Evaluating Your Day
Why it’s so Helpful
When you think about the word “evaluation” what comes to mind?
For me, I had so many negative thoughts associated with evaluating my day.
Things like:
· I don’t want to know
· I would rather not look at it
· I don’t need any more negativity in my life.
· I’ll just do it in my head
· It will take too long
· It won’t make that much of a difference
· Who cares if I eat something different than what I planned?
Here are 3 steps that I use each day to evaluate my day, which takes away the fear and dread out of this exercise.
1. Start with what you did right!
a. This is important for dopamine (good feeling hormone) which will keep you going
b. If you see something you’re doing right, then you’ll want to repeat it
c. It’s why I look forward to evaluating
2. Consider what could be the REAL problem
a. Check in with yourself about things that could be an excuse or justification and Call BS on yourself.
b. Look objectively at what didn’t go as planned and why, from a place of curiosity, and compassion NOT judgement.
c. Remind yourself though you are NOT defied by the number on the scale, tap into why you want to lose weight in the first place. No one NEEDS to do this. So here is a great time to remind yourself why you’re exploring a new way to look at your food – because you want to create a different outcome
d. Use this as information for planning your next day’s meals
3. Decide what you’ll do differently next time
a. Pick just ONE thing to work on
b. Resist the urge to take drastic action
c. Remind yourself why you want to lose weight – you may decide to restrict some things, but remind yourself what benefits you will gain.
OVERCOMING MY OBSTACLES
I’ll just do it in my head
This one is for SURE not helpful.
I tried it, and could never remember what I actually ate or didn’t eat, so then when the excuses come, I have NO answer for them, so I believe them.
NOT helpful.
Writing down my actual food, helps keep me honest with myself and not live in my imaginary world where I tell myself I’ve done everything right and am still gaining weight!! :0
you can’t correct something that you think was just left to chance. By having a written record, it helps us to be ON to ourselves. We’re much less likely to believe falsehoods we’re telling ourselves when we see it written down.
What I LOVE about evaluating is having a chance to slow down the process of how we want to think about our day.
It will take too long
Not True - it takes me about 5 minutes - the more you do it the faster you can get.
There are some days when I decide just to write down the food bare minimum,
If I’m short on time, I’ll fill out my food and my habit tracker, so I’ll have all the data I need for the month.
The trick is to know and understand your actual limitations, and to be OK if it’s not perfect.
It won’t make that big of a difference
As I stated before. If you don’t know WHAT you’re doing you can’t correct it.
One of my favorite activities if I’m noticing a pattern that I don’t want is to create a hypothesis as to why it’s happening.
Having actual factual data instead of stories, or guesses, or excuses is essential so then we can see what problem we’re trying to solve.
The most fundamental piece of this process is to leave any judgement aside, and simply notice what’s happening and get curious. With compassion, patience and grace.
