at the top-of-mind I will identify these associations and invisible scripts and start working on them. I'm pretty sure knowing they're there is 80% of the challenge.
How am I doing!
Starting Weight: 128.1 kg
Starting BodyFat %: 38.2
** I will start adding my current weight in the New Year. There isn't a lot of expected progress as I work out the habits and figuring out my relationship with food.
Following along
I will be continuing with these updates at least once a week, and after 6 weeks or so I will start including progress graphs.
If you want to join comment below and use the #noloafingloseit topic. I will be reading everything that is posted there.
- This is my initial goal and the date is before January 1, 2021. It is subject to change over the timeline of this project.