What is Structure and Accountability?

Accountability keeps you progressing and keeps you consistent. Anyone can start exercising and eating healthily, but sticking with it and being consistent is difficult. However, accountability helps you to be consistent with new habits. And we know consistency exceeds intensity every single time regarding weight loss.

When someone else checks up on you to see how things are going, you’re more likely to do the work required to progress. This may be getting to your exercise sessions, walking, eating healthy food, or even making sure you’re getting enough rest and recovery time, so you don’t burn out.

Accountability not only helps you stay on track with what you need to do to lose weight, but it also helps you to do it when motivation is low. And when you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, accountability will show you what you need to work on, to get results.  

To ensure successful weight loss, it is crucial to implement accountability and structure in your plan. This can be achieved by setting specific and measurable goals, tracking your progress through a food and exercise journal or app, scheduling regular check-ins with a Coach or accountability partner, planning your meals and snacks, and creating a daily or weekly exercise routine. 

These strategies provide the necessary structure and accountability to help you stay on track and reach your weight loss goals. 

However, accountability is not a one-way street. It is not just having someone asking how you’re doing and leaving it at that. It’s about being responsible for your actions and being answerable for your actions. 

To succeed in your weight loss plan, you need to take responsibility for your success by being accountable to yourself as well as your coach.

Accountability is:

 Committing to yourself and your coach

Taking full ownership of your situation

Being willing to do what it takes to get the results you want.

Being fully responsible for all your actions

Being 100% honest, not just telling your coach what they want to hear.

Consistently report ALL your actions and behaviours, not just when you’ve done something positive.

Doing the task, you’ve been asked to do, letting your coach know, and then asking for the next step.

Communicating openly and honestly, especially about the things you’re struggling with

Having difficult conversations without taking things personally

Taking constructive feedback and using it to improve or change something.

Admitting when you haven’t done something you were asked to do, and then being honest about why you didn’t do it.

Knowing that whatever you are asked to do is necessary for your growth and success with your weight loss.

Sharing your journey with others

Understanding that this process will get you the results you’re looking for.

Research has shown that accountability and structure are key factors in achieving successful weight loss. According to a study published the participants who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who did not. 

Additionally, studies found that people who scheduled their exercise routine in advance were more likely to stick to it and achieve their fitness goals. By implementing these strategies, you can improve your chances of successful weight loss and promote overall health.

Accountability isn’t:

*Doing things when you feel like it.

*Choosing what you will and won’t do.

*Making excuses as to why you can’t do something.

*Running away from the hard things you need to do.

*Taking feedback personally and blaming your coach

*Getting frustrated with your lack of results when you’re not doing the work.

*Blaming others for your situation, or why you can’t do something.

*Complaining about the tasks you’ve been asked to do.

*Asking for help only when you need it.

*Hiding away and pretending you know all the answers.

*Pretending everything is okay when it’s not.

Structure

A structure is planning and then working through the plan. It also means scheduling time for your workouts, making time to prepare healthy meals, ensuring you get enough rest and ensuring you have time to do all the other things you need to do, including going to work, raising your kids, and enjoying your downtime.

The other thing you need to bring to your weight loss plan for you to succeed is structure.

It might sound like hard work, but it will save you time, help you achieve more, reduce your stress, and free up time for you to do the things you love. But the biggest bonus is that it will help you lose weight.

A structure is key when it comes to successfully reaching your health and fitness goals. But why do you need structure?

People often talk about living freely or going with the flow. But, if you live moment to moment, or are always guided by your mood or your feelings, you’ll never achieve anything. If you don’t have a plan or schedule, you’ll never have enough time.

Instead, you’ll end up wasting your time away, only to panic when you seem to ‘run out of time’ to do the things you need to do to lose weight.

Then what happens is you become stressed and overwhelmed which will slow your results. Or it may cause you to give up altogether because it’s too hard and you ‘just don’t have time’ for it anyway.

When you do this, you’ll have time to do the things you need to do, to support your weight loss goals. Because structure gives you clarity on what’s important, you’ll no longer waste time on things that won’t help you lose weight.

Structure leads to freedom because you know you’ve got plenty of time for all the things that matter, and you’ll eliminate the stress and worry of trying to do too much.

However, it’s crucial to understand that potential obstacles like being busy, feeling overwhelmed, or struggling to follow a routine may pop up now and again. 

To overcome these challenges, find a support system, set realistic goals, and allow flexibility. With dedication and perseverance, you can achieve your weight loss goals.

How I may help you.