Just imagine with me for a moment: you wake up one morning, look in the mirror and you see fit masculine body. As you get dressed everything fits exactly as you want it to. You enter the world, looking and feeling like you never have before, feeling like you could take on the world. You respect yourself and others have no choice but give you the respect you and your achievements command. You’re an inspiration to them to eat healther, hit the gym and just be generally healthy.
This is the outcome most people desire. They make a plan, they get excited looking forward to this day, when they look in the mirror and see what they want to see. They buy books, magazines and give it 110% with a positive attitude, confident that THIS TIME will be the time they make it. Then weeks later, it seems that feeling has died. It’s all too hard, they go off the rails, eat some junk, skip a workout, and tell themselves they’ll ‘start again tomorrow’. Then again the next day, and every day afterwards.
What went wrong?
They had the drive, something most people have trouble finding. They took action, this step is what separates them most people. The intention was there, but their body and mind has decided it’s not ready for change and decided to make things difficult, so they simply put it into the too hard basket. This is why you have to not just ACT, but ACT SMART.
Trial and error. Chances are if you’ve tried in the past, you know what stopped you. Maybe you allowed yourself one can of Coke, ro lunch at MacDonalds today. ‘Just this once’ you think, until once becomes twice, and so on. You cannot allow this to happen again. If it does you need to stop and remind yourself that it is something you want to avoid REFUSE to let happen again. Write it down. Put it on the wall or fridge. Do something to make this choice tangeable and make sure you see it, EVERY DAY. The key to continuing on this success is planning against failure. Plan your attack on these bad habits and slowly eliminate them.

World renowned trainer Vince Delmonte
In his book ‘No Nonsense Muscle Building‘, world renowned trainer Vince Delmonte describes a bad habit :
“Visualize your hands clasped together, finger-over-finger, and tied together with tight string. This picture represents bondage to a bad habit. Every time you resist a bad habit, one of these strings will come undone – this represents resisting your bad habit once. Since you have only removed one string the bad habit is still present. However, as you continue to resist and resist, another string, and another, and another will fall off your hands and eventually your hands will be free to move and come apart freely.”
Removing a bad habit is something that requires a consistent effort. You need a way to make sure you avoid that habit unflinchingly. A few ways to achieve this is:
Tell a Friend
Find a friend, family member or anyone you respect and tell them what you plan to do. Keep that person up to date, give them the right to go hard on you if you fail. If you slack off, you have to report to that person and face the disappointment. This creates a sort of social pressure to stay on the track, and will make a difference in your progress.
Plan an alternative.
If you feel the urge to binge or go off track, distract yourself. I once heard about a man (friend of a friend) who gave up smoking, everytime he craved a cigarette he ate a dry cracker and never smoked again. This might not be the best example when focusing on nutrition, but it gives you the general idea.
Sometimes if I’m starving I’ll go for a walk or a run, or drink some green tea, or go buy something I want. Having alternatives gives you options, making it easier to change direction and avoid ‘going off the rails’.
Write it down, review it DAILY.
If you have a bad habit, or find yourself doing something you don’t approve of, write it down. Success coaches preach the benefits of having goals written down. So write down what you want to avoid doing, but make it meaningful and proactive. Writing down something like ‘stop eating junkfood’ is not going to be as effective as ‘ONLY eat healthy, love it, get excited about it”. If you read this every day, in the morning and really visualise this action, it’ll be easier to remember that feeling when the time comes.
It’s all about being aware. The aboves steps are ways for you to make yourself aware and constantly ready for anything to come. Applying these methods can help keep you on track, and prepare you for those hard moments, when people seem to pressure you into just ‘enjoying yourself this once’ (see The impact training has on my life) and eating crap, stand firm and stick to your goals. These tips should help make that easier. So get a pen and paper, write down your habits and goals and get started!