7 Reasons you can’t stick to your written diet plan!

You know the drill – you’ve had a big weekend of eating and drinking. You’ll start monday, you’ll cut out all your favourite “bad” foods and you’ll whip your butt into gear.  

Monday comes and you are feeling motivated, determined, you stick to the written diet plan to a tee and didn’t feel too bad.  

Fast forward a few weeks later you have low energy, craving hardcore, snapping at your partner until eventually you crack and end up eating everything in the cupboard.  

GUILT.  

Shit, why do you feel hungry all the time? Why can’t i just stick to the plan —you’ll start again next week…  

Sound familiar?  

WELL MAYBE ITS NOT YOU – maybe its the approach that has been advertised to you which results in just swinging from one extreme to the other.  

1. MACROS & CALORIES ON A FAD DIET ARE TOO LOW  

Lets be clear: products such as fad diets, skinny teas, some written diet plans want quick results. So these diets put you in an EXTREME DEFICIT.  

What I mean by this is, when you eat less than what you consume then yes, you will drop body fat – and this is called “eating in a calorie deficit”.  

However, any extreme way of doing something is going to have repercussions. There is a small deficit and an extreme deficit, and due to companies feeling under pressure to give their customers results it’s 99.9% of the time the latter.  

Maybe you will be able to sustain it for a certain amount of time – a few weeks, a month maybe. Long term though: hunger always wins. Hormones, cravings – your body shouting out for more, will win. It’s like me asking you to run a marathon and not stop. Dieting is hard work and can’t be done forever (and thus the yo-yo cycle is born). This is why you need to eat as much food as possible while dropping weight! This will also enable you to have more energy, less cravings, train better, and generally FEEL GOOD !  

2. STUCK IN A PLATEAU  

Your body is an amazing adaptable machine.  

So when it’s under stress it will fight with all its might to hold onto body fat because it’s in survival mode.  

Like hard core low calorie dieting and overusing cardio. It’s stressful on the body and hormones – too many gals over do it, put their bodies under stress and wonder why it’s not giving them the results they want.  

So lets say you stick to 1200 calories for a while and you stop dropping weight — well what now ? Smash yourself more with even more cardio… drop calories even further? Mentally working til you faint from hunger, and are exhausted, is not the smart way to go about. OR you may decide to give up completley, or start monday… sound familiar? 

Simply starting in a higher calorie deficit where we have room to drop your macros if need is so much kinder to the body and you will be feeling 10x better for it!  

3. IT CREATES A BAD RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD  

This is a big one, and I’ve definitely experienced it myself so I know where you are at. Anything eaten off that bloody plan you feel like you’ve failed – so since you’ve blown it today why not just go on a big binge and start fresh tomorrow – and there is the yo-yo cycle again..  

You see, a written plan is so square, so inflexible, and unchanging to your lifestyle, cravings, and hormones that anything “off” the plan you class as “bad” – which is totally untrue!  

4. WHAT YOU RESIST: PERSISTS 

If someone told you: “Okay, there is ****insert favourite “bad” food here**** in the fridge/cupboard but you CAN”T HAVE ANY BECAUSE ITS NOT ON YOUR PLAN”  

What do you want?  

It’s human nature, we want what we can’t have. The dress, the man, the food! So overtime if you tell yourself you can’t have this, that or the other… well by joe you will eventually end up blowing out on the weekend covered in nutella asking yourself how it came to this.  

5. DOESN’T EDUCATE YOU HOW TO EAT PROPERLY  

So let’s say you manage to stick to this plan for 8 weeks – you grinded through it, it was hard but you did it and you loved the results you got.  

Well what now?  

What happens after “the plan” And if you tell me that it involves another “plan” after a few weeks of binging then you are pulling yourself down a rabbit hole.  

It’s all well and good if you got the results you wanted while on the plan, but most people put that weight (and more) straight. back. on. again!  

It’s because your headspace with food is just “good” and “bad.” Flexible dieting shows you how to balance out your own meals, fit in treats, and just eat to sustain the body you want WHILE LIVING LIFE.  

6. RIGID AND UNSUSTAINABLE  

So what about birthdays, weddings, holidays, baby showers, family dinners — a written plan doesn’t take any of this into account.  

And because you are just told WHAT to eat not HOW to eat you most likely have no idea how to eat at these events in a smart way.  

So, “starving hungry yo-yoing gal” + family event = stuff it mentality and blow out.  

This big rigid calorie deficit is something you just cannot sustain for the rest of your life. Not only that, it can really get in your head thinking you are “failing” the plan all the time. You can start questioning yourself, your discipline, and your entire headspace can turn upside down! You need to look at the bigger picture, and stop throwing your hard earned coin away on fad diets and start looking at a long term strategy.  

7. IT’S NOT SUITED TO YOU AND YOUR LIFESTYLE  

Written diet plan says eat at these times, maybe a cheat meal here, a snack there — you get my point.  

Lets just be realistic for a moment. What if you DON’T actually enjoy the breakfast on the plan, what if you can’t eat at that time, what if you are craving steak and dinner is chicken.  

A whole lot of crap meals you don’t enjoy is the result. And you’ll just end up hating all your meals because at the end of the day you know what you like, crave, want and feel best doing — so who better to plan your food day then you?! ( with the correct tools and guidance ofcourse 😉 )  

So there you have it! Next time you think about a quick fix or starting a fad diet, think again! Too often women are swinging from one extreme to the other when it doesn’t need to be that way!  

Through correct training, macro counting, and understanding food, you can enjoy the foods you like and get the results you want!