Last week in my Women on Weights class, we were chatting about weight loss when one woman said that while she knew alot about what I was saying (clean eating, carb cycling), she just didn’t want to put it into action. ‘Why?’, I asked.

‘Because I enjoy my social life too much.‘

She enjoyed going out in the evenings with her friends to their favourite haunt for a few glasses of wine. That was an important part of her social life.

I get that. I really do. When our life is set up around social outings, it can be a hard thing to change. But when we decide we want change, something’s gotta give. There’s always a compromise to be made.

Life is about compromises….we can’t spend our entire pay cheque or we won’t make the rent or mortgage. We can’t just blatantly say whatever comes into our mind or soon we won’t have any friends left! It’s the same with eating: we can’t just keep eating and drinking the way we have been if we want new results.

This woman knew this, and while she was stating the obvious, I applauded her for being so honest and forthcoming. (I only wish all my diet clients were this open about their eating.)

Here’s what I’ve learned: you don’t have to compromise in big heaps…sometimes a little compromise will do. Like instead of having 2-3 glasses of wine with your friends at night, have one. Or instead of going out every night, go out on weekends. This woman’s social life – and the wine that went with it – was important to her. So she wasn’t wanting to give it up. But pulling back the reins a bit is a good starting place. Baby steps…..

For others, baby steps won’t work. For some of us (like yours truly), we seem to have to do things to extreme in order to create change (but this can set us up for huge failure, so be careful!). But you gotta bend in order to shift something…

Find your bending point and lean into it. Like I always say, If you like how you look and feel, keep doing what you’re doing. If not, change it up. For me, I’ve found what works: I stay without alcohol during the week, but I allow myself wine on Friday and Saturday, and one cheat meal a week where I get to eat whatever I want.

Beyond that, I lose control, and staying lean ends up being a wishy-washy affair and I lose all my gains from the week prior. I – like you – work way too hard to keep a healthy physique to see it all washed away in a no-holds barred attitude. So a compromise is in order, if I want to see results.

Like the lottery ad says: Find your limit, play within it. Then compromise then goes from being constraining to empowering. You feel more free!

And it feels great to be in control of your eating and have a social life at the same time!

karen