My last newsletter broke down how we often look at diet like a rodeo. We make it about how long we can hold on for, knowing inevitably that this approach will get us bucked off the bull and leave us thinking we are back at square one.
Diet is much more like riding a bike. When you first start riding a bike, you fall off a lot. You don’t quite have the necessary muscular and neuromuscular skills or experience required to ride the bike without taking a spill. And as we all remember, some of those falls hurt. They leave us with a little bruise or a cut that has us questioning whether or not we want to get back on the bike. Diet is very similar.
When we first attempt to eat healthier, we find it challenging. We don’t know exactly what we should eat. We have cravings and temptations all of the time and we don’t have the necessary skills to deal with those cravings and temptations so we “fall off” our diet. This is okay. It’s natural. It’s expected.
Like riding a bike, the key is to get back on. You can’t let a spill make you afraid of the bike forever right? Furthermore, we know that just because we fell off the bike doesn’t mean we are back at square one with our bike training. Instead, we realize that the fall is part of the process (of course sometimes it takes the encouragement of others to realize this) and that the only option is to get back up and keep trying. Again, the same goes for diet.
And it gets easier over time. After you have fallen a few times when riding a bike, you eventually figure it out and stop falling so much. When you do fall, it is much less catastrophic because of your newly developed coordination and confidence in your bike riding ability. You know when you do occasionally fall that it is no big deal and is simply part of the process. Once again, the same goes for diet.
If you are new to dieting, realize that you are going to fall. It is expected. It is part of the journey. It doesn’t mean that everything you have done is for nothing. It doesn’t mean that you are not cut out to eat better. It means that you still have some work to do in acquiring the skills necessary to make eating better more easily apart of your day-to-day life.
Once you develop the skills necessary to consistently eat better, diet will become like riding a bike. It’ll be far simpler for you to do and you’ll do it with much greater success!
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
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