Ten Reasons You Need Planning, Not Plans
Are you having trouble turning the ambitious plans you make concerning your weight loss into a reality? If your weight loss hasn’t yet moved past the planning stage, then it’s time to hit the reset button and learn the secret to gaining a successful weight loss story that has long-lasting results…
American president Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. Lincoln knew that the time and effort spent on planning would make the task itself easier. In terms of successful weight loss, it’s very easy to procrastinate and think “I’ll start my diet tomorrow”. But talk to most people who have lost weight and successfully kept it off, and they will talk about a lifestyle change rather than merely a diet or exercise change as being key.
Even with more and more specific diet and exercise plans to follow, the Western world continues to get fatter and fatter. That’s because these structured weight loss plans are missing the mark. How so? Because it is the weight loss planning, rather than specific weight loss plans, which hold the key to conquering the world’s weight loss woes.
Ask yourself this: Does my day ever run according to plan? You’re probably already shaking your head “No.” Delays, interruptions, upsets and frustrations are all a part of daily life. How then can you expect a diet or exercise plan to not get interrupted, delayed, and eventually forgotten?
Even if you surround yourself with the latest weight loss books, and vow to live and breathe diet, exercise, and personal fitness you’ll never reach your weight loss goals through plans alone. Get ready to discover ten reasons why reaching your weight loss goals require planning, not plans…
1. So you don’t feel like a failure before you begin. If you can run the rest of your life - schedule three kids, balance four bank accounts, hold down a job, clean the house, volunteer for committees and so on – but still feel you have to be told exactly what to eat each moment of the day it can be downright demoralising. Working out your own weight loss regime (according to some more general guidelines) makes healthy living empowering.
2. So you don’t feel like a failure if you don’t stick to the plan. A recent study by Indiana University found that the more complex a person’s diet plan was, the less likely the person would be to abide by it.
Whether it’s because you chose not to follow the specific plan or circumstances prevent you from following the plan, it’s hard not to feel like a failure when you haven’t done what you know you were “supposed” to do. Planning allows for flexibility of moods, circumstances and settings. Most diet and exercise plans don’t.
3. So you don’t develop the resentment factor. Do you hate when you’re told you “should” do this or “have” to do that? Most people know what to do to lose weight – eat better and exercise more. The trick is in knowing how to do it day in and day out. Any weight loss expert will tell you that consistency is the real key to weight loss. If you resent sticking to a weight loss plan then forcing yourself to will only make you less likely to keep working at it day in and day out.
4. So you know what to do when the plan is no longer around. According to the Australian Dieticians Association 96% of people who lose weight put it all back on –and then some –within two years. One reason for this is that many people who lose weight while following a particular plan don’t learn how to integrate healthy living into their everyday life. They lose weight while on the plan, but have no idea how to keep it off without the weight loss plan. They end up stuck in a pattern of weight loss and weight gain, spending their entire lives as slaves to one diet or another.
One of the most amazing things about people who lose weight only to regain it all again later is that they often go back to use the same method that they used before because “it worked”. Clearly it didn’t work or they wouldn’t be overweight again! As Karl Marx said, “Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity”. If the primary purpose of a weight loss company is to make money, rather than fix the obesity epidemic, then it isn’t really in their interest to teach people how to lose weight in a way that will enable them to keep it off forever.
If you are going to adopt a plan-based approach then make sure you chose one that offers you diet and fitness education, not just orders. “You don’t have to think” may be some plans’ biggest marketing point– something they can sell to you again and again because you aren’t taught how to manage your weight without it. Never having to think while you are on a weight loss plan makes you much less likely to keep the weight off once you’re on your own.
5. So you feel empowered on your weight loss journey. Some of the highest achieving individuals in their fields have been mostly self-taught. Shakespeare never went to university, Richard Branson never went to business school and Quentin Tarantino’s early training was working in a video store! Today a veritable ocean of weight loss books and other media diet surrounds us. Buy a magazine. Read weight loss books. We all know that knowledge is power. Educate yourself and decide what works best for your body and your lifestyle to create your own weight loss success story.
6. So you have more options. Everyone wants the same thing from a diet or exercise plan – something that suits their individual temperament each and every day. You want to be comforted when you feel the need to be nurtured and challenged when you feel ready to rise to the occasion. In terms of weight training the concept of specific plans originally rose from body builders wanting to build more size.
Sure it’s useful to know exactly how many kilograms you can bench press if you’re goal is to eventually bench twice your own body weight. But if strength and muscle size aren’t your number one priority, does it really matter if some days you lift 20kg and on your other (less energetic days) you can only mange 15? Planning your weight sessions around a few basic guidelines without the specifics of sets and reps not only makes it easier on your mind but also more effective on your body.
7. So you get better results. We all know people who exercise religiously, yet their bodies just don’t show much change. The body adapts to things very quickly and the actual effectiveness of particular exercises can be diminished over time. Professional athletes training for specific events adopt the concept of “periodization” in their training programs in order to ensure that their bodies are constantly being challenged.
These programs are extremely complex. Few, if any, weight loss programs are detailed enough to produce the same effect. Unless you’re a professional athlete and have the time to learn all the exercises and follow the program religiously, the easiest way to achieve the same result is to constantly vary what you do. And the easiest way to integrate constant and consistent variation is to ditch the specific diet and exercise plan.
8. So you can save money. It’s estimated that Australians will spend $745.6 million this year on weight loss methods (including plans, shakes, and surgery) and this figure is expected to increase to over 1 billion dollars in the next five years. Certainly investing in healthy living is investing in yourself – but you have to do it wisely. It’s just as easy to throw money away on lose fat fast schemes as it is to throw money away on get rich quick schemes. Anyone can lose fat fast. Aim to lose fat forever for a truly successful weight loss story.
9. So you can become one of “those people” who never have to worry about their weight again. People who are naturally slim, fit and healthy don’t follow a specific and diet and exercise plan. They just effortlessly integrate healthy living into their everyday life. Much like knowing how to whistle, if you aren’t born with this skill, you have to learn how to do it. So learn from the masters – not just the students. “Those people” often think ahead, but they don’t have any specific weight loss plans and they don’t have any weight loss worries either.
10. So you can do what’s right for you.
People who don’t need to worry about their weight don’t all eat the same things or do the same type of exercise. There is no one magic fitness formula or weight loss plan to suit everyone. Everyone has to work out what to eat and how to integrate more physical activity into their days in ways that work for them both physically and psychologically. According to Michael Barbee, a US nutrition expert and author of “Politically Incorrect Nutrition” there is no such thing as the ideal diet – except the one that works best for you.
It was another American president, Dwight Eisenhower, who said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”. Considering that Lincoln and Eisenhower oversaw many of America’s most significant war efforts, it seems that they may have a lot to teach us about turning our own weight loss wars into weight loss success stories!
