…and your next one?

 

About 13 years ago, I was in the middle of my final weight loss journey, and down over 40 or 50 pounds. I started to lose it when I looked at my body in the mirror and realized that I had another 20 or 25 pounds left to go. …and I was f***ing hungry. All the time.

To make matters worse, I thought I looked terrible. I was getting lighter, but I felt like I was getting skinny yet staying fat at the same time. Skinny-fat, some call it; the phenomenon where you lose fat and muscle at the same time, and end up lighter, but still too flabby.

Thank God, but I had the right coach to help me that day, when I was ready to give up again. His name was Andrew, and he got me on the phone and talked me off the ledge before I even knew I’d opened the window. Somehow he knew.

What he said was simple, but it’s been a staple of my own coaching even since I started to take my own clients.

 

“What’s your next plan?”

I didn’t get it at first, but he went on.

“You say what you’re doing isn’t working and you want to quit?”

“Yeah.”

“Before you quit, look how this plan has worked so far. It’s working, even if it’s not perfect. Stick with it until you have your new plan.”

“Um….”

“Remember how hard it was to start last year?”

“I do.”

“If you stop, you won’t start again. Look at all the times in your first 35 years that you stopped and gained it all back. Never stop again. Get a new plan, sure, but stay on your current plan until you’re ready to switch.”

I didn’t stop; I got a new plan that was more than just eating less and moving more, and I continued to lose fat, but gain muscle as well; eventually I lost the skinny fat look that had me ready to quit that day.

Thank you again, Andrew, 13 years later!

This ‘have a next plan’ thing became pretty important to me and to the people who I worked with, so important that I put it into two of our books, including Man on Top. It fits very nicely into the #3 slot of Man on Top’s ‘Five Common Denominators of Weight Loss Success.”

3. Have a next plan

People who successfully lost fat sometimes got it right the first time, but most times their success followed failures. Knowing that the last time failed is a primary reason why people don’t try again; instead, they wait for the perfect plan or to hit rock bottom (and sometimes it’s rock bottom again).

Because the successful people we studied already had a next plan, they never strayed from their path. They had educated themselves on their options, and had a good one ready to go.

What if you find that your current method is making you miserable? What if it’s simply not working? Take a lesson from these successful people, and never stop. …and never stop learning.

Today, I coach others in their own fitness and nutrition journeys, but I still have someone coaching me, too. Yes, I still need motivation and guidance, especially when things get busy with real life!

Do you have a coach?

Do you have a ‘next plan?’

Do you have a plan at all?