Everybody thinks that losing weight and changing the way that you live are relatively easy things to do. The TV and internet are full of people that say, “all I did was…” Hogwash! There is absolutely nothing easy or simple about lifestyle modification! There is no place you can go to and find a one size fits all program. The way that I do it is great for me and maybe you can take a few things and add them to your plan, but all of us are different and plans need to be tailored to individuals.
The way you initiate a lifestyle modification is all-important. It is challenging and something to which you need to recommit over and over again.
First of all, get rid of the “diet” concept.
A diet is a short-term project to lose weight for a particular goal, like fitting into a dress or suit for a wedding. It’s a temporary change in how you eat that may not even involve other aspects of your life. Changing the way that you live is something called “lifestyle modification.” Lifestyle modification is a life-long process of changing the way that you live in pursuit of greater health. Weight loss is just one beneficial side effect of lifestyle modification. Comprehensive lifestyle modification will reduce cholesterol and triglycerides, eliminate hypertension, stabilize blood sugar, reduce the chance of cancer, improve your day-to-day functioning in every aspect and increase longevity.
Dieting weight loss is almost always temporary, but if your lifestyle modification plan is comprehensive, realistic and actionable, you can maintain all of the beneficial side effects for an entire lifetime.
Creating a lifestyle modification plan that is comprehensive, realistic and actionable is much easier said than done! Each aspect of your lifestyle modification is essential and needs to be well thought out.
Your lifestyle modification plan needs to be comprehensive. Consider all aspects of your life, including how you feel, think and act over a day, week, month and year.
Your lifestyle modification plan needs to be realistic. Your commitment to lifestyle modification is steadfast and unchanging, but your plan is dynamic and has to be based on your willingness and ability to change, given what is going on in your life at a particular moment in time. You need to be able to bob and weave like a boxer taking evasive action moment by moment in order to stay in the ring with a formattable opponent! Bruce Lee says that you need to “be like water…if you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot; it becomes the teapot.” If your plan is static and unchanging, you will fail, period.
Your lifestyle modification plan needs to be actionable. What you feel and think is important, but what you do is where the results are!
Lifestyle modification is a journey. In any journey, we follow a path that is not always straight. It may bend to the right, or bend to the left or even double back and go in the opposite direction for a while. Part of walking a path is realizing that it will turn, bend and sometimes go the other way. In terms of weight loss, these temporary changes in direction are called a “plateau.”
Lifestyle modification is like looking at one years’ worth of stock market results where a clear upward trend is observable. If you take a one-day snapshot of that same upward trend, it may show a tremendous decline, but that doesn’t change the fact that the market is going up. If you are what’s called a “day trader,” you are only interested in what a stock is doing for a day or even just an hour or minute. You are looking for a small gain or loss. Investors take a long-term view and are interested in what happens over a year or two or more. Dieters are day traders. Lifestyle modification requires long-term investment.
When a dieting day trader encounters a plateau, it can jeopardize their short-term weight loss project, often leading to a failure because they are not on a lifestyle modification path. They don’t know that the path temporarily bends, turns or even doubles back and they are surprised when this happens. Part of developing a comprehensive lifestyle modification plan is thinking about every eventuality and being ready for it before it happens! A plateau is viewed differently by an investor. An investor sees a temporary drop in the price of a stock as an opportunity to buy more at a lower price. In investment, that is called “doubling down.” As investors in health, we need to view a plateau as an opportunity to double down on our lifestyle modification commitment with more action! Not having a plan to deal with an inevitable plateau is negligent and shows poor planning.
One of the people whose thinking heavily influenced my initial lifestyle modification plan was Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was much more than an action screen actor. He was an innovator and philosopher. He founded a new school of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do or “The way of the intercepting fist.” This unique non-classical and formless fighting style is based on anticipating the action of one’s opponent and intercepting that action with quick countermeasures designed to exert minimal effort with maximum effect. There are no style points awarded in Jeet Kune Do. It is a conspicuous style based on economy of movement that is neither arrogant nor pretentious. Jeet Kune Do fighters step in, get the job done and walk away. Bruce Lee’s movements are elegant in their simplicity. This concept struck a chord with me because “simple yet elegant” had been a hallmark of my cooking and management styles as a chef and hospitality industry professional for decades. Jeet Kune Do heavily influenced my own comprehensive, realistic and actionable lifestyle modification plan.
There are many similarities between lifestyle modification and addiction recovery. Twelve-step recovery programs are all about personal honesty. Step one states that we are powerless, and our lives have become unmanageable and step three demands that we make a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves. Remember that your lifestyle modification plan needs to be comprehensive, realistic and actionable and be based on your willingness and ability to change.
Be honest with yourself.
Take a long hard look in the mirror. This is the first crucial step in developing an individualized lifestyle modification plan that is comprehensive, realistic and actionable. You first need to know yourself. To create a lifestyle modification plan that is comprehensive, you need to be aware of what aspects of your life are critically important. To create a lifestyle modification plan that is realistic, you need to know what your willingness level is and what abilities and skills you have. To create a lifestyle modification plan that is actionable, you need to be able to honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses.
Know what your motivations are.
What do you consider valuable in your life? What is it that is motivating your desire to change? There is no right or wrong answer. It is about you, not anybody else! Using what motivates others will not give you a firm foundation to act upon. If looking good is important to you, you may want to make vanity a foundation of your desire to lose weight. Don’t let anybody tell you there is something wrong with that! Being around for family, children and grandchildren is not an especially strong motivator for me, but I know it is a strong motivator for many others and it may be for you. You may need to couple your lifestyle modification commitment with a spiritual or philosophical concept that is important to you. You need to rethink your motivational hierarchies and move lifestyle modification up to the top of the list and base it on things that matter to you and only you. Don’t look to anybody else to validate your commitment. What motivates them is not important to you. It is also not important that you broadcast your motivations to others; that is a waste of time and energy. It is only important that you gather this critical information about yourself, use it to make a commitment and then take quick and decisive action.
Take a deep breath, make a fist, and be ready for a long haul!
There is never going to be a moment on your lifestyle modification journey that is easy or fast. It will be a long and difficult slog that will demand a day-to-day, hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute commitment to change! Lifestyle modification takes time and will require patience. Lifestyle modification is all about taking small steps over and over again; you will have to be persistent! Lifestyle modification means perseverance and dealing with periodic setbacks. It’s going to be a fight and this may be the hardest thing you will ever do in your life. Take a deep reflective breath, make a fist–an intercepting fist–and get ready for action!
DO something!
Being willing to change is great, but ultimately talk is cheap. Step away from thought now and do something and let your action be the physical manifestation of your commitment to change!
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”
– Bruce Lee
Have a great week!