DROP A JEANS SIZE IN 21 DAYS

Pat Divilly’s simple plan for body and mind

WITH a new year upon us many of us have set our health and wellness resolutions and sights on a happier and healthier 2017. Anything worthwhile in life takes effort and time so although you aren’t going to completely transform your body in just three weeks you can give yourself a great kickstart back into health, weight loss, improved sleep and energy.

The plan I’m about to outline has helped people drop up to a stone in just 21 days; you can expect to drop a least a jeans size if you stick with the plan. Weight loss is always a result of improved overall health so that is the main focus of this plan. When a body is healthy it doesn’t store excessive body fat.

Many people believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit, and with that in mind I’m going to stretch you for the next 21 days by encouraging you to form a magnitude of habits that will lead to a happier and healthier you.

The fitness industry is a minefield of information with conflicting ideas, plans and theories emerging every week. One of the struggles most people encounter is they start one plan but quickly become distracted by something else they read or see elsewhere. Within a few weeks they’ve jumped from one plan to the next countless times and haven’t seen the results of any. Almost any training and nutrition plan will work but you must stay consistent and trust the process.

If you choose to take this ‘drop a jeans size challenge’ please commit fully to it for the 21 days and don’t fall victim to shiny object syndrome and hop from one plan to the next! If you give this your full attention for the three weeks I promise you’ ll see a host of incredible health benefits — decreased bloating and improved digestion, improved focus and clarity, improved sleep and energy, and of course fat loss.

To me, our internal dialogue or mindset is key to attaining success in any area so before we start this program here are two main principles I’d like you to consider:

1. ARE YOUR GOALS YOUR GOALS?

We can often set goals for the sake of setting goals. It’s the new year so it’s what you are ‘supposed’ to do. So if you’ve set goals it’s worth having a look and asking yourself ‘why do I want this?’. Often the goals we set are just mimicking other people’s and aren’t authentic to us. A goal should be something that inspires you to grow as a person, not something that turns into a miserable slog. So how do you know if you are going after an authentic goal for you? If it’s something you say you ‘should’ do it’s probably to impress or validate yourself to someone else. A goal for ‘you’ will get you excited. There’s a million ways to improve your health and fitness. Pick something that excites YOU and not something that you have to force yourself to commit to. Think about your reason for making a change. It should bring you inner satisfaction and pride.

2. ARE YOU FOCUSED ON THE OUTCOME OR THE PROCESS?

We live in a world where most people are seeking perfection... In rare cases this is powerful because it encourages people to constantly work on their skill or craft to get better every day in the pursuit of mastery... But for the majority chasing perfection leads to procrastination. Being obsessed on the outcome (six pack abs, weight loss, marathon day or other) but disinterested in the process (healthy recipes, training sessions, better lifestyle choice and other) is a sure fire way to stand still. If you want to achieve success with your health in 2017 you need to fall in love with the journey — start viewing every training session as an opportunity to get that little bit better. See every meal as an opportunity to become a little bit healthier. Learning to enjoy progress is the key to making real change. It’s not about getting to the top of the mountain, it’s about the person you become on the journey getting there. The traditional view people take when embarking on a diet or training plan is that they’ll follow the plan for X amount of days and then when it’s over they’ll be ‘happy, fulfilled and will go back to living and eating normally’. As cliched as it sounds, this needs to become a lifestyle and the idea of deferring your happiness and sense of accomplishment to the end of a training plan is counter-intuitive and harmful to your confidence and self-esteem. Start to see every day, every meal and every training session as progress in the right direction and a ‘mini-win’. Our identity is a culmination of how we see ourselves and comes down to our past, our experiences, our environment and more than anything the stories we’ve told ourselves again and again countless times in our heads. We speak to ourselves more than anyone else in this world and most of us beat ourselves up and criticise ourselves.

A common theme for people when it comes to the gym is a recurring story of ‘I’m not a runner, I’m not a gym person or I’ve got bad genetics’. These stories eventually become our identity and we will always act in accordance to our identity. In practice here’s how that will look: 1

You decide you want to make a change and find a plan to help you lose weight. 2 You start making changes but the results take time and these changes are out of alignment with how you see yourself. 3 You get stressed or frustrated and revert to doing what is in line with your identity. “I’ve got bad genetics so it doesn’t make sense to eat what someone with ‘good genetics’ will eat.”

Here are some practical things we can work on to re-shape our identity to match our goals.

FOCUS ON PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION

Can you think of anyone you know who has seen massive success in changing an area of their life? It is highly likely they took small consistent steps and over time came to change the way they saw themselves (their identity). Often when we try to change too much too quickly it is completely foreign to us and leads to stress. Instead, focus on some small changes you can build upon — consistency will always win. If the thought of following the exact plan I’ve laid out here is too far a stretch for you right now, don’t beat yourself up. Instead, pick two or three things you can focus on for the months of January and February. Then once you’ve made those changes add some more healthy habits in March and April. Think of it this way. If you are at point A and your end goal is point Z, instead of trying to jump the whole alphabet and get to Z, think of how you would take a small step to B. Then when you are at B get to C and so on. If your kids were failing in school and you took the approach of expecting them to jump straight to straight As in their exams they’d become overwhelmed

Recognise the power of identity, the most powerful force when it comes to success with improved health.

and wouldn’t progress, but if instead there was a focus on consistent marginal progress there could be massive improvements. Take this same approach with your own goals. I believe the two best changes you can make with your nutrition to start your lifestyle change are drinking a minimum of 2.5 litres of water a day and focusing on a healthy breakfast based on fats and proteins. When we have sugar or carbs we tend to crave them throughout the day. Protein and fats keep us fuller for longer and cut out the sugar cravings.

Learn from your previous attempts. A common thing I see with people setting goals is that they never look back at where they’ve struggled in the past. For example joining a gym in January, dropping out by February and trying the same approach the following year. Ask yourself the question “What were the three biggest struggles I’ve had with previous weight loss plans?” and then come up with appropriate tactics to combat them. If it was a lack of motivation maybe you need to hire a coach, if it was a lack of time to cook your meals maybe you need a food prep company to deliver your meals a few times a week.

PREPARE FOR THE WORST AND HOPE FOR THE BEST

Life is never perfect or predictable so it’s important to have some back up plans. It can be common to come up with a plan, be excited and ready and then be thrown completely off course when the plan falls apart.

So although we’ ll always hope for the best it’s important to prepare for the worst and respond accordingly.

For example, packing your training gear and being excited to train only to find out the gym is closed for renovations. You could allow this change of plan to de-rail your progress or just adjust accordingly and get a run or cycle in instead.

Progress beats perfection every time. Perfection is really just a form of procrastination.

GET SOME ACCOUNTABILITY

I’ve got coaches for my business, for my nutrition, for my health and for other areas of my life. They are there to speed up my results by taking out the guesswork and guiding me like they’ve guided hundreds of others to my desired results. A coach isn’t going to do the work for you but having someone to stay accountable to can make a huge difference in how you see yourself and how you perform and move toward your goals.

People will often complain about the cost of investing in a coach but think of it this way — any money you spend on something that’s going to bring you more confidence, clarity, success or self-esteem is an investment. Any money spent on things that are going to move you away from your goals are a distraction. If you can’t afford to work with a coach on a regular basis maybe try to hire someone for an hour every month and ask them to set you out a plan which they will re-assess the following month.

Friends who are gym goers or fitness fanatics can also be great for helping you shift your identity towards that of someone who excels with their health and wellness. They say you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

So who’s in your social circle?