Kickstart Your Diet (8-Step Plan)

By Raphael Calzadilla, BA, CPT, ACE

Most of the time my biggest struggle with people is getting them to be consistent. It’s not possible to lose fat at a steady pace if you’re constantly going on and off your eating/workout plan. I’m not suggesting perfection, but there must be a level of consistency.

This is also very frustrating for the individual trying to shed fat. Although they want to succeed, they struggle with self-discipline. The end result is guilt and shame -- two bad boys on the emotion list.

There’s an even more frustrating situation then this, however. What about the person who’s been on a specific diet and workout plan for a period of time, but nothing is happening?

They’ve been consistent with their food intake, meticulous about the quality of foods; proper meal spacing, consistent workouts, great mind frame etc., but they’re experiencing zip, nada, zero! What then?

A perfect example of this situation is a woman by the name of Cathy. Cathy has struggled with not only fat loss plateaus, but she’s also gained weight in spurts -- yet she thought she was doing everything correctly.

After I suggested a change to her eating program, she began to experience rapid fat loss from week to week. In fact, after just a few short weeks, she’s at the lowest weight she’s been in ages.

Here’s an email Cathy recently sent to me:

“I had done everything except change my plan. I really was at my wit’s end. It's so much better when it works the way it's supposed to, I should have done this so long ago.

Someone should do an article that it's OK to change your Way of eating if it's not working and you've tried everything else. There's a lot of emphasis on making something a lifestyle change and sticking with it and so on (and rightfully so, obviously), but once you really GET that, and it sinks in and you're DOING it, it's really a scary prospect to change to something new.

I imagine a lot of people might feel that way. It almost feels like giving up or giving in, particularly after something has worked well for you in the past. How long do you give it? How long do you wait it out? When is it time? What if the new way of eating I choose doesn't work for me, and I gain weight back? Very scary.”