What are your expectations?

Yesterday's post was about commitment, and the need to treat your body with the same commitment you offer other areas of your life. After receiving a beautiful e-mail from a reader yesterday I realised that expectation goes hand in hand with commitment. So many of us have inappropriate and unrealistic expectations of our "ideal body", that when we fall short our commitment is challenged and we have an emotional response that results in us eating through the pantry once a week.

It is not reasonable to expect your body to loose x number of kilograms per week every week. There are so many variants in weight loss, so if you have been consistent all week and get on the scales and don't see a loss how do you react? If you get upset and then stay in a bad mood for the rest of the day you need to reassess your expectations. Scale weight is affected by your hydration levels, the amount of food in your GI tract, the amount of sodium eaten in the past 12 hours. If you are weight training while dieting you will be adding lean muscle, and a tough training session can cause fluid retention. Certainly over time you want to see the scales move down, but setting a weight loss number in your head and giving yourself a pass or fail is an inappropriate expectation that will set you up for failure.

Another area of unreasonable expectation is over planning and over thinking the menu. It is quite unreasonable to expect yourself to eat 100% clean every single day. Are you one of those people that wakes up on Monday and has your food all planned for the week, and expects no variations. You have done really well until Thursday lunch when you are starving (from eating too little for 3 days), and you have a small treat that then escalates into a full out binge. While your aim is to eat clean as much as possible, be realistic about yourself and the environment that you live in.

What goals have you set for yourself in obtaining your ideal body? Ask yourself if they are appropriate and achievable, and if not adjust them. You are more likely get reach your goal sooner and with a much happier life if you set realistic expectations.

Lisa