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- Approaching your health like you would your career could help you lose fat, a nutritionist said.
- A goal, plan, and timeline, are key components to fat loss, just like project management, she said.
- Taking time to plan before embarking on a diet might help you achieve your goals, Angela Clucas said.
Chances are you’ve put a serious amount of thought into how you’re growing your career.
But you might not have considered that approaching your health like you would a promotion might be the key to hitting goals like losing weight.
Registered nutritionist Angela Clucas told Business Insider that approaching weight loss like a business problem has helped her weight loss clients to succeed.
“When you want to lose weight, it should just be treated like you would with any project management,” Clucas said. “You need a goal, you need an outcome, you need a strategy, you need a timeline, you need to know who's going to help you.”
Clucas explained how below.
1. Make a plan
Instead of just rushing into a diet, it’s important to make a plan, Clucas said: “If you wanted to increase your company profits by 10%, you wouldn’t just go, ‘OK, let's get to work.’ You have to have the plan in place.”
Think about your goal, the strategy you’ll use to get there, and decide on a rough timeline.
“Then bring all that information together into a plan before you start and check that it's realistic,” Clucas said.
A good starting point is knowing that experts recommend avoiding fad diets that cut out particular food groups or over-restrict when it comes to fat loss, and instead eating in a sustainable calorie deficit with a balance of protein, carbs, and fats.
2. Have a plan B
Once you’ve worked out your optimal strategy, you need to have a plan B for when things inevitably go wrong.
“I'm a huge fan of a plan B, so know what you're going to do, know when you're going to do it, know what you need to make sure that it happens, but also make sure that if life always gets in the way, you’re not going to be thrown off course,” Clucas said.
For example, if you’d planned to meal prep on a Sunday afternoon but then suddenly need to take your dog to the vet, you’ll know when you can postpone it or what you can eat instead to keep on track, Clucas said.
“The fewer decisions you have to make to get an outcome, the more likely it is to happen,” Clucas said.
3. Think about your identity
Before embarking on a weight loss phase, Clucas recommends people think about their identity.
At work, you might consider yourself to be conscientious, keen to progress, and always doing a good job, and we can apply those values to weight loss, too, Clucas said.
“If you hold honesty as a really important value for yourself in the workplace, are you being honest with yourself?” Clucas said. “Are you holding to the same standards that you're holding your employer or your team?”
By treating your health more like your work, you might finally get the results you want.