Accountability Establishing Consistency
I would eat healthy for 3 day in a row. I'd get my greens in and eat grilled chicken or fish. With Quinoa! I'd get ground turkey instead of beef for taco tuesday. I'd even make it a lettuce wrap instead of a tortilla!
I was doing good!
Then on the 3rd slam down a greasy 1000 calorie burger for lunch. Of course, on the 4th day I woke up full of regret and was certain I ruined my diet for the week. I was bloated and cranky and felt like a bleeding failure.
So I did what any sane person would do,
I gave up on my diet until next Monday.
Giving Up
I've wrote previously in my newsletter how lack of consistency wasn't my biggest problem but my perception of myself when I wasn't consistent was.
I want to expand on that.
When I tripped up in my diet, I mentally and emotionally started to sabotage myself. After a bad day, I woke up and saw myself as a failing fat guy who couldn't figure out how to lose weight.
I'd step on that scale and see all the work I did, canceled out.
Everything for nothing.
I Was Wrong
For my actions to change, my thoughts had to change. I had to stop thinking of myself as a fat loser and start thinking of myself as someone just trying to figure out a puzzle.
It's like rotating a few blocks on a Rubik's cube, then giving up! If you believe you'll never solve a Rubik's cube, you're not apt to put in the effort to try.
It's like this: Thoughts dictate emotions which in turn dictate actions. Once I begun to understand that, I was able to begin to rewire my thinking.
Accountability establishing consistency
I allowed myself opportunities to make positive actions, accountability became a viable choice. Once I understood failing doesn't make a failure but failing is a prerequisite to success, instead of running from failure, I looked for better ways to fail.
I let the scale tell its story and stopped freaking out at every plot twist.
No one is perfect!
Just keep working until the story reaches a happy ending.
Imperfecting
That's the best we can do. Imperfecting their way until we are better than good. I'm still imperfecting my way towards better health!
I started with writing down what I was doing. Then I added how I was feeling. Then again how I felt afterwards.
At the end of the week, I'd go over the information and "calculate" my high score. The next week I knew my previous score and I knew how I made it. Logically by adjusting a few variables, I could adjust my final score.
Next
In my next post I'll dive down deeper into what I did and simplify the process. You definitely don't want to miss it so take a second and sign up for the How to Slay Dragons Newsletter today.
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