Do you have a dog? Have you ever had a dog? 

 

Then you fell into two categories, either you walked your dog, or it walked you

 

Depends on whether you spent the time early on to train your dog on the first few walks 

 

With a pocket full of treats, time after time after time going over the same routine. Some days it seemed like you’d turned the corner

 

Only for the next day to be back to the start

 

But you kept at it. Heel. Heel. HEEL. Treat. Stop. STOP. Treat. Let’s go. Treat

 

You might have had a wilful dog, maybe it was the breed, you spent time with a trainer, on Youtube, seeing what works, what doesn’t

 

Finally, you got there. Sure if Kelvin sees a bird, he’s off! But generally it’s pretty pleasant to go for a walk now

 

Or, you thought that’s too hard, tried the treat angle for a bit but couldn’t get passed the no treat stage

 

And spent every walk for 10 years tugging the lead, pulling your precious pup away from onlookers

 

Calling, calling, calling at the park. It’s too hard, just keep them on the lead

 

Being walked.

 

Both things are hard. Because they are both hard, it’s easy to think both are worthy

 

You’re doing the hard work it’ll pay off

 

Maybe one of the stories you tell yourself

Why does this matter?

Like when you try to follow a strict meal plan and train 6 days a week for the 100th time

 

It’s hard work so surely you’ll get somewhere with it this time

 

If you stopped and thought about it, you know deep down, it’s not working and it won’t work this time, like it didn’t the time before

 

Might be time for a different route, one that’s hard early, but will pay off

 

There’ll even be early wins, how much easier was training Wayne when you had an experienced trainer standing right there, helping you along

 

You had to do the work yourself, but it was a lot faster and a lot more effective with knowledgeable help 

 

Better off to learn how to eat, to learn what to eat, to learn how much to eat

 

For good. 

What to do with this information

Stop using restrictive meal plans, start with easy to follow portions of the foods you already love to eat and include social plans 

 

Men, 8 palms of protein, 2 cupped hands of carbs, 6 fists of veggies and 3 thumbs of fat might be a good place to start

 

Women, 4 palms of protein, the rest the same

 

Get results? Awesome, carry on

 

Don’t get results? Adjust carbs or fats or increase steps. Pick one, just one. Go again. Rinse and repeat

 

Do the hard work early, that you know will work

 

It will get easier

 

Then, you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour later on