Charlotte Roycroft-Davis explains how seasonal dieting cycles drain willpower and create failure. Instead of restricting, set mini-goals, use treats as rewards, and stay kind to yourself. Share progress in the Slimpod community to stay accountable through the holidays.
Last week I was very excited to kick the Slimpod programme off with a group of staff from the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham. It's our third hospital now, which is amazing, and I'm so thrilled to continue the work we've been doing within the NHS. The staff are joining the programme in the holiday season, and we know how difficult it can be to stay on track with good eating habits when the summer breaks are here. I get questions like, "I'm a little worried about how I'm going to cope with food when I'm on holiday. I usually pig out and love having a cocktail or two in the evening." So I thought it might be a good idea to give you a little bit of help on how to get through all the temptations of summer and stay in control of your weight. Now, I'm sure you know the story It's almost as if your mind is saying, 'Woohoo, I'm on holiday, and that means I'm giving myself permission to eat anything I want and lots of it.' Then you get disappointed because you feel like you've fallen off the wagon and you beat yourself up. This time of year can be really difficult and create all sorts of challenges, concerns, and anxieties. Most people coming to my SlimPod programme do so after years of unsuccessfully trying to lose weight and have been almost conditioned to do what I call seasonal dieting. Here's how it goes, and do let me know below if you recognise it. Let's begin at the start of the year. In January, the media lures you into the latest amazing weight loss revelation, or a diet by another name. You're into it for about 4 or 5 weeks, you lose some weight, and then lose motivation because willpower doesn't last, sadly. Then you're feeling a bit rubbish for the next few months until May or June comes along and yes, you guessed it, the next revolutionary, all singing, all dancing, Charlotte Roycroft-Davis' Summer Bikini Diet is launched. Then you're on that until your summer holiday around now, but you just can't keep it up because it's summer and dieting is miserable and boring in the holidays. Your attention seems to be constantly focused on all those nice things you're depriving yourself of while everyone else is having fun and enjoying themselves. So rather than feeling rubbish, You break the diet and blame your summer eating again on your own lack of willpower. Then in October time, the media starts up again when the headlines shout, "Lose 2 dress sizes in time for those Christmas parties!" So you hop on again because basically you're losing it to put it all back on again over Christmas. And so it goes on. Nightmare! Of course, If you've been on the Slimpod programme for a little while, this has probably stopped already and you're noticing far more control. You'll also be noticing that you don't want as much of the sugary stuff, which is great. However, I do know that dieting behaviour is really hard to shift and can sometimes be triggered if you're not aware of it. So here's a few tips of summer eating, on summer eating, which will give you a really great boost. Number 1: Summer puts you into what I call a summer diet trance state. In English, this means that you'll be out of routine and be in a very different state of mind. I'll just put my weight loss on hold and enjoy myself for a few weeks kind of trance. If you feel this is you and and I know I'll get lots of comments saying— I'm reading your minds— please, please wake up from that trance state and shake yourself off. You don't need to eat for Britain. 2. You can still enjoy the summer and lose weight. Just be in the right mindset. The crucial thing is to build little rewards into your life over the next 4 or 5 weeks, and don't let ice creams and cocktails, etc., become obstacles to your success and derail you. Lots of people think that they've blown their healthy eating regime just because they've had some ice cream. This then becomes a very useful excuse to eat more. The important thing to remember is that this is an automatic pattern of behaviour that's been running in your life for quite a while, and you need to be aware that it's happening before you can do something about it. So if something like this is happening right now, just relax. Stop thinking it's the end of the world because it really isn't. Recognise it's happening and just do something about it. Use treats as a little reward for reaching a mini goal, which could be anything you choose. If you're going on a trip, then rather than feeling bad after having an ice cream, Give yourself permission to have one. It's truly not going to be the end of the world, and when you do this, you change your mindset from throwing in the towel and struggling to being kind to yourself and honouring the time of year. And finally, to help you with this, if you're in our private community on Facebook, we're kicking off a Happy Habits thread which will be there throughout the summer months. The plan is to really keep you— help you keep on track and help you to stay accountable. So each day you can use the group to post up a healthy lunch or dinner and some beautiful photos from walks or days out. We love pictures in the group because it helps spread positivity and bring sunshine into our lives every day. If you're not in the group, you can share your happy habits pictures with me on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #happyhabits. So I hope this will help you to have a really enjoyable holiday season. See you again soon.
