MAKE FEWER DECISIONS: THE SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS

Why make it complicated? When executives are unsuccessful, their food record has no pattern. The purpose of a food record is to find what creates weight loss and what doesn’t. If you can lose 2kg you can lose 20kg. What is required is consistency over a long period of time.

Eating a different breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day creates 21 different variables that you have to manage to create weight loss. This kind of inconsistency demands high levels of problem-solving to maintain a calorie deficit.

“I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” — Barack Obama
The time demands of the executive are an asset. A lack of time forces the executive to create pre-set routines that must be followed. Each of my most successful weight loss clients has organized their days around a go-to lunch.

That’s right — they eat the same lunch every day.

When I present this strategy to new clients, the ones who are most resistant claim they need variety, they will get bored, they are fussy eaters or they hate their work life so much that the only pleasure they derive from the day is what they eat for lunch.

Ultimately, they are not happy. They have to learn to detach their emotional connection to food. This is not a simple process, but executives get this more than any other cohort.

The skill is delayed gratification.

Your ability to control gratification is a powerful predictor of success. Executives frequently delay gratification in their occupation. Each week they put in extra hours at the office, answer emails on the weekend and put their life on hold for the company. They understand that a bit of short term pain comes with long-term gain.

But, for whatever reason, they have been slow to apply this knowledge to their health.

I often say the first 2kg is the hardest to lose. This is where the biggest shift is required.

With the loss of the first 2kg combined with a food record you have a blueprint to lose the next 20kg. All that is needed is consistency to create efficiency and measurement.

This is something that executives struggle with. They prefer all-out effort for a short duration. Yet without it, you are turning every snack or meal into a new decision.

If you are struggling for consistency create accountability by including someone else. Ask for help. There will be someone in your team that you have hired because of their reliability and consistency. The one that gets annoyed if the things on their desk are out of place. Find them, put them in charge of organizing lunch. It will be one less thing that you need to worry about.