The "Conversation" to have with your ENVIRONMENT before you start a diet
A note before reading, This article is part 4 of 5 in the article series “The Conversations to have before starting a diet.”
To read part 1: “What Constitutes a successful diet”, part 2: “The Conversation to have with YOURSELF before you diet”, or part 3 “The Conversation to have with YOUR BODY before you diet” click below
So the first thing you did when setting up this “project” was to get YOURSELF on board. You:
Have found your purpose of dieting
Have a goal in mind
Have done the research to form a strategy for how you are going to diet
Have devoted time towards planning so the strategy works
Next, you made sure YOU and your BODY were working together. You did this by making sure you started your diet in a state with minimal
Diet Fatigue
Food Focus
Hunger
Laziness
Now, this is a scenario that I have seen often with people who start dieting. They are motivated to start going and their BODY is on board to start as well. But there is one last factor that needs to be on the same page before the project can run smoothly.
YOUR ENVIORNMENT
When planning out the construction of a building, the project manager can have all his employees ready to go and a solid blueprint of how to execute. But, there are a host of other factors that can impede progress of the project.
Restrictions on when, where and how long the team can do the construction
Weather or inconvenient working conditions
Funding and Budget
Other projects going on in the area
Basically, there may end up being a lot of factors outside of the MOTIVATION and the FRAMEWORK of the project that will play a big role in the production.
When dieting, one’s environment is often the MOST OVERLOOKED aspect of a well-structured diet plan.
Now let’s take a look at the most common environment-related roadblocks that you need to look out for when starting a diet.
I’ll also go into strategies to help work around some of these roadblocks.
OUTLINE:
PEOPLE
EVENTS
BUDGET
LIFE STRESS
FOOD ENVIORNMENT
PEOPLE
It’s often said that we tend to pick up on the personalities and habits of people we interact with often. This tends to be our closest friends, family, co-workers, and classmates.
This holds true for your EATING PATTERNS and GYM ROUTINE. It is immensely harder to start dieting when all the people you interact with daily do NOT share the same eating habits with you.
When you choose to diet, it's not only you that gets hit with some of the burden. The people around you might get sad, offended, or angry if you:
choose to not hangout with friends because they want to DRINK and you want to HIT MACROS
don’t eat your mother’s home cooking because it’s a little higher on calories than you can afford
vote to go to CHIPOTLE or cook at home vs going out to a nice restaurant with your significant other
Remember that you chose to put yourself in this situation. You CHOSE to DIET, not them. Therefore, it's YOUR JOB to make sure those around you suffer as little as possible.
I believe it is YOUR JOB as the dieter to either:
be a salesman:
Make some time to “SELL” people on why you are dieting (Remember this from part 2 in the series).
Get people to see YOUR perspective on the motivation and purpose behind your diet.
Do NOT be scared to open up about your emotions.
People will understand more when they believe in the reasoning behind it.
Be proud and passionate about your “why” to diet and it’ll be easier for people to hop on board. People will tend to not peer pressure you while dieting if they think it means enough to you.
Lie about why you aren’t partaking.
This may seem kind of bad, but sometimes it ends up being better than having to explain your viewpoint to otherwise stubborn people.
Saying things such as:
“I’m feeling a little sick and tired, so eating/drinking more won’t do me any good”
is sadly more understandable to people then trying to explain to them you are dieting. End of the day, your main goal has an underlying purpose and the last thing you want is to be stressed out from trying to get someone on board who won’t support you.
Avoid being around those people.
At times, this may be the easiest solution. Most of the time, I believe as a dieter you should aim for the FIRST option. If the people you are around care about you and your goals, then they should be okay with the options you have made.
Over time, if you notice that certain people just do NOT buy into what you are doing, then it would be best to avoid them in general. In most cases, this may just mean a period of time where you are a little distant from them.
When not dieting, it will be easier to jump right back in with your relationship with this person.
If it is a situation where the person is PURPOSELY going out of their way to make things harder for you or to sabotage your diet, then you may have to evaluate whether or not the person is worth associating with at all going forward.
re-evaluate your friendship
Dieting can often be seen as something lonely because you end up isolating yourself from people you care. This is because certain character traits they have make it harder for you to stay on track.
There is one thing that aggravates me the MOST when I diet for myself and working with others. That is when those closest to you intentionally go out of their way to put you in a bad situation with regards to your choice to be on a diet.
For example, let’s say you are dieting and have made the choice to not drink heavily or eat snacks at a party you are going to. It may be understandable if the people you don’t know at the party are pressuring you to drink more or get you off your plan. The absolute worst is when those closest to you, such as a significant other, also hops on board with them.
Those close to you should understand your “why” the most. If they don’t, you either need to do a better job SELLING or sit down and talk to them about why they are against it.
2. events
This one is the most obvious roadblock and ties in well with the previous section.
weekends & Social events
I see so many situations where people are in their routine 5 days a week, but then Friday night and Saturday come along. They then proceed to just throw away all their good habits and let themselves go.
This counteracting effect of the weekend often times can negate all progress made during the week. Not to mention, that if the individual had NOT been dieting at all during the week, he or she may be in a better state of less diet fatigue to handle the weekend better.
Social interaction and the consistency of hanging out with friends and family is signaling to the body that everything is still the same. The last thing you want to do is do a complete 360 on your social life and isolate yourself from everyone just to reach your goal.
There should be a happy medium of making sacrifices vs having social interaction so you stay on track. Don’t stress yourself out by being lonely.
People get FOMO (Fear of missing out) when dieting and end up having to resort to the ALL or nothing social life approach with people. This is NOT sustainable long term.
Tips
To a reasonalbe degree, aim to keep your same level of social interaction with people.
