Manage your expectations…Seriously we must be responsible here. So many of us set completely unrealistic expectations. We can’t expect to be a millionaire within a year if we just got our first job so why the hell do we expect our bodies to transform into a chiseled Greek God within a month or two?
I strongly recommend letting go of that timeline. We are not getting the body we want in a short time frame. The folks we see on Instagram or in magazines, they didn’t get it overnight either, BELIEVE ME. If we remove the urgency from dieting we increase our likelihood of success dramatically. We need to create a healthy relationship with food in this process. Urgency when dieting usually means suffering will be involved. Dietary changes need to be realistic. There is nothing realistic about dropping 20 lbs in 2 months and keeping it off.
We expect that this overnight transformation should happen even though we are still heading out drinking with friends and going to restaurants on the weekends. Who are we kidding? These expectations we have…. where do these come from? I don’t think they are even expectations they are wishes like wishing a frog will turn into a prince. We should know ourselves. We know damn well that most of us can’t make keto, paleo, IF, or an of these other buzz word diets work with our lifestyle. But we still proclaim with fervor that we can and we believe it. How crazy is that? We hype ourselves up and believe that we can do it and we are crushed when we can’t. Why? Most people can’t. The effort is big, and our current effort is probably none. What is realistic about expecting to go from 0-60 in a moment. And then we have the nerve to beat ourselves up when we don’t succeed. Just throw it on top of the pile of failures I guess.
All along the answer is looking us in the face but we don’t want to believe it. We have a diet. Work with what your current diet is. Take small and manageable steps to make it better. Consistent effort over time equals results.