When Brenda arrived at my office, she looked ready to burst into tears. “What’s wrong?” I asked, as I handed her a box of tissues.
“I’m just not making any progress!” she said. I knew she was right because her scale weight had gone up instead of down the past couple of visits. So I gently pushed her to tell me more about her struggles.
“I have decided I’m the queen of nighttime eating!” she began. “I follow my diet program really well all during the day. In fact, most of the time, I’m on it 100%. But by late afternoon, I start to feel tired and stressed. I usually have way too much on my mind as well as my to-do list, and by the time I get home, I start to lose my focus.
First, I reach for a glass of wine and some cheese (high protein, right?) Of course, I usually add a bunch of crackers, so I guess the protein part doesn’t really matter.
After I’ve finished a glass or two of wine and my snacks, I don’t feel like cooking a healthy meal. So I just grab what’s easy. Last night, it was pizza that was left over from my ‘last supper’ the night before.
I am in a vicious cycle, and I can’t seem to every break out of it. So in spite of telling myself that I’m sticking with my diet plan, I keep gaining weight instead of losing.”
Brenda’s problem is extremely common. I frequently hear people say that they work “so hard” all day, and then undo all of their efforts every night. One of my colleagues used to refer to this as “diet mornings and pig-out evenings!”
While you may not be able to conquer this pattern overnight, here are three steps that will help you start to change your routine.
1. Follow the “new math” for weight loss
To make consistent progress with any weight-loss plan, you need to be on your program 95% of the time. If you do the math, this means staying on track 19 out of 20 days!
Rather than assume you have to be perfect for a year, set a goal of 19 days on your plan. Track it, monitor it, and push hard to accomplish it.
Anytime you have a day that’s not quite on program, just assume it’s one of your 20 days. But that’s the only break you get. If you have more than one out of 20 days off your plan, you’re decreasing your odds for success.
Mark your progress on a calendar and push for 19 days in a row. When you reach that point, you can either start counting again or choose to have one slightly relaxed day, then start a new 20-day run.
2. Do more self-care
Look at all the places during your day where you can slip in a little self-care activity. Sometimes that’s all it takes to keep from being so exhausted by late afternoon.
Janice is a computer specialist who gets so engrossed in her work that she often sits for three to four hours without taking a break. Then her eyes are tired, her back hurts, and she starts craving a candy bar to give her some quick energy.
Eventually, she realized her long periods without breaks were adding to the problem. So she found a way to set a timer on her computer to go off hourly. Now, once an hour, she gets up, walks around, stretches a bit, and drinks some water. Her new system has completely changed her patterns, and helped her come home a lot less tired.
3. Go back to what worked before
Think about times in the past when you were doing great, and were being successful with losing weight. Try to remember all the things you did that helped you stay focused and on track. I’ll bet you could go back and do most of them again.
Brenda liked this suggestion and quickly came up with a list of what used to make her successful.
- Go back to tracking my progress on a wall calendar, using the “dot system” to monitor how each day went. For information on this, go here.
- Do my exercise right away after I get home instead of having a glass of wine.
- Stock up on sparkling water and diet drinks to sip on instead of wine. Also, keep raw veggies to nibble on while I’m fixing dinner.
Her new system worked, and within two weeks, she had lost five pounds as well as completely broken her stuck cycle.