Are you someone who tends to “fall of the wagon” every time you start a diet or try to lose weight? Me to. What if you no longer had a wagon to fall off, and everything you go through in your journey to lose weight and get healthy was simply a part of the process? That is the beauty of switching to a more natural approach.
You just need to find a good balance. If you fall off get right back on. Let’s get into it so can stop yo-yo-ing today!
You Will No Longer Be Yo-Yo Dieting.. Because You Aren’t Dieting
When you commit to a natural weight loss lifestyle through healthy living you no longer have a wagon to fall off of. So, What does this mean? To put it simply, you aren’t going to be yo-yo dieting anymore because you aren’t even on a diet.
In the past, if you are used to doing restrictive diets, you’ve probably used the phrase “I fell off the wagon” every time you ate something you weren’t supposed to or missed a workout. The problem is that you would probably go back to your unhealthy ways where you would overeat past the point of fullness and become sedentary. Again..and again. It’s a never ending cycle.
If there wasn’t a wagon to fall off of then this yo-yo dieting problem wouldn’t even exist. You would just move on from whatever the temporary setback was and keep trying to become healthier.
Staying Consistent with Inconsistency
Confused yet? Don’t worry I’ll explain. You hear a lot about how you need to stay consistent to lose weight. But what happens is that you focus on perfection, assuming consistency means you are 100 percent ON all the time and any little 1 percent off means you failed and aren’t being consistent. This simply is not the case.
Weight loss journeys are inconsistent. They aren’t linear. And they definitely aren’t perfect. If you can embrace that imperfection and think more about having a balanced life, instead of a perfect one, you will be a lot happier and actually end up being more consistent over the long run.
Giving Up Your Black and White Thinking
Black and white thinking is when you have an all or nothing attitude. You are either good or bad, right or wrong. But almost everything in this type of lifestyle journey is in that gray area between black and white. It’s when you eat healthy, but also allow treats. You exercise, but not too much. You change your lifestyle, but aren’t so rigid about it.
You need to try and think more in the grey area instead of the black and white. It’s ok to have a treat every now and then. It’s ok miss a workout. Just don’t stay here. Miss the work out, have the treat and move on.
Can You Commit to the 80/20 Lifestyle?
If you are looking to lose weight in a more natural way and don’t want to log your food or track calories, then the 80/20 method might work good for you. All this means is that 80% of the time you eat healthy, well-balanced, nutritious foods, and the other 20% of the time, you might eat those occasional treats or what you would consider less healthy.
This is a much better option than being restrictive and yo-yo dieting all the time. Here are some things to know about the 80/20 eating method to help decide if this is a good option for you.
What Does 80/20 Mean?
When you follow an 80/20 diet it means that you will eat your version of healthy food 80 percent of the time and your version of treats or healthy food 20 percent of the time.
If you use just one meal as an example, then maybe you have a big salad for lunch and all the veggies are your 80% with 20% of the meal consisting of the fatty dressing you really wanted. It is a very small part of your salad, but brings you joy and satisfaction.
However, over the course of days or weeks, it’s better to look at it per meal. While you don’t want to obsess about numbers, in the beginning it helps to calculate how many meals would actually be 20% of the time for treats.
For example, if you tend to eat 3 square meals a day with no snacks, that is about 21 meals for the week. If you calculate 20% of 21, it comes to about 4 meals. So you know that 3-4 meals in your week can be more of the treat meals.
Why Balance is Important
You want to aim for this balance so that you are focusing on proper nutrition and fueling your body, but also getting satisfaction from your food. Eating should not be just about fueling your body, but also not just about treating yourself either and indulging every time you eat.
You want a healthy balance that allows you to eat healthy, filling foods that your body needs for energy, with a little wiggle room for sweets and treats when you crave them.
Easy Ways to Sneak in Treats
On the days when you do want your treats, there are some ways to incorporate them without feeling like you are binging or out of control with them.
The first option is to actually schedule a treat meal every week. This can be pizza on Friday nights or brunch on Sundays with your friends. It is something you will look forward to.
Choose one treat item to buy every week. Maybe you want to grab a bag of peanut butter filled pretzels, a bar of dark chocolate, or a big bag of chips. You know you have this for when you crave it, but it’s not a cart filled with snacks and processed foods, so you still limit how much of it you consume.
Can You Do It?
Can you do it? Can you commit to not yo-yo-ing any more? Commit to an 80/20 balance? Stop restricting yourself? Are you going to start looking through the grey or stick to the black and white world? I know you can do it, so it’s time start!
I’d love to know if you are currently living in the black and white world or if you live a balanced 80/20 life already! Share your tips or maybe you need more help in a certain area. I’ll help in anyway that I can.
Don’t forget to share this post with your friends that you are on this journey with or pin it for later when you need a reminder for motivation.
