I was recently talking to a lady who I met in the gym and she was telling me about how it was a new week and she was going to get herself back on track and lose the weight she wanted to.
First, it is great that the lady was in the gym on a Monday and a bit fired up to start her week on the right foot with some healthy eating and quality exercise. She was making the NORMAL decision to start things off on a Monday (again). It’s the beginning of the week. The best place to start don’t you think?
Well maybe not.
Let me explain why Monday is probably not the best day to start a new diet. My experience tells me that by Friday night the lady in question may be tired and starving and could go back to her old habits whatever that means for her. Starting on a Monday is easy, especially if you have had your fill over the weekend you are ready to have a little break. Your body and mind needs it. The trouble is everyone lives for the weekend.
We have our routines. They are hard wired. How many times have you started a diet on a Monday only for it to go wrong by the weekend? We are all the same on that front, myself included. But of course being human, we don’t tend to try a different approach when the one we are using doesn’t work, we just try it again and again. We are supposed to be intelligent but I often doubt it.
That’s often called the definition of insanity “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. So with that said, a change of approach would be sensible. My advice would be to:
1. Start the diet on a Friday.
2. Plan nice healthy recipes for Friday and Saturday.
3. Plan your meals. Try new recipes on a weekend when you would normally eat badly.
This strategy just changes the way you come at the issue of having no willpower when it comes to weekends. This would help set you up for the following week and ensure you had some good results after sticking to a diet for 7 days in a row.
Then rinse and repeat.
When the results start to come, people often perk up a bit and find some motivation to get through the weekends a bit easier. If you would like to receive weekly health and fitness updates, click here.
