When Will Power and Mo Tivation have left the building ...
... it can be tempting to point our fingers there and throw our hands up in frustration. "I guess I'll never reach these goals. I have no willpower. And if I could just get motivated ..."
But what if I told you willpower and motivation aren't necessary? Would you believe me?
We all have a finite amount of willpower. If it's being used all day long, you will cave eventually. Here's the work-a-round: Set up your environment and biology for success.
1) Ya know how you eat entire jars of peanut butter in a day or 2? Or maybe it's the ice cream that doesn't stand a chance? Whatever your particular foods are that you seem to have a lot of trouble with portion control around, don't keep them in the house! Keep almond butter instead. Or sorbet or something. Compromise with your loved ones on this and when you really want it, go out and get a single serving. One day, you will be more balanced and not have to worry about these trigger foods holding any power over you. But for now, this will help.
2) Balance your biology! Your cells are meant to scream for excess energy if you are under-nourishing them. This could be from skipping meals, trying extended fasts that are beyond what your adrenals can handle right now, or maybe you're eating too many empty calories and not enough real food. Also, if your hormones and blood sugar aren't balanced, you will find yourself trying to rely on willpower in situations where some others just don't seem to need it.
Now... motivation! She's sexy when she's here, isn't she? You almost feel superhuman when you're motivated to do something, right? But she's flakey and unpredictable. Thankfully, you don't need her. You can use discipline to do the thing anyway. That action builds momentum. And that momentum you create tends to attract motivation to swing by more often. But even if she doesn't? Who cares. You have discipline. And discipline is a bit more boring, but superrrrr loyal.
How do you tap into discipline? First, you set SMALL goals that you know are doable even when you don't want to do it. ASSUME you won't be motivated when the time comes. Is the thing you're promising to yourself small enough that you can get it done anyway? The answer should be a resounding YES.
So, you don't start drinking half your body weight in ounces of water today. You drink 1 glass of water before you let yourself have your coffee today.
You don't do a full Tara Allen Health workout from instagram or someone else's from youtube today. You do the first 5 minutes.
And you don't perfectly balance all of your meals today. You add a veggie to your lunch.
Aaaaaaand, you don't do ALL of that in 1 day. You pick 1 or 2 things and add more only when you can consistently rock those 1 or 2 things.
No willpower, no motivation, all the health and body goals. You are in the driver's seat. Always.
XO,
Tara
P.S. If you have said to yourself or anyone else in the past few days that you need help -- that you have fat loss, muscle-building, "toning", blood sugar balance issues, or a slow metabolism -- then I look forward too seeing you in September. TRANSFORM: Body + Mind is the 28-day course you need. Make sure you're on the waitlist as waitlist peeps will be getting a discount code.
P.P.S. If you want to start to feel the effects of balancing your meals BEFORE the September round of TRANSFORM: Body + Mind, grab my latest Fat Loss Meal Plan available for purchase.