The cornerstone Habits of Fat Loss

Many new clients who come to me for help with fat loss ask me to write them a calorie controlled diet plan.

Over the last few years I have stopped writing these type of plans for most of my clients and we have achieved more success than we ever did calorie counting and following specific diet plans.

Why is this?

Simply put, following a diet plan only tests your ability to follow a plan. It’s a test of focus, endurance and willpower.

It takes no account for eating when you are stressed, tired or in too much of a hurry to prepare that evening meal.

It doesn’t take into account when you are out with friends for drinks, for times when you can’t control your food prep and when you are on holiday.

Therefore calorie counted meal plans just don't equip you to take long term ownership of your own weight.

For most people, I strongly believe learning new skills and habits around food is the key to long term change. Sure, it takes longer to see change but patience is a virtue and probably THE key virtue most people wanting to change body shape don’t possess. It is their haste to see an immediate return that is the undoing of most peoples' efforts to look and feel better in the long term.

Through courses, seminars and my own experience of over 20 years working with weight loss clients, I have refined down the core habits of what I believe most people need in order to be able to take personal control of their weight.

To make this easier, I have broken these habits down into sub-groups:

1. External Habits

• Habits relating to understanding food and fluid intake.

2. Internal Habits

• Habits concerned with connecting your mind to your body

3. Preparation Habits

• Habits focused on creating a plan of action to support your weight loss goal

4. Critical Daily Focus

• Habits you need to do each day to monitor how you are getting on. You should do your CDF habits no matter whether you are working through external habits, internal habits or preparation habits.

These 4 habit categories are the key areas I focus on with my weight loss clients:

External Core Habits

• Water Intake – 2-3 litres per day?

• Vegetable Intake – Eating veg at lunch and dinner most days?

• Understand what a portion size is in regards to:

  • Protein

  • Carbohydrates

  • Fat

Internal Core Habits

• Eat slowly

• Eat until you are 80% full

• Delay impulsive eating

Preparation Habits

• Clean Your Environment – Initial Habit

• Plan what you will eat next week

• Prepare food for the week

  • Shopping

  • Actual food prep

• Understand how to read food labels

Critical Daily Focus

• Focused Practice

• Checking In

• Recording how you got on

Whilst this list may initially mean nothing to you, at least consider how many of them you regularly do in your weight loss goal attempts.

If the answer is ‘Not many’ and you have spent years trying one diet followed by another, you may want to consider delving deeper into these habits.

Whilst I have grouped these habits into different categories, it is not in order of importance. In reality it is a matter of deciding which habits will be easiest for you to pick up and which give you the biggest bang for their buck. That will be different from person to person so choose carefully in order to start easy and build up momentum towards the harder habits.

One rule I always work through with clients:

There is no failure if you are trying. Accept you are human and that trial and error are part of learning. There is only failure if you never try in the first place.

Far too many people feel they fail if they are not immediately successful and this simply isn’t true. It takes time and patience to become skilled at these habits.

If you would like to learn more about this system, drop me a line and we can have an informal friendly chat. It doesn’t cost anything except an hour of your time and may prove to be quite enlightening.

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