Last week I received an email from a woman who was excited to share with me some progress she’d made over the previous weeks. I loved it so much that I want to share what she had to say with you
today.
The TTE is a year-long program, and that’s on purpose. With monthly video workouts and calendar, weekly nutrition and mindset education modules and a private closed Facebook community group, we are pulling all the resources you need to finally figure out how your unique body works, and design the perfect sustainable eating and exercise regimen for you.
I’m going to be pushing you! So I
really only want you to enroll if you are truly ready to make a long-term change. If you are someone who is constantly jumping from plan to plan, please assess your preparedness for this long-view program.
If you have any questions, let me know! But the deadline for sign-ups is tomorrow (Wednesday) at midnight PST.
Enroll
here.
Next up, what my girl wrote me:
“Last Saturday night I went to dinner with my husband. We went out for burgers, and in the past I would have gotten a burger and fries, and ate the whole thing, and then would have just said screw it, I’m already eating bad, I might as well eat a whole dessert too, and on and on! But I just got the burger and ate just that. I felt satisfied and I was good! I am so proud because I was able to stop
myself from going overboard. It felt really good. Thank you.”
What is your first thought upon reading that?
Is this a dietary success? What do you think?
Gah, this is so juicy, and I absolutely loved this insight, because at first, I thought about how my old, all-or-nothing dieting self of 5 years ago might have responded: “Um, but you still ate a burger—WITH A BUN!—and that is nowhere near good
enough. Couldn’t you have just skipped it altogether?”
I’m actually LOL’ing right now (and 1% embarrassed to be admitting that), because this is CLEARLY a huge win.
Why? Because this is how it starts! THIS is how you begin breaking the all-or-nothing trap. You start just doing … better. And those better choices compound until you start seeing results over time.
Refusing to be anything less than
perfect with your eating is not only ineffective, but it’s lazy. It keeps us struggling because “perfect eating” doesn’t exist. And constantly holding yourself to some arbitrary standard and then if you can’t achieve the impossible, you decide you might as well not even try, is a huge copout! It’s 1.0 level!
The TWO POINT OH would be to just start with making a choice that’s a leeeeetle better. That’s actually the more courageous approach—choosing moderation even when
your compulsion is to revert to extremes.
Here’s what it looks like:
- First you skip the fries and the dessert. Great job.
- Maybe next week, you decide to skip the bun or eat half of it. Maybe you add a side salad.
- Then maybe a few weeks from now, you ditch the burger altogether and decide on a steak and veggies with a delicious marinade and a little butter.
- And on and on.
But the idea that we can and should just jump to
eating super tight 24/7 is a huge barrier to being able to learn how to eat healthy forever.
If we want to learn how to truly eat healthy 365 days a year—eating the same on Saturday that we do on Monday—we have to give ourselves permission to not ever eat perfectly. In fact, the goal should be the NOT be perfect.
Because when we’re a little less perfect, we’re able to be a little more consistent. And consistency always wins when
it comes to results.
But this is hard, right? I get it. Operating with an all-or-nothing approach feels like we are in control. And eating more moderately feels like we are out in no-man’s-land. Like, where are the rules?? HELP.
So I get that it can feel risky to try a new way, a way where we have to write the rules and we have to do the hard work of figuring out how to eat and exercise FOR US long-term.
But keep this in
mind: you can literally go back to the old way anytime you want.
The deprive-then-binge way of eating isn’t going anywhere; it will always be there for you if you need it. Restrictive plans and “quick fixes” will always be around if you just feel like you prefer the comfort of the familiar over trying a new way. No issues and no judgment.
But hopefully knowing that you could go back if you wanted to, makes you feel a little
safer to try this new way. A way where you are never going to be perfect, ever? What you think??
For all the ladies who have already enrolled in the TTE, I cannot WAIT to get started on Thursday, and if you are on the fence, be sure you decide by midnight tomorrow! As always, happy to answer any questions.
Have a great
day!
Xo,
Jill
