Don’t be a fool, use the tools.
“If you are Prepared, you will be Confident, and you will do the Job”
Tom Landry
Mental Discipline
“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“The 3 C’s for success in life:
1. Choose what you want in life
2. Commit to what you want
3. Continue until you have it”
Behavioral management for success
To be successful you must manage all of the typical sources of non-compliance to your regime. After all, fitness and weight reduction is a 35 billion dollar industry that can only brag of a 4% success rate. Everyone is always looking for a short cut or quick result method that will make obtaining their fitness goals easy or easier. The reality is that changing your habits and behaviors is a difficult process. It requires time, dedication, consistently, hard work, and expenditures of both physical and financial resources.
Provided you have the knowledge, the appropriate exercise and nutrition regime, what gets in the way!
Difficultly sometimes comes during times when things are not going well and we feel that we are not on top of our game. Often these times are described as when we are:
TOO (2)! …
2- tired, 2 angry, 2-depressed, 2-anxious, 2-overworked, 2-busy,
2-apathetic, 2-overwhelmed, 2-intense, 2-unhappy, 2-lonely, 2-hungry,2-bored, 2-stressed, 2-frustrated, 2-excited, 2- etc.
During these times determine Plan A and Plan B behaviors.
Plan A vs. Plan B behavior
The typical behaviors that you identify that cause an interruption of your exercise or nutrition regime, we can call PLAN A behaviors. These are reasons you give yourself permission to deviate. Compliance behaviors substituted in their place will be called Plan B behaviors. Plan B behaviors are developed ahead of time by you to allow you to get the desired behaviors that you want or compliance to your fitness goals.
Example:
Plan A behavior … I’m having bad feelings so I’ll eat ice cream to make me feel better.
Substitute
Plan B behavior … I’m having bad feelings so I’ll listen to music that makes me feel better.
Be aware of your breakdowns, or PLAN A behaviors and substitute predetermined PLAN B behaviors.
To help develop Plan B behaviors depend on the five D’s:
When a craving strikes, Structure House clinical director Lee Kern, M.S.N., C.C.S.W., advises:
- Delay eating food,
- Distract yourself with another activity, (like take a walk),
- Distance yourself from food physically.
- “Use this time to Determine why your desire to eat is so high” he says.
- Then you can Decide consciously what to do about the food. ;”If you practice all five D’s, chances are you’ll walk away without eating.”
To help awareness of Plan A behaviors, observe your Permission thoughts.These are thoughts that give yourself permission consciously or unconsciously to deviate from your plan.
For instance:
When I feel bad, I crave, therefore I deserve this to make myself feel better.
Break this pattern of not giving yourself permission to deviate based on preexisting patterns or circumstances that by nature instantly mean that you can cross the line.