I don’t know about you, but there is NOTHING I love better than a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over.
Because frankly, it’s easy to fall off the wagon over the holidays, isn’t it? Between all the yummy comfort food and the neighbors delivering home baked goodies every 10 seconds, and the calorie-laden cocktails and even the emotional eating that tends to rear its ugly head this time of year, it’s not hard to find yourself going totally off the rails.
Or maybe you just intentionally chose to give yourself a break during the busy holiday season, knowing you could pick up where you left off come January. Honestly, that’s pretty much the approach I took this year because I knew that in this crazy season of life I’m currently in, good enough was just going to have to do.
But now, with the holidays almost behind us, I’m ready to start thinking about the NEXT season, and that’s exactly what I want to talk about today—how to actually KEEP moving forward, even when we have those moments of setback or those times when we feel like we’re totally off track.
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Embracing the Journey
But before we dive into all of that, I think it’s really important to just acknowledge ONE thing about this journey towards better health, and that is this—it’s a LIFELONG journey. It’s not something that has a finish line, or a specific destination.
It’s not something that you can ever really be “done” with. And in a lot of ways, it’s not even something that’s always going to be linear, where you’re always moving forward and always making progress. And I think that’s something that we often forget, especially when we’re feeling super motivated and making a ton of progress really quickly.
It’s almost like we think that if we could just get started and get some momentum, then we’ll be able to reach our goals and then we can go back to doing what we were doing before. We think that if we can just lose those 10 pounds, then we’ll be good. Or if we can just get through that sugar detox, then we’ll be able to go back to eating the way we were. Or if we can just get through the first month of exercising every day, then we’ll be able to go back to just sitting on the couch and watching Netflix. Or whatever it is.
But that’s not how this works. If you want to actually create lasting change in your life, then you have to be willing to change your life. And I know that might sound a little bit scary—like it’s going to require a lot of effort and energy and that you’re going to have to give up all of the things you love and start doing a bunch of things you DON’T love.
But the reality is that it’s often just the little things—the small changes that we make to our daily habits and routines—that have the biggest impact on our health and our waistline. And it’s also the little things that start to slip up and get us off track.
This isn’t a journey that has an end point, and it’s not a journey where you can just do it for a little while and then go back to what you were doing before. It’s a journey that requires you to be consistent with the things that actually work for your body—the things that make you feel good and healthy and energized.
So that’s the first thing I want you to understand. This is a journey—a lifelong journey—and it’s the little things that matter most, both in moving you forward and in setting you back.
How to Give Yourself a Fresh Start
So with that in mind, how do you start fresh when you feel like you’ve gotten off track?
Well, like everything in life, it mostly comes down to MINDSET—changing the thoughts that ultimately dictate your actions. But at some point, of course you do also have to change your actions as well, right?
So let’s talk about a few strategies that can help you start fresh and get back on track.
Stop Beating Yourself Up
The first strategy is to simply STOP beating yourself up and start practicing self-forgiveness. Because the reality is that we are often our own worst critics, and we tend to be a lot harder on ourselves than we would ever be on anyone else.
And what ends up happening is that we get caught in this cycle of self-sabotage and negative self-talk that just KEEPS us from moving forward. We tell ourselves things like “I’m so undisciplined. I’ll never be able to lose this weight. I always mess things up. What’s wrong with me?”
It’s almost like we think that by beating ourselves up and making ourselves feel as terrible as possible that somehow we’ll be motivated to change. But that’s not how it works. Because the more negative and critical we are of ourselves, the more likely we are to just keep REPEATING the same patterns of behavior that got us off track in the first place.
So the first thing you have to do is to literally just STOP the negative self-talk and start giving yourself more grace. And I know that might sound a little bit easier said than done, but I promise you that it’s a PRACTICE. It’s something that you have to intentionally CHOOSE to do, over and over again, until it becomes a HABIT.
Because the more you can focus on the positive and give yourself credit for the things you’re doing well, the more you’ll start to believe that you’re actually CAPABLE of change, and the more likely you’ll be to keep moving forward and making progress. And the reverse is also true—the more you beat yourself up and focus on all of the things you think you’re doing wrong, the more likely you’ll be to keep repeating those same mistakes.
So that’s the first thing—to simply stop focusing on all the ways you’ve messed up and instead forgive yourself enough to move forward.
