Whenever I coach people about starting a diet, I emphasize the importance of the final steps before the diet even begins.  Research suggests that the best rate of success goes to those who start on a Monday.   This means you always have a weekend to prep.  

Ahhhh, weekends.  The two days of the week where your routine is a little different: perhaps you have more time to do what you want or perhaps you are very busy getting things done, but regardless of what you do with your S-days, the work week is just around the corner.  That means somewhere in the weekend before your Dietbet starts, you've got to get ready.

Are you ready?  What will you need in your saddle bags for this Dietbet ride?  How far, how fast, how furiously do you plan to travel?  What's really fueling you?  

If you haven't already considered this, the weekend is a good time to do a little soul searching about WHY you are getting started in the first place.  But here is the rule: your essay has to begin and end with HOW you are going to do it.  If you know why you want to marry someone, that's great, but how you go about asking, being engaged and ultimately tying the knot is what makes you a married couple.  Succeeding in weight loss is the same: it's all about how you plan to pull off your why, but the why is important- REALLY IMPORTANT!!  It's the thing that will get you out of bed on those cold December days when you'd rather sleep in.  BUT IF YOU SOT ON THE COUCH THINKING ABOUT WHY TOO LONG, it may turn into WHY NOT- so be sure to focus on HOW, and ask your WHY from that place.

Once you figure out why you want something, researching and getting excited about the how just falls into place!  This is the work that comes right before the starting line where you make your plan for the week.  Here are some tips I've put together for HOW I make it happen:

I like to set up meal plans 3-4 days out- I'll usually cook double what I need for a dinner and eat the leftovers for lunch- if I do this 3x, that's half the work I would have had to do to plan 6 meals.  In my experience, this gives me enough meals and raw goods to have some leftovers and allow for COPs (change o plans), where we might eat out or have a neigbor's surprise dinner show up at our doorstep without having ingredients go bad.  I try to keep breakfast and snacks on weekdays really simple- something I can just grab and go out the door with, like an apple with 2T of peanut butter.

 As for workouts, I always schedule 3 strength training sessions each week and 1-2 more cardio days.  This way I get the biggest bang for my buck and I'M SURE to make at least 3 workouts in a week, when I have a goal of 4-5 total.  I schedule these workouts in so I don't miss them, and I look forward to how good I feel afterwards.  I'm also adamant about getting my protein shake or bar in within 30-60 minutes after working out to build more muscle tissue.

When I'm feeling down or struggling with reasons why NOT to follow my diet plan, I reach out to the dietbet community for support.  I find journaling or talking through my feelings with a confidante can also be helpful.  But not much beats another good workout, clean eats, and seeing a lighter number on the scale in the morning.  My work is always going to lie in these simple truths that come from following my plan.  Sometimes I'll tweak it to add more chocolate protein shakes if I'm craving chocolate, or take measures to shake up my plan with a new dish so I don't get bored, but I keep my head in the game to figure out how I can make it work.  When I do all this, it works!!

So here is my question: HOW are you going to "ready, set, diet" this week?