The key is to be the one to make the plans. This way you have a say in how things play out. You should go out of your way to plan social events that suit YOU while dieting. Remember NO ONE asked you to diet, and it is not fair to them if you isolate yourself from them.
Plan events that are suitable for you to stay on track. Allow yourself to still be social and be around the people you love. Instead of planning to go out clubbing, plan something more reserved such as going to the movies or going out to eat. If anything pick a food option that is easier to manage on a diet, like chipotle.
Another solution is just to plan social interactions as controlled breaks from your diet. The more practical route of a diet plan ends up working better than the more optimal one in theory. Planning a weekend diet break will have you more at ease to visit friends in the city, than if you had went in with the intention of dieting. Use this time to enjoy the event and get back in your routine when you come back.
vacations
I would strongly advise to just not diet during vacations.
While incorporating healthy lifestyle habits is important, going into a vacation with the intent to make PROGRESS is a recipe for disaster.
Dieting on vacation leads to ruined diets AND a ruined vacation.
Remember that if you have 3 weeklong vacations throughout the year, that is 3/52= ~5% of the whole year. If you stay on point the other 95% of the time then you most likely won’t see any difference taking 3 weeks of your year off.
3. budget
This is a less obvious roadblock, but just as important as the others. Dieting usually involves a lifestyle change. All these lifestyle changes can ADD UP pretty quickly to your budget. Here are a list of things that can cost some money:
Spending money on a gym membership
Buying new clothes because old ones do not fit anymore
Paying to use a personal trainer, diet books or an online coach
Increased spending on healthier foods:
Lean meats, vegetables, fruits and other diet foods are some of the more expensive foods in your local supermarket
The food one is a point that is often overlooked.
Although when dieting, you are eating less food, you end up having to pick the nutrient dense/satiating options.
For example, leaner meats end up being more expensive than the same quantity of the fattier option. 16 oz. of 99% fat free Turkey breast will cost more than 16 oz. 93/7 Turkey breast even though the leaner one is LESS calories and HIGHER in protein. A Bag of spinach probably doesn’t break 100 calories, yet can cost over $5.
tips:
Before starting a diet, make sure you have saved a decent amount of money to spend weekly on these added expenses. The last thing you want is to be motivated enough to start dieting and then get stressed out because making healthy meals puts you in a BAD PLACE financially.
Avoid buying organic foods: They cost more than non-organic. In MY opinion, you won’t see any difference in results in eating organic foods vs their non-organic counterparts.
Buy things in BULK: If you know you are going to make chicken and rice 5 days a week at lunch, it makes sense to buy bigger packages of both to save money in the long run.
4. life stresses
In general, stress management is a valuable tool that will help improve all aspects of your life. The same holds true for dieting.
When dieting, you have LESS ENERGY to deal with stress because you are in a calorie deficit. Therefore, as the dieter/project manager you have to make sure that there are only the necessary stresses in your life when dieting. The act of being in a calorie deficit, training, and work should provide enough stress to where you can be comfortable handling it.
If you are planning to start a diet and you are about to start a big, stressful project at work, then you are already setting yourself up for FAILURE. This also can include situations such as:
Being in a hard time in your relationship
Moving
Starting a new job
Finals week during school
Although you may still have your purpose deeply rooted to start the diet, life stresses will end up taking a priority most of the time.
tips:
START your diet in a LOW STRESS time: If you have the luxury, plan out your diet to start in a period of time where outside stressful conditions are relatively tame. Make sure that work/school is going well, relationships are smooth, and there won’t be as many potential roadblocks on the horizon.
START your diet LATER: Often times, people let life stresses make them go completely off the rails. Sometimes, these life stresses are stressful for a reason and you might have to put your diet on lower priority. The best thing at times may just be to take a break until the environment is in a more stable state before you start pushing forward.
5. food enviornment
The way food is placed throughout your house can have an impact on your diet. Temptation is at its highest when its staring you right in the face.
Remember, keeping in mind your purpose of the diet can only take you SO FAR. After enough times of resisting temptation, you may end up giving in. Planning around such that the food environment suites you in relation to people, budget, and food availability will help you stay more on track.
Tips
Avoid buying high calorie treats and snacks
If you do buy them, keep them in the HIGHEST part of your pantry
Limit eating out as much as you can
Meal Prep so you don’t fall into the trap of being too tired to cook and getting fast food
takeaway
Now you are finally ready to start dieting.
So the first thing you did when setting up this “project” was to get YOU on board. You:
Have found your PURPOSE of dieting
Have a GOAL in mind
Have done the RESEARCH to form a strategy for how you are going to diet
Have devoted time towards PLANNING so the strategy works
Next, you made sure YOU and YOUR BODY were working together. You did this by:
Making sure you started your diet in a state of little diet fatigue, food focus, hunger and laziness
Planning to include diet “tricks” to make sure your body will feel as little of the negative diet effects as possible.
Lastly, you made sure YOUR ENVIRONMENT suites your mental and physiological states:
Those you spend time with are on-board with your choice to diet
You have strategies to deal with social events or have little to none coming up in the near future
You have budgeted away some money for the added costs of dieting
You made sure other life stresses will be relatively tame
Your food environment will suit your goals
Now that everything is in check, you should be good to start your diet. The last point I’ll make circles back to Part 1 about what a successful diet really is.
Make sure that above all, you understand that not every diet can be perfect. As you can see, there are a multitude of roadblocks that can impede on progress.
The most valuable tool will be that you try to understand how to make the process of dieting more suitable for you. This takes time and experience. But most of all, it just takes REFLECTION. After each diet, I sit down and look back at things that went well and things that did not.
Over the years, this is where I’ve essentially came up with all the above roadblocks. I have dealt with EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM and there are probably many more that I forgot to mention. I hope this checklist and “conversations to have” will help you not run into the same problems I once did and help you achieve your goals :)