You’re going out next Saturday, and you know just what you want to wear, but it’s too tight. You’ve put on ten pounds since it last fit. Can you lose enough by next weekend so that you can wear it? I’ll bet you can! Here’s how:
1) Set your sights for your “start day” of undereating and get prepared.
Rather than try to “be good” immediately, relax for a few days and set the day you’ll start “undereating” for later this week, like Saturday, Sunday or Monday. This takes the pressure off today, reducing risk of a false start and insures a solid start. This is not an excuse to binge, so just eat normally without trying to restrict severely until your start day.
This is actually a form of self-hypnosis where you are constantly saying to yourself for a few days, “As of (Sunday or Monday, etc.) I am going to start undereating, and by next Saturday morning, my clothes will feel looser and I’ll be down on the scale.”
In the days prior to your start day, do the work to make the week pay off with a maximum drop on the scale.
• Plan out each and every meal for the undereating week, so that each day, you eat no more than 900 calories. Do the work. It will be worth it. This is also another form of self-hypnosis and mental imaging, where the defined meal plan is an example of auto-suggestion, and it will make it easier to live the plan rather than just having vague “good intentions”. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it can be fresh or frozen, and it doesn’t matter when you eat. The calories have to be right, and the less salt and sodium, the better.
• Go shopping to buy everything you’ll need for your meal plan so you don’t end up in the supermarket during the week.
• Go through the house and remove any food that is not part of the food plan. All during the week, you’ll be burning fat like crazy, and when you get hungry, it will be tempting to go on the hunt. If you’re like me, lots of things will do. If you keep “snack foods” in the house, it’s like using auto-suggestion to tell yourself to snack. If all you have in the house are the meals you’ve planned on, it will be easier to work the plan.
• Make a plan to keep yourself busy during the week. If you are used to going to the gym, that can be a good activity, but if you’ve never exercised, this may not be the best time to start. Better to schedule things to fill the days and evenings with enjoyable busyness and then make this the week to go to bed early and get caught up on your sleep.
2) On “start day” focus all your attention on burning fat and shrinking your body.
• Put your head down, move ahead, and don’t let anything stand in your way. Decide ahead of time what you’ll say to those who try to tempt you and focus on how your clothes will feel looser by the end of the week. They may even start to feel a bit looser tomorrow.
• Spend lots of time imagining yourself this weekend feeling leaner and having fun. This is another example if self-hypnosis that fires up your motivation to experience what you imagine. It strengthens desire and discipline.
3) As each day goes by give yourself an “attaboy” on your desk calendar, putting a big “X” through the day, counting down to the weekend.
Can you really lose 10 pounds in that short a period of time? Actually I’ve had more than a few clients lose over 15 pounds in the first week or so of undereating. It depends a lot on where you are starting. Clients who were very overweight and accustomed to eating large quantities of sugary salty food can lose a tremendous amount of weight, lots of retained fluids, when they spend a week eating small quantities of higher quality food. I’ve had a number lose as much as 20 pounds in the first week or so. Smaller people who were not eating huge amounts of food in the first place are not going to see that. However, at the end of the week, even if it’s not 10-20 pounds, your going to feel 1000% better, better about yourself, and your clothes will fit much better than if you had kept overindulging.
If you like this idea, after you’ve tried this, think about setting your sights a little farther off, and losing as much as 50-100 pounds per year, eating food you like. Using behavioral and cognitive behavioral techniques, some of which I described here, you can change your thoughts and your life for good, not just for a week, and you’ll lose your weight problem forever. Read my book and you’ll learn exactly how to do it.
