If you've struggled to maintain lasting changes in your diet and lifestyle patterns, give this exercise a try. I'll admit, it's totally unorthodox but it actually works!
1. Set your diet and lifestyle goal/intention, making sure that it's specific, measurable, attainable, realist and timely (SMART).
2. Then, make the following promise to yourself: If I go against my intention/goal (for example, binge eat late at night when I said I wouldn't; or overeat on the weekend when I promised myself this weekend would be different; skip the gym when I said I would go etc.), I will make a $100 donation to a charity or foundation that I do not support.
3. Hold yourself accountable by telling a partner, parent, roommate or friend and set another intention to honor this promise.
Note: Whether you go against your goal/intention and as a result, make a donation or you keep it, this exercise is connecting your values to your actions. It's creating a direct link between what you believe to be true and good and how you show up in the world.
In order for this to really work though, you must honor your promise. If you repeat the same pattern, you must donate. Rest assured, this is not a failure. On the contrary, it's further deepening the alignment of what you want (or don't want) and what you do (or don't do).
Full disclosure, I did this exercise years ago and made a donation to the NRA. It took everything in me to not blow off the promise I had made but then I remembered in my heart of hearts that breaking this promise means reinforcing the pattern that I will break more promises in the future. Doing this, strips me of my confidence and shuts me off from growth.
If you've tried everything else, what's the harm in trying this, too. Just remember, "failing” in this exercise was a moment of huge clarity, change and eventual success for me. This further goes to show that what might feel like a loss in the moment, might actually be a win in the future…
