A while back, I received an email from a woman who said, “Jill, I like your stuff, but I just want some simple tips to get healthy.” It was a great reminder to me that sometimes I tend to chase down the high-level insights and tools (which of course I’ll never stop doing) at the expense of the basics.

After being in the fitness industry for close to 20 years, so much of my journey I take for granted. I forget the days when I had no clue which exercise worked which muscle group. I forget how little I knew about nutrition—I thought “carbs” only meant pasta and bread. And now, 5 years after adopting a more moderate approach, it’s easy to forget the struggle that is the all-or-nothing approach.

But I want to remember, and I want to fill in the gaps for you real quick.

Here’s an example.

Another woman reached out to me a few weeks ago to say that she gets what I’m saying about moderation and likes it in theory, but that she simply cannot stop the deprive-then-binge cycle. She binges nonstop on the weekends and then feels terrible, physically and mentally, which leads her to deprive and restrain her eating even further come next Monday.

This is common. I did it for years.

The interesting thing here is that we kind of like the deprive-then-binge. There’s something indulgent about just giving up all effort and giving in to the binging. Overeating feels good in the moment. And in those moments, it’s difficult to care about the consequences. It’s difficult to anticipate the self-disgust, shame, guilt and physical discomfort that will inevitably arise later. And even when you do remember, you toss those thoughts aside to be dealt with later.

Moderation is much harder than extremes. It takes self-trust, trust in the process and practicing mindfulness. And when we are depriving, then binging, there’s no mindfulness practice. We only have 2 speeds: obsessive awareness (aka white-knuckling it) or brain shut-down mode where we’re blindly eating and pretending it’s not happening.

An all-or-nothing approach to eating is so common. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that most people just arrive there naturally. It’s what our society instills and what the marketing messages in our industry perpetuate. If you are going through life relatively asleep, not practicing mindfulness (which is a conscious practice, which would take effort), it’s pretty much inevitable that most people will adopt a black-and-white approach to eating. I certainly did.

So what do you do about it?

When you reach a point where you see that you’re stuck in the weekly deprive-then-binge cycle, how do you start the process of feeling successful again? How do you quit the incessant feelings of guilt, shame and restriction? How do you overcome the need for control that these strict meal plans and rigid protocols seem to provide?

Because we like being in control. And for a few days a week, or the first couple weeks of a new diet, a strict meal plan can help us feel in control. Until … our deprivation turns into overindulgence and we flip the switch to zero control and eat with abandon. *cue defeat and hopelessness*

Because here’s the thing: you need some wins under your belt. You need to feel a sense of accomplishment, even if it’s something small. Because chronic dieting does nothing except tear us down to the point that we feel like we’ll never be successful.

So being sustainably successful starts with unlearning old ingrained mental frameworks.

In order to reorient yourself around food and exercise in a new way, you kind of have to forget what you know. Things you may have been good at before you may need to relearn. Things that used to be easy but are now difficult need re-acquaintance. 

I want you to dare to start at the beginning. Go back and practice the basics. Even if you are a seasoned professional competitor, or trainer, or simply a long-time exercise enthusiast, you may have lost your way in the never-ending quest for “the perfect body,” and I want you to bring it back to zero.

How? By starting with an EASIER approach than you think you can handle. 

What does that mean? It means don't expect perfection. It means reacquaint yourself with simple basics.

Take what you think you should be doing and make it EASIER.

This is hard for us, right? It’s kind of an ego hit. Because we think, we should be able to do this thing. We should be able to follow this plan. We should be able to do it all. We should be able to be perfect. We should be able to do what seems so effortless for other people. We should be able to get some freaking wins dammit!

But the problem is that we aren’t getting wins with the old way. So while we think we should, we’re just not. So let’s level up. Let’s get smarter. Let’s take a more strategic approach.

Let’s approach nutrition and exercise like a newbie. Let’s seek out an approach that’s so easy we can’t fail. And at the point that we have some wins under our belt, we’ll be a thousand times more motivated to continue into the next-level stuff.

Just because we’ve watched someone play the piano for hours doesn’t mean we can play, too. You don’t go from beginner to a pro overnight—in any endeavor. You have to take all the steps, even the ones that seem too novice or super unsexy.

You don’t become an expert without being a beginner first. And for many of us, we are stuck in the perpetual beginner status because we refuse to do it the right way. The slow way. The way that requires patience and space to get good at the basics again.

My good friend Concita Thomas, owner of Great Shape Fit Club, and a trusted JillFit Ambassador just launched her Get In the Game online nutrition and training system. I had the privilege of reading the course and experiencing it for myself, and it’s excellent.

Concita’s approach is unique in the industry, because she does exactly what we’re talking about here. She specializes in helping women feel in their power and successful very quickly, using the basics, so that over the course of 12 weeks, you can feel motivated and trust yourself to continue on to the harder stuff.

Get In the Game is not a meal plan. It’s actually something I’ve never seen before—it’s a unique journey that includes helping you get small wins under your belt early so that later on, the more difficult things to implement feel way easier.

All the details about Get In the Game, HERE.

Concita’s educational program is only available through this Friday October 30^th, so grab your spot ASAP.

Let me know if you have any questions, and remember, the fat loss and body change process is never easy, but it can be enjoyable if you just give yourself a chance to fall in love with the process. And if you love it, then you won’t care if it takes months, a few years, because you know the outcome is the cherry on top.

Have a great week!

Xo,

Jill