If there is one thing I have noticed about weight loss, it’s this: the most successful people have grit.
Grit is a skill that can be improved.
Even if you’ve missed a week or more of exercise or your nutrition habits fall by the wayside, you can regroup and come back as soon as you’re ready.
Create a plan for the day in great detail.
Whether it’s an illness, a family emergency, work obligations, or just needing to take a day to run errands, people are bound to miss a day here and there.
You cannot anticipate everything that life will throw at you, but you can make each moment easier throughout the day by making your decisions ahead of time.
Decision fatigue happens to everyone.
Preparing for each day saves the energy of making decisions while you’re in the moment.
Here’s an example of saving yourself from decision fatigue: you’re on your way to your daughter’s hockey game after a long day at work and you’re a little hungry but you know you can make it to the end of the match without getting “hangry”.
Unfortunately, your daughter’s game went into overtime and it’s taken nearly another hour for the game to end.
You’re ravenous.
Thanks to your awesome planning skills you already had a plan in place for any time you’re out and too hungry to make it home before eating.
You know where you’re going to stop and what healthy food items you’ll eat, taking all the stress and energy out of ordering as well as limiting your indulgences.
Help others along the way.
While you’re on your weight loss journey you will meet people who are struggling, people who feel lost, people who feel scared and vulnerable, people who need help and support.
It’s a great opportunity for you to help someone. All you have to do is ask questions, listen, and care.
You are the secret to your success.
The most important part of the process is YOU.
Never give up on yourself.
Come to your workouts on time, chat with your instructor or other gym members, introduce yourself to new people.
There will be bumps in the road.
Any time you falter during your weight loss journey, remember what T.S. Eliot once wrote, “to make an end is to make a beginning.”
Through this ending, we are making a promise to ourselves to begin making better choices moving forward.
Beginning again after every misstep.
That is what grit is.
The truth of the matter is that there is no ending to any of this; only new beginnings.
A new beginning can happen at any time, in any place, in any circumstance.
Whether that means getting more sleep, eating more vegetables, getting more movement in each day, or surrounding yourself with like-minded people who want the best for you and your health, you have a chance every single day to make a new beginning for yourself.
