So we're in the second month of the year.
For many, that means the second month of the dreaded January diet.
I'm not going to sit here and patronise you by telling you that you're silly for starting a diet in January.
Right about now you'll be getting enough condescending side eye from work colleagues and family members.
Instead, I want to help you understand just a few of the reasons why you may feel demotivated in the early stages of your diet, and why, if you stay the course, every single one of those reasons get easier.
1 - Your hunger levels seem impossible to manage.
Why it sucks right now:
Your appetite is regulated by an intricate signalling system between your stomach and your brain. As with many signalling systems, it likes to naturally sit in a nice predictable rhythm.
Going into a diet, your body is used to a given portion size, and it’s used to getting these portions at a given time of the day.
Any break from this pattern, and your body is going to signal that you’re hungry, even if there is no real need for food at this time.
This is going to suck.
Why it will get better:
Like with any pattern, through repetition, slowly but surely your pattern will reset.
You need to understand that in the early stages of a diet, you feel mentally hungry much more than you feel actual physical hunger.
But over time, those feelings subside.
Over time, your hunger pattern will reset to the given amount of food you provide it.
Stay the course, your body is learning, so keep teaching it
2 - You may actually look a little worse after the first week
Why it sucks right now:
A strange phenomenon happens during the first week of a diet - you can actually end up looking a bit fatter in the mirror.
Inside your muscle tissue, you will hold something called glycogen - this is just broken down and stored carbohydrates.
When fully fed, your muscles hold a full tank of glycogen, giving them more shape and definition.
When you enter a dieting phase, you will deplete some of this glycogen, leading your muscles to look less full.
Combine this with the potential for some water retention, and this can give the appearance that you've actually gained fat, even though you haven't, you just temporarily look a little less defined.
Why it will get better:
This is only temporary.
You need to stay objective throughout the process and understand that eventually your hard work will pay off.
You may not see it initially, but it's working.
Fat loss is happening, and one day, weeks from now, you'll try on a pair of jeans or a work shirt and it will fit a little looser.
And one day, months from now, you'll catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and everything will fall into place.
So stay the course and that moment will come.
3 - Your old habits keep trying to pull you back in
Why it sucks right now:
Why do we do things that don't fall in line with our goals?
Why would you spend hours cooking a healthy meal from scratch, only to go and order Pizza instead?
Habits and patterns are the comfort blanket with which we choose to wrap our entire lives in.
The sad reality is that we will continue carrying out even unhealthy habits, habits that make us feel like shit afterwards, because in that moment, you feel safe.
You feel a sense familiarity.
This doesn't just apply to being on a diet, it applies to pretty much any facet of life.
Having to change your food habits causes you to look at yourself in the mirror every single day and vow that today you will take the uncomfortable path.
That today, today you will free yourself of your comfort blanket and embrace the struggle.
Why it will get better:
Revert back to number one.
Remember how I said our patterns eventually reset?
Trust me when I say, as long as you're alive and breathing, inside you is the unwavering ability to adapt to any situation that is thrown at you.
In this first week, your bad habits will try at every possible stage to pull you back in.
Avoid that comfort blanket long enough, embrace the harder path long enough, and one day you'll no longer need to seek that comfort.
Because your new lifestyle becomes your comfort blanket.
You see, every habit starts as a cobweb and eventually becomes an unbreakable chain.
Right now all you have are cobwebs, so get your head down, embrace the uncomfortable, repeat repeat repeat and build your fucking chain.
4 - You'll feel guilty each time you screw up
Why it sucks right now:
It's not if, it's when.
You WILL screw up, and yeah, you'll probably feel guilty.
You're a human being.
During these first few weeks, every single screw up will seem amplified.
This will happen so frequently during the initial stages of behaviour change that you'll begin to wonder what the fucking point is.
Why it will get better:
Perspective.
Over time, you'll begin to gain perspective on your screw ups.
You'll begin to understand that results come from the sum total of all your daily, monthly and yearly habits, not single moments.
You'll begin to understand that no good comes from guilt.
And, you'll begin to understand that you're a damn human being.
You're not perfect, neither should you be.
You see, over time, if you stick the damn course, you'll begin to taste results. When that moment comes, perspective on ALL your choices will come flooding in.
The fact that for every 1 screw up, you completed 10 healthy habits you weren't doing months ago.
So if you screw up, forgive yourself, and move the F*** on.
I'm talking to the you that exists months from today if you don't give in.
Months from now you are the person you want to be, so when you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and stay.the.damn.course.
You got this.
