How many things can you put on your plate at one time?
What else could you add to your current lifestyle and still get a quality output on most of the things you set out to do?
We try to handle as much as possible but inevitably we fall short, and that sucks. In a fitness or health routine, that shortcoming, for many people, means the end of the road where all things stop.
There’s a million reasons we fail in certain areas but many times we are just trying to get too much done at once. Even more so when we are talking about health and fitness. We make “one” goal (lose weight, tone up, feel better) but how many things have to go into actually seeing change toward that goal?
Let’s take a step back and figure out the smallest change we KNOW we can handle and still see benefit.
This way the margin for error is much smaller and if we do end up falling short we can keep working on that small task at hand until we get It right.
This will be our lowest possible investment.
It doesn’t mean you aren’t fully invested to change, but rather only investing what you can handle at a certain time. Giving yourself a much higher chance of achieving what you set out for, or at least sticking with it for the long haul.
So if we are looking to lose weight and tone up, what is the lowest investment we can start off with? How about cleaning up our diet? Or starting an exercise routine?
Seems simple right?
Well, just saying I am going to clean up my diet is tough for two reasons.
- It’s too vague with little direction making It too easy to fall off track
- Just “cleaning up your diet” is hundreds of steps fixed into one statement. What we can do Is break that statement down into much smaller steps
Cleaning up your diet:
- More whole foods
- Less processed foods
- Fruit or vegetable at each meal
- Lean protein at each meal
- 3-4 meals per day
- Stop drinking your calories
- No fast food
- Quality fats every day
- Drinking “x” amount of water
- Eat until satisfied not full
This is just a short list of what might be lumped into cleaner eating.
So let’s figure out our lowest possible investment and pick one thing off the list to attack first. I like to start with something that I KNOW I will get done. Usually It will be something I am already close to achieving.
So let’s say for week one we stop drinking our calories. Maybe we are having a soda two nights a week. So just by taking out those two sodas we are already there. After 7 days, success.
Now we move into week two and we feel confident so we add another goal, lean protein at each meal. This one may be a little more of a challenge but I still think I can get It done. This goal may have taken two full weeks to become a habit, but now that it’s formed we add another, then another.
That is the beauty about starting with this low investment. You are not discouraging yourself by trying to add too much to your already hectic life. These are things that CAN be done and then are built off one another as the weeks go on.
Before you know It, months down the line, so much has changed and there hasn’t been an urge to take a step back.
This can build off what we discussed last week about life long results. It’s not about how fast we get there but how long we can stay there. Results don’t matter if we revert back and lose everything we have worked for.
Starting with our lowest investment, we are creating a starting point that is going to keep the needle moving forward every single day, week, month, year.
In good health,
Jeff
