Tomorrow Never Comes
Tomorrow I am going to...
start my diet.
give up smoking.
go teetotal.
join the gym.
How many times have you heard that said - or said it yourself?
We all have goals that we want to achieve, changes we are trying to make - but for many of us the start of our new lifestyle begins tomorrow... and tomorrow never comes.
The New Year has flown by and as we near the start of March, and the beginning of Spring, I wonder how many of the people who started 2012 with strong resolutions are still holding up to their choices - or falling back off their wagon of choice?
I certainly was going to try to lose some weight and get back to a former fitness so over the festive period I stopped watching my diet and even added in some gluten and dairy.
But it was OK - I could justify this to myself because on New Year's Eve I said I would start 'being good' tomorrow.
Of course New Year's Day included a lot of leftover food that needed to be used or wasted and after nibbling at the remainder of the pizza from the night before I decided that since I had broken my diet for the day I may as well enjoy myself and start again tomorrow.
Why Tomorrow Never Comes
For many of you this may sound like a familiar story and if you have tried to diet or give up eating 'bad foods' then you may have fallen into the same vicious cycle.
We convince ourselves that because we have eaten something 'bad' for the day we may as well have a day off and start again in the morning, but for many that means an evening of over -eating all the foods that you will not be able to have on your new 'diet' in the morning.
The same can happen with smoking. You want to quit and you set a date. When the night before arrives you find yourself smoking twice your usual amount of cigarettes because you won't be smoking any more from tomorrow.
Unfortunately if you don't make it past lunchtime the next day and you can convince yourself that you have failed and will start 'stopping' again tomorrow. Since today is now a 'bad' day you may as well smoke - and if you are giving up tomorrow you better smoke a few more.
If this is starting to sound familiar then welcome to the 'tomorrow' club.
Breaking the cycle
So how do you leave the club once you are in?
For starters we need to be realistic.
The minute you begin to deprive yourself, your body and mind will react.
If you want to change your eating habits then the first thing you need to do is change what you perceive as the meaning to the word DIET.
We are all on a diet, whether it is a healthy diet - a poor diet - an elimination diet - or a weight-loss diet. What we need to remember is that by denying ourselves a large amount of the foods that we like - we will instantly crave them.
This is not to say that you cannot go on a diet - what you need to do is stop thinking that if you slip up on Day One - you need to throw your choices away for the day. Take it one mouthful at a time and try to gradually reduce and eliminate the items you want to, without throwing the day away for one minor indiscretion.
If you are trying to quit smoking and fall by the wayside after lunch - don't give up for the whole day - start again where you left off and try to get through the next hour instead.
By setting shorter goals and not focusing on changing everything at once you may be one step closer to leaving the 'Tomorrow Club'.