It is possible to maintain and even lose weight during the holiday season–some people will do it.

You don’t have to deprive yourself of any good food–you’ll probably end up getting even more enjoyment than if you stuffed yourself.

How Your Beliefs Hold You Back

Most people who believe it is impossible will never even try, and they won’t be among the few who emerge from the the holidays in equal or better shape than they are right now.

I could tell you that you have to start by thinking about it until you really believed that you could. But I don’t think that would help you.

Our beliefs and feelings are tricky things; if you feel like something just can’t work for you, then having me telling you that all you need to do it to believe in it won’t help you one bit.

Maybe if you had hours to focus on your belief and really figure out what was going on, then you could change it–but you don’t have that much free time. None of us do.

You don’t actually need to change your beliefs first.

In fact it’s a whole lot easier than you might think…

You’re going to trick yourself into believing it: once you’re done it, you will believe it.

You’re going to be able to do it because I’ve broken the whole thing down into a few really simple positive actions that you know how to do.

Committing to take little actions, and TAKING those actions, will automatically start to swing your beliefs around to feeling like the impossible seeming outcome is possible. This is true no matter how strongly you currently feel like it just isn’t possible for you.

All you have to do is to start taking little actions. You don’t have to think at all about whether they will help…all you need to do is DO them. Just go through the simple physical motions. Such as…

Put on your shoes.

Drive to the gym.

Sit on an exercise machine.

Engage your muscles a little bit.

In a restaurant, move your lips and say, “Please take the breadbasket back; I won’t be needing it.”

When you’re finished eating a small portion of healthy, balanced food, before you keep nibbling, simply open your mouth and say to the server: “You can clear my plate; I’m finished.”

You can do each of those simple actions.

It isn’t any more complicated than that.

Now, I’m going to walk you through the simple actions you can take for both exercise and diet, so that when you’re finished reading this in a couple of minutes, you’re well on on your way already.

The first action is to schedule all of your workouts–at least one workout each week between now and January. That’s a very simple action. Just write down 6 appointments that say “workout–gym” in your calendar. You can schedule all of these in less than 2 minutes.

(Yes once a week is enough. I will personally be working out just one day per week, and my workouts will last 10 minutes, start-to-finish. If your workouts are intense enough, you can get away with that amount of time, too.)

Now commit to showing up to all of your scheduled workouts, at the scheduled time.

Don’t worry about actually working out until you are at the gym. Now, just commit to SHOWING UP for 20-30 minutes–or just 10 minutes, if you’re like me.

Once you are at the gym, THEN you can focus on the next action: walk over to a machine.

Then: get on the machine.

Then, AFTER you’re sitting there on the machine, you can think about starting to engage your muscles.

But DO NOT think too far ahead now. You already know how to do each next step once you’re at the gym, so you don’t need waste time contemplating any of that right now.

(Now, maybe you don’t know what to do at the gym. Well, that isn’t a problem, either. Just make the first of your scheduled workouts–that’s the one that’s THIS WEEK…in the next 7 days–with a friend who knows how to show you. Or, if you don’t want to bother a friend, book a session with a qualified personal trainer to show you. Now you’re instantly back to not having to think about it…you can just show up. Someone else is responsible to show you *what* to do once you’ve arrived and and are standing at the gym.)

At your very next meal after you read this, try these simple actions:

Eat your healthy protein portion first (3-4 oz).

Eat some healthy vegetables.

Push away most of the carbs with your fork after savoring just a little bite.

Set down your fork for good after eating 20% fewer calories than you would have otherwise.

Those are VERY SIMPLE actions that YOU CAN do. You can take these simple actions no matter what you believe is ultimately possible for you.

You can do these actions almost without thinking, and without effort. And you can actually do them every meal during the holiday season without depriving yourself of anything–other than perhaps a stomach ache you would have gotten from overeating.

I know that I can’t have changed your beliefs about what is possible for you this holiday season with this one article. However, I sincerely hope I’ve gotten you to try the small actions I mentioned, starting TODAY.

Just try them, and see what happens. If you forget what to do in a couple of days, just keep this email, so you can remind yourself.

I believe that YOU can do these simple, mindless, nearly effortless actions.

And I believe that you will be delighted by the results.

The Christmas present I’m most looking forward to this year is receiving a few unsolicited emails around January 1st–emails from people who followed this simple advice and who have exciting stories they want to share, and are compelled to write to me to share their stories.

I’m sure that I won’t receive more than a handful of such emails, but I assure you that I will enjoy each one as much as any other Christmas present I get, and I’ll print them out to save them. I really hope to see one from you among them.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To health and life,
Chad

P.S. For anyone reading this who actually does the above and emails me about it, I have something very special to give to you. You don’t even have to be local or one of my clients. It’s a secret, but if you’re one of the few, you’ll find out what it is. And I think you’ll like it.