[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] how on earth do you get back on plan once you’ve gotten off plan this is important it really helped me when I realized I need to start taking the very long view when it comes to weight loss success and I’ve been able to drop 80 pounds and keep it off one thing I had to realize early on was I’m gonna go off the plan but I’ve got to figure out how to get back on plan I remember back in 2016 I had gotten very clear on my plan but a vacation came up and I was so scared because I knew I was going off plan for several days and I was terrified that I would never get back on plan but what helped me in that moment was to realize every week I’m practicing going off plan and getting back on plan because I take a cheat day I realize like I have a lot of practice I’ll be okay and that gave me peace but there were other times where things would keep coming up and I would keep getting off plan so in this video I’m gonna give you the three steps that I take to get myself motivated to get back on plan step one is analyze your plan okay take your written plan out and look at what your plan is now if you don’t have a written plan I would highly recommend write your plan down a lot of times we think we have a plan but really if we were to try to write it down we realize wait I don’t even really know what I’m doing here that was me back in 2015 from week to week that changed and I never really knew what I was doing in 2016 however and that’s when I wrote down very clear simple rules you know it was intermittent fasting six days a week cheat day on Sunday and walk six miles everyday if you do have a plan the next step is to analyze is this plan too hard I realized that you know nobody’s gonna give you a medal if you do a really hard plan it’s okay to make your plan easy in fact I think that’s one reason why I’ve had so much success with weight loss and keeping it off because it seems very easy to me if you find that your plan is simply too hard I would encourage you change your rules make it easier make it something that you realize like yeah I can do this let’s say your plan seems you know reasonable you feel like you really can do this and and there’s just something else going on now it’s time for step two which is the post mortem what we’re trying to accomplish here is just figure out why does your plan die basically this is an opportunity here because you can find out what’s going wrong and you can fix it let’s say your problem is you’re just eating during your fasting window I find it very helpful to simply ask yourself why you know and what happens a lot of times since you don’t really know why you’re eating it’s like I don’t know why I ate but if I asked myself these questions I generally find the reason was I bored was I stressed was I tired did I cave to social pressure to eat the great news is all of those things are very fixable when you know like why you did something then you can say here’s how to fix it for example like let’s say you realize man I was tired and that’s why I caved to eating one thing you could ask yourself is why did you not get enough sleep you know maybe the answer is getting in bed earlier or you know maybe you like a late bed time well then give yourself a nap you know say well I’m not gonna eat for you know that period of time but I will allow myself to sleep if you’re bored find some hobbies if you’re stressed try journaling or taking a walk but if it’s social pressure one thing that helped me was to create some rules around that so going back and saying okay I need to add a rule to my list I decided when there’s a social event that I’m going to if it would you know basically rain on the parade if I didn’t eat I’m gonna eat and then that became part of the plan so then I wouldn’t feel guilty about going off plane cuz it is part of my plan if however you’re finding that you’re eating out of true hunger then what always worked for me was to just say okay I either need to eat more in my eating window or I need to make my eating window longer I was all about and just trying to make this easy and so if I found that I was not able to stick my window I changed the window after you’re finished with your post mortem then you have to look at the motivation now I personally find that once I’ve done my post mortem and I can see you know those are the things the reasons I was going off the plan and now I’ve fixed those things I’ve taken action that to me in and of itself is motivating but if you’re still stuck if it’s like well I think you know that that’ll fix it but I’m just afraid to start cuz I just think I would just be right back here then it’s really helpful to go back to your why why are you wanting to lose weight in the first place and if you don’t have a clear answer on that you need to find out why do you want to do this because it takes effort and lastly you just have to realize you have you’re at a crossroads right now you can either quit or you can press on and what I found for me personally is I have to be really stubborn I really feel like being stubborn was a big asset when it comes to losing weight you know I just said I’m just gonna keep at it and it’s maybe gonna take a really long time but I’m not going back because if you decide to quit and you just say I’m just gonna go back to eating how I used to eat then you’re gonna be back where you were and for me that was not an option I wanted so that’s how I motivate myself to keep on going even when I get off plan I’m curious to know what are some tips and tricks that you have found to get back on plan once you’ve been off thank you for watching be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe down below [/spoiler]

Video Recap

I believe no one is perfect when it comes to following their eating plan. The trick to long term success with weight loss is to simply get back on plan. Easy to say, right? I know. Getting back on plan was something I failed at repeatedly until 2016. That’s when I started taking a cheat day every single week. And what that meant, really, was that I was practicing going off plan (not fasting) and getting back on plan (fasting).

But I still found that there were times I’d find myself going off plan, and I had to figure  out how to motivate myself to get back on plan. Here are the steps I take:

Step 1: Analyze your plan

• Do you have a written plan? If not, write it down.
• Ask yourself if the plan is simply too hard. If so, make it easier. You don’t get a medal for sticking to a hard plan.
• If the plan seems really easy, go to step 2.

Step 2: Perform a postmortem

• Ask yourself why you went off plan. Then take actions to solve those problems.
• If your problem is eating in your fasting window, I find these questions helped me to pinpoint the problem:
  • Was I tired?
  • Was I stressed?
  • Was I bored?
  • Was I truly hungry?
• I’ve struggled with all of these in the past, and here’s how I solved them:
  • Tired? Get more sleep or take a nap instead of eating
  • Stressed? Journal. Go for a walk. Talk to somebody.
  • Bored? Get some hobbies! Find some interests!
  • True hunger? Eat more in my eating window, or lengthen my eating window a bit.

Step 3: Motivate yourself to get back on plan

• I find that figuring out the why of why I went off plan to be super motivating, because it then leads to an actionable solution. Once that problem is fixed, it gives me confidence to begin again because I know why I got off plan in the first place, and I know I taken the actions to fix that problem.
• If you’re still scared, go back to your why. Why are you wanting to lose weight in the first place?
• Ultimately, it’s about realizing you’re at a crossroads. You can choose to quit, and go back to where you were. Or you can choose to be stubborn and press on. I have always chosen to be stubborn, and I think that’s a big reason I’ve been able to lose 80 pounds and keep it off.

Do you have some additional tips and tricks for getting back on plan? Leave them in the comments below!