Today we’re going to be breaking down the tried and true strategy to never have you fall off your diet again! 

So many people are always trying to lose weight. Constantly trying, constantly struggling but never actually losing the weight. They spend months, if not years, spinning their wheels trying to move forward, putting in the effort but not actually going anywhere. If you’re watching this video now, it’s probably you and you’re trying to find answers. 

In my experience coaching hundreds of people I have found that the average person will usually blame two things for why they’re not losing weight:

1) They never have enough motivation 

2) They just can’t stick to their plan 

These things are kind of related but are part of a bigger problem in how you view the entire process. 

So we’re going to be breaking down how to change that perspective so that you can consistently take action and never have to fall off your plan again.

How To View Motivation

Starting off how most people view motivation (wanting to work out, wanting to do well in their diet) is they think you need to have motivation first and then you take action and then continue to do that. Without motivation you can’t go far but in reality, motivation is a fleeting thing. It’s not even something that you have at first, it’s something that you create.

You’re actually supposed to take action first in order to create more motivation, and that motivation leads you to take more action, and then that action creates more motivation, and it’s a positive feedback loop. If you just wait for motivation to come to you you’ll be waiting forever. 

Which is what happens with a lot of people they end up waiting months and years to be motivated as if it’s going to strike them like lightning and help them move forward but it doesn’t happen like that. You need to be the one creating your own motivation and that starts with taking action. Understanding this is gonna be really important for how you stay on track.

Taking action precedes motivation not the other way around! 

The other problem is that they can’t stay consistent enough or stick with the plan and what this leads to is an on-again off-again cycle with their diet and training plan.

Some days they’ll be “on” – they’re hitting their calories they’re tracking their food, they’re eating well, they’re doing their workouts, and they’re getting their steps in.

Some days they’re completely “off” where they’re not eating well, they go out to eat, they have a lazy day on the couch, they don’t work out, and they don’t get enough sleep. 

It’s always one or the other they’re always stuck on the two extremes and this is usually due to motivation. When they feel really motivated they go through and do everything. When they don’t have enough motivation or don’t have any motivation they don’t do anything at all.

This creates a negative feedback loop where you’re constantly putting yourself in a position where you’re not taking action. Where you’re always unhappy with where you’re at, where you’re always taking one step forward and three steps back. Which can be avoided by making a simple perspective shift in how you use motivation to your advantage.

The Dial System

 As opposed to looking at it as a switch where you’re either ‘on’ your plan or ‘off’ your plan and you either have motivation to do stuff or you don’t have motivation to do stuff, it’s better to view this journey as a dial. Where how much motivation you have doesn’t dictate whether or not you do something but how much of that something you do. 

In the old model, we said you’re either ‘on’ or ‘off’ – you’re either doing everything or you’re doing nothing. The dial model takes whatever motivation you have and adjust the intensity of what you’re doing. 

So if we’re talking about training a perfect high motivation day where you are well rested and feeling really good and feeling really strong you do your regular training program, put as much weight as you can, get a good pump feel really worked and then get your steps in and go home afterwards.

That’s when you’re feeling really motivated. Now if you’re not feeling as motivated, you don’t feel like you can put yourself through a hard training program, that’s fine, but that’s not a sign to do nothing! It just means to turn down the intensity of what you’re doing. So instead of a hard training program maybe, you do 20 minutes of light zone 2 cardio.

You get a little bit of sweat going it, doesn’t take as long to go through it, doesn’t put your body in as much duress, and it takes a lot less willpower to accomplish. You put yourself in a position where you’re still doing something as opposed to not doing anything at all. As opposed to skipping your workout you’re just switching it out for an easier form of working out.

Maybe that’s too much for you one day, you’re feeling really beat up, you had a hard day of work, and you can’t go to the gym after work. Maybe instead you just do some light yoga, some stretching, or some mobility to get all your joints loose. Toning down the intensity once again to something easier and more manageable for what you’re feeling that day.

Maybe you don’t even have the motivation to do that some days (and that’s normal it happens) it happens to me too but that doesn’t mean you don’t do anything! It means you just find something to match that motivation and match that intensity so you turn the dial down to the lowest intensity which is going to be just going on a simple walk, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from grocery stores your job or whatever place you’re visiting so you get more steps in. Or if you’re at the grocery store or you go shopping you walk around with a cart full of stuff a little longer instead of going directly to the cash register. 

It’s a very small thing that doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s still something and that’s always going to be better than nothing. 

So that was the training dial but you could take this to any part of your life. You could do this with nutrition as well and your diet some days the intensity is out of 10 and you’re hitting everything absolutely perfectly. You’re getting in all your water, you’re sticking to your calorie goal, you’re hitting your macros on point, you’re getting enough fiber, and you feel really good. That’s great to do at a 10 motivation day but if you have a little less motivation maybe you want a little more flexibility with what you’re eating.

Maybe you’re not as into the food that you’re doing right now so you focus on just calories and protein instead of all the macros. Maybe another day it’s really hard for you to get in protein. You’re going out for the entire day, you’re traveling, you can’t figure out what to do to get a protein source, that’s fine.

Just stay within your calorie goal. Then the lowest intensity motivation, depending on the situation, would be one where you can’t track you’re really focused on the event that you’re going to and trying to enjoy yourself as much as possible without being too tedious with what you’re doing in that situation you just eat until you’re content. You try not to overeat and that is the simplest thing that you could do at any given day.

The dial system is the true magic and how you can stay on track with your goals no matter how motivated you’re feeling or not feeling. It’s not about being on or off with your training and nutrition like a switch. It’s about adjusting intensity so you’re always doing something. You’re always on plan to a degree matching whatever happens that day. 

There’s always a subtle expectation that people have that you have to either do everything or do nothing at all but that always keeps you staying stuck. Doing a lot of stuff one day and then not a lot of stuff the rest of the days. You’re never really moving forward.

This is why people struggle for months and years to lose weight and end up not losing any weight at all. Instead of trying to continue to feed that mindset and continuing to put yourself in a position where you’re not making progress do a little bit less some days be okay with less because moving forward is still moving forward no matter how small the steps are. 

Tying this back to motivation that we talked about at the beginning taking these small actions accomplishing them following through on these little promises that you make with yourself the promises of is going to lead to creating more motivation for you, a lot more self-satisfaction, self-confidence, and self-efficacy is going to be produced. That’s going to snowball down into you taking more action, bigger actions, as time goes on but you gotta be okay with doing the little actions right now to get to that point. 

Stoopid Simple Summary 

When it comes to motivation when it comes to staying on track with your plan it’s not about being on or off again nor about waiting for motivation to strike. It’s about creating your own motivation by doing whatever actions feel right for you that day matching the intensity of the action with the intensity of your motivation. If you’re feeling super motivated do a little more that day, if you’re feeling less motivated dial it back a little bit and do a little bit less.