March Madness – Spring cleaning.  If you started 2018 with a desire to lose weight, exercise more, get better sleep, how is that going?

A path to success is paved by setting goals and creating daily habits.

Designing your own process ensures success.   

We have many habits – morning habits, wake up, let the dog out, make the tea, gather journal, go outside and breathe deeply, take out breakfast from frige, write, meditate, shower, work, lunch, work, dinner, watch tv.

The way you think about your ability to lose weight or stick to a plan is also a habit and is a key element in your success or failure.

Each habit is creating the life you have right now.

New habits do not start out easy. But making your behaviors a habit will ensure that you won’t be struggling forever. Eventually your activities will shift into your unconscious mind and become efficient, repeated without rigorous awareness,

Below are 3 steps to success.

1.   Intentionality and Awareness.

a.   Create a goal by asking, “What do I want in my life that I don’t have now.”

b.   Observe and identify what you want in your life that you do have right now.

c.    Identify the beliefs you had that got you what you already have.

d.   Know the benefits and the pain of achieving your goal.

2.   Create Process that will drive your success.

a.   Overall Food plan

b.   Identify obstacles

c.    Create strategies

d.   Set up weekly routines

e.   Set up daily routines

f.     Repeat

3.   Evaluate Process – Tweak what is working and what is not working.

Starting can be exciting, but the middle isn’t always sexy and adventurous.  Sometimes repetition leads some to boredom.

For some of you, routine is a lifesaving blessing.

For some of you, routine is death and deprivation.

Whatever your thoughts about routine, you want to see the ELEGANCE OF A HABIT.

When you make something routine, you are making it automatic and you don’t have to expend brain power to make another decision.

Like it or not, your brain prefers to expend less energy. Think of your own experience with driving, parenting and going to work.  A lot of what you do is a series of actions repeated unconsciously.

That’s where we are going when it comes to organizing your food activities.

So, your new habit is to plan and prepare and journal about your food; keep track of your feelings and your thoughts.

Write about your success and your failures; when you missed the mark. Failure is a data point.  An opportunity to become aware of why you missed the mark, what went right and what went wrong.

RINSE AND REPEAT

Research shows it takes from 18 to 254 days – averaging 66 days -- to create a new habit. 

My goal for you is to arrive at your goal weight with good habits in place. 

When weight loss is achieved, you will simply upgrade our goal.  Perhaps your new goal will be running a 5K.  Perhaps it is getting more skill for your particular job.  It could be learning a new dance step just for joy.  You choose. You have the energy and the ability to design a process.

CREATE A PROCESS:  PLAN, STRATEGIZE, ACT, REVIEW. RINSE AND REPEAT.

To hear more, listen to Episode 13 of It’s Never Too Late to Lose Weight Podcast.

For more support from me, join my closed Facebook Group – It’s Never Too Late to Lose Weight.