When it comes to dieting, life is frankly difficult enough without dog piling expectations on you. The following 7 tips are primarily to give yourself a break, lighten up and reduce your worries. When it comes to dieting, these 7 tips will help you reduce your personal stress.
1. Lower Your Personal Expectations – Before you protest, please bear in mind that part of our own problems with sticking to any diet is the overbearing weight of our own expectations. We get hung up on wanting, needing, wishing or praying for what is right in front of us. Sometimes, we are looking so far forward or pressing ourselves to reach so far forward, that we forget to savor what we have right now.
2. Let Go of Unrealistic Goals – Have you always wanted to be the best salesman in your division? Have you always wanted to be the perfect soccer mom? Have you wanted to be the prize craftswoman who makes the perfect projects? Always wanted to be Martha Stewart? Have you always wished you were as perfectly funny as Robin Williams? Frankly – no matter how neat those things might be – you are human. Let yourself be human. Let go of these unrealistic goals and be yourself.
3.Failure Leads to Success – Yep, I know what you’re thinking. Failure is not remotely success. Of course it isn’t. However, when we fail, we have the opportunity to learn what didn’t work. We have the opportunity to exceed expectations. Did you know that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team because he wasn’t good enough? Imagine that.
4. Remember What You Know – In other words, we know what is going on in our lives. We know if our marriage is having trouble. We know if we’re overextending ourselves financially, emotionally or in the element of time. We know a lot of these things. We know if we don’t have health insurance and what can happen if we do not have it. Plan for what is happening in your life and what is going to be happening. This eliminates the elements of surprise that can hit you out of the blue that you could have planned for.
5.Be Yourself – This is probably one of the hardest things for most people to remember, especially when we’re so used to living up to other people’s expectations. We want to be the best moms. We want to be the best wives. We want to be the best friends. Sometimes, we squash ourselves down and forget who we are in our race to be all of these things. We need to remember who we are and be that person. Who we are should not be the problem and for many of us, when we are ourselves – we are usually far more successful than when we are pretending to be something else.
6. Define What You Want Out of Life – It’s an easy thing to say, but do you have secret goals that you are not sharing? Do you feel like you can be doing more? Should be doing more? Are you content with your life? For example, I know I want to be a published author. I know I want to be a great mom. I know I want to build memories with my daughter and my husband. I know what I want out of life – knowing this helps me to focus my energies and live my life based on these ideas.
7. Organize! Organize! Organize – This is one of my favorite tips. I’m an organization nut where everything but my desk is concerned. You use all of the above tips to help you do this. You know what you want from life. You’ve eliminated unrealistic goals. You are being yourself and you are planning ahead. Using all of these elements helps you to organize your life and your lifestyle to accommodate changes in fitness, exercise and dietary plans. It also makes everything a lot less stressful when you need to make changes.