Reconnect With Your WHY
The second strategy for getting back on track is to reconnect with your WHY. And I know I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, but it’s so important that I’m going to keep talking about it over and over again. Because honestly, this is the ONE thing that I see make the BIGGEST difference in people’s ability to actually achieve their goals and stay consistent with their healthy habits.
When things are going well, and you’re feeling motivated and seeing progress and getting results, it’s so easy to stay committed and stay on track. But then as soon as you hit a roadblock or a setback, or you have a few days or weeks where you’re not seeing as much progress or not feeling super motivated, it’s easy to lose sight of WHY you wanted to make these changes in the first place. And so you just kind of give up.
So that’s why it’s so important to have a really clear understanding of your WHY—of your big picture vision for your life, and what you want to be able to do and FEEL, and what you DON’T want to have to deal with anymore.
You have to connect with the EMOTIONAL reasons WHY this is so important to you, and why you’ve decided that you’re no longer willing to just stay where you’re at. Because when you have a strong enough WHY, then the HOW will always reveal itself. And when you’re feeling stuck or like you’ve gotten off track, you can always come back to that WHY and use it as your motivation to keep moving forward.
So if you’re feeling stuck right now, or worried about getting your momentum back, then I want to challenge you to take a few minutes to really reconnect with your WHY. Go back and listen to some of the early episodes of this podcast, or read some of the books that really inspired you to get started on this journey in the first place.
And if you don’t have a clear WHY yet, then take some time to really think about it and get it down on paper. Because I promise you, that will make SUCH a big difference in your ability to actually keep moving forward.
Just Start. Right Now. Imperfectly.
And once you’ve done that, then the next step is to just START. To take some kind of action, no matter how small or imperfectly, in the direction of your goals. And I know that might sound like a super simple and obvious thing, but it’s honestly where so many of us get stuck.
We wait until we’re feeling super motivated or until we have a big chunk of time to really dive in and get started. Or we keep telling ourselves that we’re just going to wait until Monday or until January 1s or until after the kids go back to school, or whatever.
But the thing is, the longer you wait to take action, the harder it’s going to be to actually get started. Because that’s when you start to build up this story in your head about how impossible it is or how you’ll never be able to do it or how you’re too far off track.
And you start to lose that little bit of momentum that you DO have. So my advice is to literally just start—to take some kind of action, no matter how small, in the direction of your goals. And that might mean something different for each of us, depending on what our specific goals are.
But I’ll give you a few examples.
If your goal is to get back on your weight loss plan, then just start right now by drinking a big glass of water and actually tracking your food intake today. Or just start by actually reading your food labels today and paying more attention to what you’re eating. Or if you’ve gotten off track with working out, then just start taking a 10 minute walk around the block. Or if you’ve been feeling really stressed and overwhelmed and like you’ve lost your focus, then just start by taking 15 minutes to do a brain dump and get all of your thoughts and to-do’s out of your head and onto paper.
Because here’s the thing—even the SMALLEST action in the direction of your goals has the power to create MOMENTUM. And once you have that momentum, it’s so much easier to keep moving forward and taking bigger and bigger steps. It’s like the old saying—a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
And the same is true for taking action in your life—once you get started, it’s so much easier to keep going. But the opposite is also true—the longer you wait to get started, the harder it will be to actually take that first step.
Create an Action Plan
So now that you’ve started and you have some momentum, the final strategy I want to talk about is creating an action plan. This doesn’t have to be anything super elaborate or overwhelming—it’s simply a way for you to map out what needs to be done in order for you to achieve your goals.
And again, this will look different for each of us based on our specific goals, but the key is to break it down into smaller, manageable steps.
And honestly, I think that’s where it is SO HELPFUL to have an actual program or proven process to follow. Obviously the one I recommend is our Thin Adapted System—AKA TAS—because it literally shows you how to implement everything I recommend in a super methodical, easy-to-follow, step-by-step way.
Our program works in four phases that are all designed to help you heal your body from the inside out—to reverse insulin resistance, heal your gut, and balance your hormones FOR LIFE so that you actually CAN take it easy over the holidays and never once feel guilty about indulging, because you know your body is now what we call metabolically flexible, and it will all be okay.
And if you want help creating your 12 month action plan for this coming year, then I strongly, STRONGLY encourage you to check out our FREE on-demand training video that we have available for you right now, which will not only help you map out your plan, but explain exactly how our program works and how it can help you reach ALL your health goals.
It’s called Healthy, Happy, and Free in 2024, and once again—it’s an on-demand video that is totally free to watch. You can find it HERE. And I promise you’ll thank me later.
