Maybe you’ve had this experience:
You want to make a change in your life.
In the beginning you have lots of energy and motivation, and after a while it becomes harder and harder.
It can be really frustrating, especially if you’re trying to lose weight or improve your health.
Here’s the good news: If you can stick it out for 66 days, chances are you can make those changes a new habit—something you do without having to consciously think about or remember them.
Here are some tips to help you succeed:
Consistency is Key…
The good news is that simple habits, like drinking a glass of cold water the very first thing in the morning, are more easily formed than complex ones, like doing 50 situps when you get out of bed.
The better news is that you don’t have to be perfect to build a new habit. Doing something 6 days out of 7, such as drinking that glass of cold water, and then reverting to your old habit of drinking coffee on that 7th morning, does not reset the clock to day 1. You can simply drink that glass of cold water on day 8 and continue on building new habits. In fact, taking the attitude that you don’t have to be perfect actually helps you form new habits.
However, if you do something very intermittently, especially something complex, such as going to the gym, it will be much harder, even impossible, for you to turn that action into a habit.
So is Context…
Creating a habit means performing the behavior in the same situation. The situation forms a context that cues your behavior, so that your habit does not become, “Do 50 sit-ups every morning at 6 AM” but rather, “Do 50 sit-ups every morning just after waking.” That way, you don’t force yourself to choose between sleeping in and doing something else that’s good for you.
Likewise, you’re much more likely to break a bad habit if you control your environment to eliminate cues that trigger the old habit. If you find yourself eating a whole bag of chips while watching TV every night, you’re better off eliminating the chips, or the TV, or substituting fruit, rather than arguing with the bag of chips.
One of the most important things you can do when building good habits is to make doing good things for yourself easier than doing bad things for yourself.
But Don’t Forget Rewards!
Many times, we defer gratification—and delayed gratification can be an extremely powerful motivator.
When it comes to making the daily changes that add up to long-term habits, this strategy can backfire. We reward daily trips to the gym with candy or ice cream at the end of the week. But when you make an immediate effort, you deserve an immediate reward.
The reward can be as small as checking a box on a progress chart. You can download habit-changing apps and get feedback and encouragement for meeting these small goals. You can tell yourself, if I do 5 sets of 10 pushups, I will reward myself with a chapter of that new book I just bought and am dying to read.
These small, tangible rewards trigger production of dopamine, your “pleasure principle” neurotransmitter, which helps you create habits.
Do Not Use Food as a Reward
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy that ice cream at the end of the week, or some candy. It means…you don’t have to “earn” them. You should just enjoy them.
The truth is, eating healthy food is a way of loving yourself—but so is eating food you just plain enjoy. Whether it’s a sweet red bell pepper on that perfect, velvety edge of being overripe, or your favorite ice cream.
However, food, specifically super-tasty, high-calorie food that more often than not is “optimized” by highly-paid corporate scientists to make it literally addictive, has become how we celebrate virtually everything, virtually the only way we treat ourselves.
And it costs us a lot of other pleasures.
Find other ways—ways you really enjoy—to reward yourself. Read. Listen to music. Walk and talk with friends—face to face, and not over food. Put the money you’d spend on junk food towards a hobby you enjoy.
And realize that you, the wonderful, unique human being you are, and your worth and beauty, are not reducible to a number on a scale or what you eat. No matter how hard it is to remember that truth—it is true.
One Day at a Time
When you allow yourself the freedom to be consistent, not “perfect” and realize that you don’t have to do everything at once, you set yourself up for success.
The best way to lose weight is with a program structured to introduce new habits gradually, a program that doesn’t require you to be “perfect” because there is no such thing as perfect.
There’s only eating the right balance of foods that are good for you, and that you enjoy.
When you do that, you don’t have to starve or deprive yourself, and you can still enjoy your favorite treats.
Our 8-Week Program
The Trim Down Club created our 8-week program specifically to meet these needs. It’s designed to help you create good habits one simple step at a time, so that every step and each habit build upon each other. At the end, you will have created a new way of eating, one based on your personal metabolism, tastes and weight loss goals…as well as your lifestyle, so it’s easy for you to meet your goals.
If you’re a member, click on your Home Tab, then “Follow 8 Week Plan.” You’ll get a customized introduction to the Trim Down Club, that will help you lose weight and feel better.
Hi, laflisa. Is it difficult to get it all down, or is it difficult to find the time to prepare and eat? If it is the former, you are welcome to post a sample day of your menu (copy and paste) and indicate what you cannot finish – I will run an analysis and see if that suits you.
If it is the second option, the follow are some ideas for quick meal-time/snack items that may work:
• Fresh and dried fruit
• Cut raw vegetables
• Oven-baked vegetable chips
• Nuts and seeds
• Trail mix combinations of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit
• Sandwiches – good breads with nut butters, hummus and similar spreads, tahini, canned or smoked fish, cheese, homemade “cold cuts” from fresh meats, egg salad, etc.
