I was one of these people…

So I always sympathize with this comment, “I’ll workout all day. It’s just so hard to change my diet.”

Or…

“I can train hard. I just can’t change my diet. I love food too much.”

The thing is…

We CAN change our diet.

And yes, we all know we just aren’t “willing” to or we don’t “want” to….

But what we don’t realize is that training is NOT easy.

We’ve just become comfortable being uncomfortable in that way.

Realizing that was oddly eye opening for me.

Because A. It made me truly recognize that many people do NOT like training. I’ve just developed a comfort zone that includes it.

And B. Even with training there are still things I’m not comfortable doing…often new skills I’m not good at. And when you start to assess moves or tools or such you won’t include and often scoff at even, you’ll start to see where your comfort zone ENDS.

Basically what we’ve got to recognize is that dietary adjustments are possible…they’re just outside our comfort zone.

So how do we learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable with dietary adjustments?

And I think that it starts with how we approach changes…

First…Realize that when you push too much, you rebel more. Assess the mindsets that make you resistant.

So often when we make a ton of changes and mentally can’t handle them, we then start to associate those habits with that negativity. They become one in the same.

Like tracking.

When we only track to seriously restrict, when we feel super hungry and miserable tracking, we believe tracking is restrictive.

Realizing we will associate the habit with our mindset and that can 100% color things, A. We want to assess why we don’t like habits. But B. We want to break those mindsets around them and find new ways to implement them.

Like tracking.

Start tracking without making changes.

It will be eye opening and you’ll see you can actually make sustainable changes. You’ll start to learn. You won’t just be cutting out or restricting.

You can even learn to ADD IN foods you love more.

But the key is making small changes and assessing the mindsets behind the changes when we are resistant.

Second…Start by making changes that are closer to your current comfort zone.

Usually super different things, things that seem to threaten our lifestyle will be further from our comfort zone.

And we will be more likely to come up with excuses to resist making those changes.

So start with things closer to your comfort zone. Start with changes that seem easier.

Associate those changes with creating MORE of the lifestyle you enjoy.

Like maybe you know you need to boost your protein, but the idea of figuring out changes to your meals is overwhelming. But you’re also really into fueling your workouts and so much want to see gains from them.

Just add in a post workout protein shake!

It may be a small change but it can easily be linked to habits you enjoy and the lifestyle you’re living.

And as you see results from the small changes and feel better, you’ll start to want to make more.

Too often we make these massive changes that pull us outside our comfort zone only for us to run back into it.

Instead we almost need to keep expanding our comfort zone so little at a time we don’t almost even fully realize it’s moving. And as we get comfortable even challenging ourselves in these new ways, we’ll find it easier to do more!

Third…Own the awkward.

Sometimes I think we try to downplay how uncomfortable change is. But instead we need to really recognize it and own it.

When we can admit something is going to be hard, there will be challenges, it’s going to suck, it’s almost easier to embrace the hard.

Instead often we try to downplay things and say it will be easy, it’s no big deal…but then when it doesn’t feel that way, it almost leads to us rebelling more.

I like to remind myself to own the awkward.

Embrace the learning process.

Realize I’m going to suck at things before I get better.

Even the master was once the beginner.

Recognize the challenges you will face. Recognize that the journey will NOT feel good at points.

This can help you lower your defenses and get more comfortable being uncomfortable.

SUMMARY:

Remember changes are hard. And especially diet changes that we’ve never really tried to make that “threaten” our current lifestyle balance.

Remember we’ve created the comfort zone we are in and at any time we can expand it BUT it takes a conscious effort!