The best part about the 30 day diet plan is it’s not a diet!

So what is it, you’re wondering?

I came across an interesting article yesterday about doing a 30 day plan. In it the author talked about how some computer software comes with a 30 day trial period.  After those 30 days if we like what it does we usually keep it.

I thought this was an interesting idea that could be used with weight loss and dieting.

A lot people tackle weight loss head on, trying to make a huge commitment that they can’t possibly keep. The weight that needs to lost seems impossible and the thoughts of continuing to diet and exercise for the months ahead seem too much and they give up.

But why not go micro small and focus only on changing one daily habit just for the next 30 days? And after the 30 days you can change back if things didn’t work out or you found it too hard too keep doing.

Here are some things you could try out for the next 30 days…

• Cut out soft drinks from your diet

• Do 20 -30 minutes of exercise per day. (This could be broken down into using the stairs instead of a lift or parking your car further way from work and walking the rest of the way.)

• Cutting out snacking and eating in front of the TV

• Drinking more water

• Putting more vegetables on your plate at meal times or even just starting to eat vegetables when you didn’t before. Of if you really want to push the boat out you could try to go vegetarian and cut out meat.

• Use smaller plates at meal times to reduce the amount you eat.

• Stop drinking alcohol or reducing the amount you may drink

• Give up smoking.

• Pull out the old exercise bike and use it while you watch your favorite soap on TV for half an hour.

There are numerous things you could try out and remember… it’s only for 30 days. It’s not a long term contract that’s going to go on and on to infinity.

But do you know what the interesting part is?

If you try something out and do it everyday religiously for 28 days it becomes a habit….and as we all know some habits are very hard to break.

Also if do your new habit or routine for the next 30 days what are chances that you’re going to turn around and undo all the good work.

For example if you gave smoking up for those 30 days do you really think you’d smoke on day 31…(Imagine all that wasted effort down the drain.)

Or would you give it another 30 days??

The best part of a 30 day plan is, it’s not a permanent thing that tends to really push your will power to the limit. Also at the end of the 30 days you can look back and see if you got the results for your efforts.

As you do this keep the following questions in mind.

• Did it work for me and did I lose some weight with what I’ve done?

• Is there anything else I could add to what I’m doing to make it better? Like maybe adding another 5-10 minutes a day to my exercises? Or cutting down, or out, anything else from my diet?

Remember its only for the next 30 days, right??

So pick one thing today you’d like to try out today and then mark off your finish date (30 days from now) on your calendar.

And as the days pass mark them off with a “chunky” red marker, it’ll look great the next time you visit the calendar see all those red X’s one after another and how far you’ve come.

Don’t be shy either; put that calendar up where you can see regularly during the day and where other people can also see it. They’ll probably ask what all the reds X’s on the calendar are for.

Don’t be shy and tell them. This can also help because if you know other people are monitoring your progress and could give you the added push in the early days when you’re not keeping to the plan.

So what are you going to change just for the next 30 days??

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What’s the common link between all those failed diets you’ve been on?

Was it down to not watching your nutrition and counting calories?

Was is it not taking up some form of exercise?

Possibly all of those, but there’s also another big reason lurking behind all of that.  Most people fail because they don’t have a big enough reason to lose weight.

To put it in the words of self help guru Anthony Robbins  “If you have a big enough “WHY” (reason) you can do anything!”

If you think about it why is the reason we do anything in life.

Here’s a couple of examples…

Q: Why do you brush your teeth every day? (Well, I hope you do)

A: Probably because you want to prevent gum disease and all your teeth from rotting and falling out.

Q: Why do you wash yourself?

A: To keep clean and not smell of body odor.

You get the idea by now, but there’s a difference in the power of a WHY.

Now compare these WHY’s with the ones above:

Q: Why do I go to work?

A: Because I need some the money to pay my bills and feed my children or I’ll be living on the street and starving.

Q: Why did you give up smoking?

A: Because my doctor said if I don’t stop smoking I’d probably die in the next 6 months.

As you can see the stronger and emotionally attached we are to the outcome the more power if it gives us to see it right through to the end.

Now at this moment what’s your why, why are you looking to lose weight? Do you really know or is it just a vague reason that isn’t strong enough to keep you going to the finish line.

So what can you do? Here’s a simple exercise (don’t worry it doesn’t involve any sweating!)

Just grab a pen and paper and make up a list of reasons WHY you want to lose weight.

Before you start writing here are some questions you could ask yourself first.

1. Why do I really want to lose weight?

Is it because your spouse or partner is nagging you?
Is it for health reasons?
Is it so you can go out and play with your kids?

2. What’s the bright side in all of this?

If I lost weight how would your life improve?
What would I be able to then that I can’t do now?

3. Did I do enough in the past to lose weight?

Did I really give my weight loss efforts everything in the past or did I enter that last diet half heart fully?

4. Am I happy at where I am today?

Am I happy being overweight?
Is it putting limits on my life and possibly how long I’ll live for?

Got your list of whys done….good!Don’t make the mistake of passing up on this simple exercise, it will make all the difference to weight loss results you’re about to get. Remember the stronger the better, you need some whys that have a lot of emotion attached to them.

Here’s a story of the power of WHY?

There once was a young father who tried everything to stop smoking but just couldn’t seem to do it. Thats until the day his young daughter came up to him one day and asked him to give up smoking cigarettes.

He laughed it off and asked why?

She told him that she wanted him to stop because she wanted him to give her away at her wedding. She believed that if he continued to smoke the way he did, he wasn’t going to be around to do that. He said that he put out his cigarette there and then and he never smoked another one.

All those time in the past he tried giving up he never had a big enough why, until his daughter gave him one.

So spend today to find that reason why you want to lose weight and write in down. What things are you’re going to lose out on if you don’t lose weight, and what things are you going to gain by losing weight.

When have your list done, (keep it to yourself no one else should know about it) keep it on you  at all times. Then when doubts start to come in or you think you’ll never be able to do it, just take out your list and remind yourself WHY you’re going to lose that extra weight.