Allow 21 days to smash bad habits

THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO EMBARK ON A NEW CHALLENGE ONLY TO GIVE UP A SHORT TIME LATER. FEELING LIKE A FAILURE, THEY RESORT TO PREVIOUS HABITS, AND THE HOLE THEY ARE IN GETS EVEN DEEPER.

The secret is in making lifestyle changes, not quick fixes. The magic rule of 21 states that it takes 21 days of performing a task, in a row, to crystallise that new behaviour into a habit. Change is hard for a lot of people and the pitfalls of weddings, birthdays or celebrations mean that your best intentions often go by the wayside.

If you make an incorrect food choice or over-indulge, make amends and get back with the plan. Don’t throw away your previous efforts. The goal is to make the right choices 90pc of the time.

At times, my clients may temporarily stray from the plan but if a tyre is punctured, they do not get out of the car to puncture the other three. They reassess their challenges and fix the wheel to keep moving nearer to their goal.

Tennis has a lot to teach us about weight loss. Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis was renowned for winning most of the points if his first serve went in. The problem was that Mark only ever managed to get 40pc of his first serves in, unlike his compatriot Lleyton Hewitt.

Lleyton would often beat Mark as when his serve was not in form, he had no back-up plan — he never worked on his second serve.

There are basically two ways to win a tennis game. In the first, you hit ‘winners’ — shots that are absolutely unreturnable, killer smashes, or balls that are perfectly placed where your opponent is not. Your poor opponent looks on helplessly as the ball sails to a part of the court where they can’t possibly get to, and you win the point.

If you have played tennis before, you probably spend an awful lot of time trying to hit winners and being frustrated because most of your ‘winners’ wind up well outside the lines of the court.

A different approach would be to keep the ball in play. Consider this: even if you don’t have a terrific shot, even if you can’t hit the ball where you want to, what happens? Your opponent is going to have to return and they will eventually get frustrated, lose patience, try for a winner, and often miss the shot. And you’re going to win.

Most people don’t succeed at the weight-loss game because they keep trying to hit winners. There are no ‘winners’ in weight loss. Infomercials may promise you that you can lose 16 pounds in a week. The only people who do well on those programmes are the people who sell them.

If you want to succeed with fat loss, you have got to keep the ball in play. That means not expecting miracles, staying patient, staying in the game, hitting back whatever ball life throws you and staying in the game.
You can’t win the game unless you stay in it. The goals you set for weight loss have got to be realistic. It is unrealistic to consistently lose five pounds of weight each week. You also need to factor in time for holidays, communions, etc, or the amount of time you can possibly commit to training.

Unfortunately, too many people give up, not only in weight loss but in life. The secret to success in either is to simply keep the ball in play. You must realise that the road to weight-loss success is a journey, not a destination. You will learn a lot about yourself mentally and physically as life will continue to throw its lessons at you. Inventor Thomas Edison said that: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

Keep the ball in the court and if it strays outside, work on your second serve and you can be triumphant in your goal of achieving the body you want.

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