Have your 2026 goals hit some shaky ground? this may be why
There’s a certain sense of excitement that comes with the ambitious idea of ‘new year, new me‘. Combine this with the promise of the ‘next best diet since’…well, the last best diet, and it’s likely you’ve started the year with some serious dedication and equally impressive initial results.
But, there is a couple of very good reasons you may be slowly finding yourself in a repeat of past patterns, threatening to leave you, once again, defeated & wondering if this is just the way you’re going to be forever.
The thrill of the new
The first reason has to do with the rush of embarkment, a bit like boarding a plane to explore an exotic new location, the promise of the latest ‘best diet‘ allows us to take action on a quest we have chosen in order ‘to meet our ‘best self’. The thrill of making a choice, committing & taking the first step, is laced with high dopamine payoff. It’s well known that this initial rush fades fast & may never be felt again for the duration of the diet…probably the reason why so many 8-12 week challenges involve a prize for the best results, this approach can encourage you to push your way through & can substitute for the initial excitement; however your new excitement is looking forward to the finish line; another issue in itself. The problem here is how to remain consistent when the excitement wears off & initial rapid results are replaced with slower rewards gained via what feels like an increasingly tedious grind.
The curse of the wandering pain point
Next comes the concept of shifting points of pain. In order for you to even want to embark on a weight loss journey, there must be a pain driver, be it how you look, how you feel, maybe it’s shifting health or the realisation your life could be so much more if you could only build some self trust, self love & confidence…
So you start with the initial pain of where you’re at, you choose a suitable approach, usually something starkly different to what you do now, and your launch into it with great zest. You start to feel some initial results, then a matter of weeks in, those you don’t see regularly start to comment…it’s working & you feel great…finally!
Then something happens.
You would think that those initial results are all you need to stay the course & enjoy what unfolds, but it all depends on how you get the initial results. If you are trying to sustain a diet that’s starkly different to what you like, to the point of being stressful & are trying to fit in 5 days a week of HIIT or pilates plus daily steps as well as mindfulness, meditation, ice baths, saunas…you get the gist; well now you have the recipe for a shifting pain point. Where you started is in the rearview mirror, but what you’re doing is not sustainable & is your new pain point.
Little by little, you will start to make exceptions, excuses, justifications…you’re now on the slippery slope back to square one, only now you have a new layer of self mistrust, a loss of a little more confidence and a little more resignation to the fact that maybe this is just the way its going to be forever.
It’s time for smarter, not harder
As someone who finally figured it out after a lifetime of weight struggles…seriously, my grandmothers started to intervene from the age of 8…always a big fan of food, not such a fan of sport; I can tell you with hand on heart, that it can be so much simpler than you’ve been led to believe.
As a firm believer in finding your Minimal Viable Dose (MVD), having a foundation that gets results at a cost of minimal change may sound underwhelming, like it couldn’t possibly work, like it’s too good to be true, but it’s not.
This is strategy.
Having some nutritional targets to encourage fat loss (NOT muscle, which is the pitfall of ‘smaller at any cost‘ weight loss diets), into which your current food likes, events,holidays can fit, combined with targeted training for muscle mass, form your foundation. If you want to do extra, that’s fine. If life gets busy and you can’t do extra, that’s fine, as long as you hit your MVD you’re still on track.
See what happened there?
The old all or nothing approach is replaced with workable consistency.
This approach works into your life, not against it.
Stick with your MVD, and results are inevitable…this is a paradigm change.
Personally, I feel like I somehow cracked the code, I still do the minimum, the exact same nutrition & training format that got me the results… eat to maintenance (a small, timed deficit if I want to loose a little fat), hit protein & fibre targets, aim for 80% whole foods & weight train 2-3 days per week…that’s it! the results are stable & for the first time in my life, I know they’re for good because it’s easy.
I want this for you too.