• Whole grain or Paleo crackers plus any of the above
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Sliced or string cheese
• Cottage cheese
• Yogurt
• Milk (dairy or vegetal), plain or flavored with cocoa powder and a recommended sweetener
• Hearty soup in a thermos (2-3 food groups, i.e. meat or legume, vegetable, whole grain)
• Hearty smoothie/shake in a thermos (2-3 food groups, i.e. fruit/vegetable, dairy/vegan, seeds)
• Edamame or other legume/pulse snacks
• Whole grain or Paleo cereal or granola (cold in small sealable bag, cooked in thermos)
• Canned beans
• Prepared healthy foods in containers – from leftovers or prepared the night or weekend before.
• Homemade whole-food muffins or bars
• Popped grains, i.e. organic popcorn, sorghum, quinoa
It’s hard for me to eat soooooo much, especially on the days that I work. Any suggestions?
Hi, Blackstar. Yoga and Pilates are great options for you because you can leave out whole body parts and still burn a lot of fat. If you are unfamiliar with these, I suggest you join a class, so that someone can help you find your way without additional injury.
Hi, Jamie. Check out our Menu Planner application (link in “Apps” above) and the lists there – the foods in the lighter blues are the ones we recommend.
Hi, Macfried. It is possible to overdo if the item is heavier than the standard (for example, the pretzels we had in mind are the “mini” type, about an inch or 2-1/2 cm across) and/or are high in simple sugars. The trick is to use whole grain as much as possible. If you still feel like it is backfiring on you, you are welcome to substitute some of your carb exchanges with green vegetables or lean proteins.
I lost 20% of mobility in my right leg due to cartilage injury and a total knee replacement last year. Therefore a lot of exercise options are off the table for me. My mobility impairment has been a huge struggle in losing weight. I actually gained much of my weight (35lbs) due to my knee replacement. What do you suggest besides swimming as excercises for me?
That sounds like a grate idea. What kind of food do I start out with ?
Hi, I am trying your plan. I lost 7 lbs the first week and then gained 4 back. Is it possible to have too much bread or pretzels even if they are listed on the choices?
Hi, Zondra. For a quick reference, see #11 in this article – https://www.trimdownclub.com/how-to-acquire-good-nutrition-habits/.
I’m just starting today on this program, but I’m not finding what we are suppose to drink daily, and how much… HELP please!
Hi, Nurse Nancy. Are you already using the Menu Planner application? Do you prepare your granddaughter’s lunch, or does she get it from the school? If it is the latter, has her school already adopted the new healthier school lunch guidelines? Assuming you are preparing something, the following are some ideas for on-the-go meals and snacks :
• Fresh and dried fruit
• Cut raw vegetables
• Oven-baked vegetable chips
• Nuts and seeds
• Trail mix combinations of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit
• Sandwiches – good breads with nut butters, hummus and similar spreads, tahini, canned or smoked fish, cheese, homemade “cold cuts” from fresh meats, egg salad, etc.
• Whole grain or Paleo crackers plus any of the above
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Sliced or string cheese
• Cottage cheese
• Yogurt
• Milk (dairy or vegetal), plain or flavored with cocoa powder and a recommended sweetener
• Hearty soup in a thermos (2-3 food groups, i.e. meat or legume, vegetable, whole grain)
• Hearty smoothie/shake in a thermos (2-3 food groups, i.e. fruit/vegetable, dairy/vegan, seeds)
• Edamame or other legume/pulse snacks
• Whole grain or Paleo cereal or granola (cold in small sealable bag, cooked in thermos)
• Canned beans
• Prepared healthy foods in containers – from leftovers or prepared the night or weekend before.
• Homemade whole-food muffins or bars
• Popped grains, i.e. organic popcorn, sorghum, quinoa
You can portion these according to your patterns – to see them, click on “Exchange view” in the toolbar above the finished menu. You can see more about exchanges here: https://www.trimdownclub.com/exchanges-views.
If she is using your membership here, you can post her height, weight here, and general activity level, and I can let you know her basic portions.
I work driving all day and my granddaughter eats at school for lunch. How can we modify our menus to fit the program?
Hi, ADBenn. Of course! If you are truly inactive, then we would recommend that you reduce your food intake by about a sixth, meaning the equivalent of one of the meals.
I am 79, in a wheel chair with severe arthritis so cannot exercise will this plan still work for me?
I just started the program and have only printed out my daily menu and shopping list. Unfortunately I won’t be able to really get into the program until my next pay period, but I have managed to take some of the information and apply it to my daily routine. I already buy the majority of the food on the list so all I had to do is modify what I have so that I can at least get started on the right path. I feel this decision has been the best one I’ve ever made in the weight loss roller coaster I’ve been on the last 22 years. I look forward to getting myself and my family on the healthy band wagon.
That’s wonderful! We wish you lots of success, and are happy to help in whatever way we can.
I need to lose a lot of weight but more important to me is to get control of my sugar levels dropping so drastically that I feel like I’m going to pass out. I just started the program this week, made out my weekly planner and went to the store and purchased the things on my list. I’ve only followed the plan two days so far but have already noticed in the past couple of days I haven’t had the sugar lows! I just got done reading the article about sugar being addictive and I can tell you, I most certainly am a sugar addict! Tonight I started reading some of the articles and really got a lot of good information from them that I think will help me.
I’m failing each day to successfully begin my 8 week program. It’s very upsetting because I’m so in need of getting myself back on track and healthy again. Has anyone else had difficulty starting up?