1. Get real about your weight.
Most of us look in the mirror from the neck up. When was the last time you looked at yourself from the neck down? Do you have a point of reference from before the COVID-19 quarantine? How do you measure your weight now? Is it the same way you measured before the stay-at-home period began? How do you determine what your weight should be? How recent is your weight gain (really)?
2. Look at your eating plan.
Do you have one? Are your meals and snacks scheduled or random? Are you willing to schedule your regimen formally (on paper)?
How hungry are you before your meals (using a 1-10 rating scale – 1 = starved; 10 = stuffed) and after you eat?
3. Look at your drinking plan.
Do you have one?
Are you eating to quench your thirst instead of drinking water?
4. Take a look at the other factors that can directly affect weight.
Rate your stress on a scale of 1-10: 1 is totally relaxed, 10 is completely stressed out.
How do you deal with your stress?
5. Make a schedule.
Our brains love habits – good and bad (the brain doesn’t distinguish).
How long do you think it takes to form a new habit? Surprisingly, it’s not 30 days, like we may have thought – it’s 66 days. Specifically, what new habits would you like to develop around your relationship with food? How can you break them down into Mini Habits that you can weave into your day? What can you do to build a foundation for these habits so you can start eating healthy during quarantine and avoid the “Quarantine 15”?
Focus on the behavior, not the outcome. Guarantee success by making the first goal really easy.
Measure your progress – visually – using any marker that is meaningful to you.
Ask yourself this: When I _______________then I will _____________________.
Celebrate weight progress – it builds success!