On
Friday I said "F**k it, blow the diet off and have some fun".
A few of our readers took that advice the way I took Yoda's and went for it on the vodka. They felt a little rough the following day and let me know it was my fault.
They did what we all do. They remembered the bit they wanted to remember to justify their actions, rather than taking the whole email in context.
How many times have you been given advice, only to take from it what you wanted to hear and do what you were going to do
anyway?
They forgot about this section of the message:
"You don't have to be "clean" 100% of the time. You
can go out and have a few beers, make some bad food choices and enjoy your life.
Life is for living.
You just need to accept responsibility for your actions. If you are not achieving your goals as quickly as you want
to, there's a good chance you know why".
I should have put - F**k it, have some fun but don't take the p!ss :)
I have had lots of conversations around results and what might be happening if they are not moving as quickly as hoped. A majority of the time the conversation goes like this:
Slow Results - I have lost a few pounds and some inches but I thought it would happen
quicker.
Me - Have you been following the plan?
SR - Yes, but I do still have a couple of glasses of wine at the weekend.
Me - So you're not following the plan. You're following your own version of the plan, I don't know how that is going to work for you.
SR - It's nearly the plan, just with some wine and the odd
sandwich.
Me - You are still getting good results but I can only understand what is happening in your body when you follow the plan. It's not forever, just 4 weeks. When you go off piste it can disrupt what we had expected to happen on results. It's not a problem, just the results will happen more slowly.
etc ...
Those that know me will know that I have slightly
less tact but you get the gist of it.
As I said on Friday, I used to take it personally but realised that we were making the situation worse by being restrictive. Now our members understand that if they want the quickest and guaranteed results they simply follow our advice 100%. However, some just want to get back in to the routine of exercise and start looking at nutrition when that has happened.
Both methods work well,
we guide them on what will work best for them.
If you want to win in the long game of health and weight loss you need to relax a little and enjoy life, just don't take the p!ss at the detriment of the hard work you have already achieved.
Darren 'follow the plan' Checkley