How to start eating healthy if you quietly quit on your goals already

A few weeks ago, I came across the term “quietly quit.” It’s usually used in businesses when people mentally give up on their jobs. When people hate their job, but they can’t actually afford to quit, so they show up but don’t give their best and slowly stop doing things the way they deserve to be done. I’m sure you’ve had this experience at some point in your life! As soon as I heard this quietly quitting term, I felt like it was the perfect way to describe giving up on your New Year’s resolutions to eat healthy or lose weight too.

It’s been about four weeks since we all launched our New Year’s resolutions, which means 80% of people have already given up on what they set out to do for the year. 

I know no one intends to quit. You start with so much excitement for your new goals. But then one day you sleep in instead of going to the gym and it feels so good to sleep in you do it for the rest of the week. Or, when you go to grab lunch you have a small thought. “I don’t really want that grilled chicken I planned for lunch, I’m going to go out instead.” 

And then, the guilt hits. 

Oh man, guilt is one of the biggest destroyers of health. Because we don’t like feeling guilty, right? After a guilt trip, no one sits around saying, yeah that was worth it. I’m ao glad I just made myself feel like crap. 

No! When we feel guilt, shame or regret our primitive brain says, how can we avoid feeling like this ever again? And you think to yourself, “Well if I removed the expectation that I needed to go to the gym or eat healthy? Then I couldn’t mess it up and I wouldn’t feel guilty anymore.”

So you quietly quit. You don’t get on Instagram and announce to everyone that you are going back to your old habits. You don’t talk about it with your neighbors and friends. You just sort of avoid the topic when it comes up.

And life moves on. You go back to your old habits - that aren’t serving you and have never served you - but they’re comfortable and they don’t require any guilt. And you stay on that path until you can’t stand it so you start a new diet to try to lose weight again. Only to give up a few weeks into it when it gets too difficult again.

And the cycle repeats over and over and over again! I know women who have been stuck in this cycle for 20, 30 years! But mama, there’s a reason you’re setting goals and trying to lose weight. This is something you want. You have to find a way out of that struggle so that you can achieve the goals you set for yourself. 

Instead of giving up on yourself when things get hard, what if you had tools and strategies to help you through those tough times so you didn’t have to keep starting over? Would that be helpful? Keep reading because I’m about to give them to you for free!

The next step after quietly quitting

The best thing you can do if you’re on the path to quitting, or if you’ve already quit, is to take the first opportunity you have to get back on track. 

Stop saying “I’ll start tomorrow,” or “after that big event,” or “on Monday.” Those excuses will always come up. There is never going to be a time when the conditions are 100% perfect. The point of healthy living isn’t to do it perfectly, but to do it messy!

You need to learn how to make healthy choices not just when you’re at home and have everything planned and prepped perfectly. You need to learn how to make healthy choices when plans change, when you go out to eat with friends, when you’re on vacation, at birthday parties and during holidays.

That’s why jumping back in right now is the best way to learn how to push through difficult times! Whether you can jump back in at breakfast, lunch or dinner, you need to do it.

And if that feels too impossible, then how can you be 1% better at your next meal? If your next meal is a company lunch out, can you grab a chicken breast and veggies instead of a burger and fries? Can you opt for water instead of a soda or cocktail? 

Every time you make a choice that leads you toward the person you want to become, you subconsciously become that person! My favorite quote by James Clear sums this up perfectly. 

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity” 

- James Clear, Atomic Habits

Each small choice you make slowly adds up. When it feels too hard to keep going, try to just make one small action that will push you towards your goals instead of taking you away from them and it should make it easier.

Uncover what made you quit healthy eating

We all have excuses that we try to use to justify why we gave up on healthy eating. 

• I didn’t have time to plan a healthy meal.

• My kids got sick and I was busy taking care of them. 

• We were running late and I didn’t have time to cook, so we had to grab fast food. 

• I overslept and couldn’t fit in a workout.

I’ve been there too, mama! I have a million excuses as to why I don’t do the things I say I want to. But the truth is that excuses are just that, excuses. It’s a way for us to relieve ourselves of guilt.

But in the end, we have to own up to the choices we made instead of using excuses for why we didn’t do what we said we would. 

And I want you to get uncomfortable and dive into your excuses. You need to ask yourself, why you’re allowing less important things to get in the way of what you really want. 

There is only one thing that can actually make you break your health goals and that’s the thoughts you allow to control your journey. 

Every single action we take starts with a thought. We get to choose if that thought is going to take us closer to our goals or further away from them. 

An easy example can start with the thought, “I’m hungry.”

The next thought might be, “Ooo pizza sounds good.” and you can let that thought run the show or you can let the next thought be, “But is that going to help me reach my goals? Maybe I’d better have something with more protein instead.”

Mama, you get to be in control of your thoughts. You get to choose to listen to your first instinct thoughts or you get to challenge those thoughts and replace them with better thoughts. Thoughts that serve you instead of hurt you.

I say it all the time (because it’s so true!!) but losing weight is about the food, but it isn’t really about the food. It’s about the thoughts and feelings you have about your food.

In my Macros Made Easy program, we address the thoughts you have about food every week because it’s so crucial to understand and shift how you think about food if you want to have sustainable weight loss.

If you’re tired of living in the quiet quitting cycle and you want a way to eat fun food, lose weight, and develop healthy habits then let’s chat! The Macros Made Easy Program would be perfect for you! Get started by booking a discovery call with me today!

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