I was having a great discussion with a client last week and I thought I'd share our "light bulb" moment...
She has been with us for about a year, saw really good results for the first 6-7 months, but for the last 3-4 months, she really hasn't seen any visible progress.
Now, she's gotten stronger, feels better, but her goal of losing 8 more pounds was at a standstill.
So I started troubleshooting...
She was her four times per week...
The quality of her food is all good...high protein, healthy fats, good carbs, etc.
So...what was up?
She needed to change her environment.
We all know what is healthy and what is not.
We all know that we should exercise.
Information is not the problem.
It's changing the behaviors and the habits that go along with it.
It's the environment.
Do you ever notice that you've driven 10 miles on your route to work, but basically "zoned out?"
Do you always eat that piece of chocolate from the office candy bowl at 2:00pm only because you walk by it every day on route to the bathroom?
Do you always go for that ice cream right around 9:00pm?
All of those examples are your environment
So, back to our client from the beginning.
She would get home around 3:30pm, and spend 30 minutes snacking on random things she found in her kitchen.
Why?
She really wasn't hungry. It's just because her habit, her environment.
She associated coming home at 3:30pm with snacking in the kitchen.
So I could tell her "stop snacking."
But that won't last long.
She happens to work from home and has an office upstairs.
So what we both determined was when she got home at 3:30, she would go upstairs and work for 30-45 minutes.
By the time that time passed, her craving for a snack would be gone, her family would be home, and it would time to starting preparing dinner.
We just changed her environment.
Now she's no longer snacking, saving her ~300-500 calories a day, and probably about 1lb a week of progress.
She's also getting more work done to provide for her family!
If this sounds like you, don't worry.
It's human behavior. We're all the same. We all have the same struggles.
Here're some more examples of changing the environment.
1. Trouble making it the to gym: Pair it with something you have to do. How about right after dropping the kids off, or on the way home from work. It's much easier to drive there after you already are doing something you have to do, versus finding the motivation to leave your house.
2. Always eating at night: You have two options here to change the environment. One, don't buy the food. If it's not there, you won't eat it. Two, find something to spice up your late-night routine. Maybe it's a family game, a walk on the beach. Something to change up your daily routine. Right now, eating sweets at 9:00pm is just part of your daily routine.
3. Surfing the Internet too much: Get rid of the internet. Use an app like rescue time to block certain sites during certain times, track where you're spending your time on the internet, and set goals for productivity each day.
Knowledge and planning do not always translate into behavior changes.
You have to change your environment.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.
Dedicated to Your Success,
Doug Spurling
PS ~ It's baaackkkk! We're getting ready to launch our next Strong(her) in Six Weeks Transformation Challenge. This is a program for women that always sells out super fast as it's a complete transformation; behavior change, nutrition, mindset, training, and more! Stay tuned, in the next couple of days we'll be opening up registration!