How to hold yourself accountable to lose weight for 100 days

I think that’s a pretty lovely definition; a few others seem to reuse the word accountable, which isn’t very helpful.

So when it comes to self-accountability, you are responsible for your actions, which will determine the things that happen as a result of your actions, or inaction. 

Your goal will determine your actions; this is a vital step – You might not be 100% certain on where to start, but you also don’t need to be, you need to start and learn as you go.

 We will cover goal setting because that’s the first step in holding yourself accountable.

You need to pick a goal. 

Split the goal into two parts: the outcome and the process goals.

Your outcome goal can be something like “Lose 10kg”, “Fit into (Dress/Suit/Jeans size)”, “Drop X inches from your hips/waist”.

These are things you ultimately have very little control over. 

You can’t wake up tomorrow and decide to weigh 10kg less, arguably you could force something to fit, but that doesn’t make it your size, and apart from sucking in your stomach as hard as you can or next day surgery, losing inches from your waist isn’t something you can decide.

Fast weight loss would be 1kg a week; there are roughly 14 weeks in 100 days, so 10kg is a realistic target, don’t set unachievable goals as it’s a surefire way to be disappointed. 0.25 – 0.5 kg loss a week is a good target, 1kg a week will mean a much more strict diet / more activity, which is hard enough to sustain for 2-4 weeks, let alone 14.

Even though you have very little control over outcome goals, they set the compass for our process goals.

To keep it simple, I’m going to focus on losing 10kg. Saying that, if you lose 10kg, you will lose inches from your hips/waist and drop Dress/Suit/Jeans size, so there are two more positives to that goal. 

What are the process goals for losing 10kg? 

Firstly, we can’t pick too many. If you set yourself 5-10 process goals you need to do EVERY day, you will at best get 1-3 of them. So let’s stick with the at best, and one those become habits over the 100 days, we can then add in another 1-3 process goals.

Ideally, we will pick three process goals with the most significant impact to start.

Calorie balance will determine our weight, through food/drink calories in, and calories out. We need to be in a Calorie Deficit (Fewer calories in than out) to lose weight. 

If you aren’t losing weight while on a diet or exercising, it means you are still taking in too many calories, even if it seems like you’re restrictive. 

Back to choosing our process goals, we’ll pick three things or less that have the most significant impact on our calories. 

I recommend picking two nutrition process goals and one exercise based goal.

Nutritionally, (this is an example, I will list more!) replacing half of every carb portion with a mix of vegetables will reduce calories as well as helping you reach satiation (being full) quicker – feeling less hungry as the day progresses. 

There are about 100 calories per pound of vegetables vs the 500-1400 in non-refined/refined carbohydrates. (calorie density)

Secondly, practising mindful eating, intentionally eating slowly and taking breaks between bites and stop eating when full, saving the rest for later with breakfast/lunch/dinner. 

A useful method here is to take yesterday’s remaining dinner as today’s lunch to avoid wasting food.

For exercise – if you aren’t currently very active like going for walks frequently and doing some form of exercise a few times a week, that’s the best place to start. 

Aiming to go to the gym five times a week is a step too far at this point, you can pick that after the 100 days but even then it may not fit your lifestyle.

Please keep it simple; do some form of activity every day. Write out a weekly timetable, Monday to Sunday – try Yoga / Pilates / Calisthenics / Hiking / Walks / Jogging – it can be 10 minutes, it can be an hour, whatever fits, the important part is doing something. 

If you don’t have 10 minutes every day, you need to hide your TV power cable and lock your phone in a time lock safe. 

Okay, that’s a bit extreme, but you do have 10 minutes, everyone has 10 minutes.

So that’s covered, as holding yourself accountable to doing nothing wouldn’t be much of a task.

There are easy and hard ways to do this. The hard way will be the most effective, but you may be a little hesitant about it.

The Easy Way

One of the most straightforward ways to keep yourself accountable is with a calendar. Simply write out your goals at the top of the calendar, attach a marker with some string to it, and X off 100 days. 

There’s one glaring flaw with this. There’s no real repercussion to not crossing off a day – you are your referee here and whether you X or not may not mean a whole lot to you. 

Ideally, it will, as you want to reach your goals, but I know for myself that ticking off a day feels good, but I’m not massively concerned if I don’t.

Another way to do this would be to set up a google form with three questions in it.

• Did you do some activity today?
• Did you replace half your carb portions with vegetables
• Did you eat slowly and stop when full? 

At the end of each day, you can have an alarm remind you to fill out the form, or set a repeating task in Google Tasks (it’s a free app) with a link to the same form. 

Answering it each day, this would lead to a google sheet document automatically. 

You can insert some headings and add a submit date option to prevent cheating. 

If you check the sheet to see the last submission was 15/06/2020, and it’s now 20/06/2020, you missed five days.

I like this option, it’s very organised, even if it’s just the calendar option split into three pieces it feels more structured. 

Again, however, there are no real repercussions to not doing these tasks.

So let’s look at a more Carrot and Stick style approach.

The hard way.

The hard will get much better results – I can attest to that as I have used this in the past. 

When I was in college, I needed to get up earlier to train as we only had gym access from 6-9 am. Initially, I hated waking up at 7 am and struggled. 

Eventually, it got to the point that I was awake at 5:30 am and would walk to the gym in snow/rain/darkness—a significant change.

So how do you go from struggling to get up at 7 am to waking up at 5:30 am, or like our goals above, eating vegetables, being active every day and being mindful of how we eat?

A Ulysses contract. 

You may or may not be familiar with the story of Ulysses and the Sirens – Long story short; while sailing back from war, Ulysess is warned about the sirens and was told if he would like to hear them, he has to ask his men to restrain him. 

His men place wax in their ears to block out the sound of the sirens, Ulysses gets tied to the mast by his crew, so while he can hear the song that would ultimately get him to jump off the boat to his death – he’s unable to act upon it. 

Having been warned, Ulysses went about ensuring that no matter the temptation, he would be constrained to remain on the ship.

The same concept works for holding yourself constrained to your actions that will take place in the future.

A Ulysses contract is like metaphorically holding a gun to your head and threatening to pull the trigger if you don’t follow through on a promise you made, to yourself.

Anticipating your likelihood of inaction, and creating a measure to force it is the best way to ensure you follow through.

A great example of this for me is when I set the alarm for 6:30 am; usually, I’ll wake up at 4 am, remember my 6:30 am alarm and move it onwards, then fall back asleep. 

Not ideal if you need to get up early to get things done.

The above might seem hard to overcome, but thankfully its pretty simple.  

Using an app that blocks other app access on a timetable, i.e. between 1 am, and 6:29 am, even if I wake up, I won’t be able to change that alarm. 

Now, I could always wait till it goes off and change it again, so a restriction up to the point of my alarm going off isn’t enough, we need to enforce it passed that point.

So, here’s how to do that;

Set your alarm for Monday to Friday, for me 6:30 am is my goal, but over time I’ll work back towards 5:30 am (Not so fun in winter).

Only set one alarm – no secondary backup alarms or this won’t work. – The consequence of potentially being late for work is a strong motivator.

Set your alarm volume high, or use an alarm clock app like “I can’t wake up” – you can set different tasks like scan a barcode of an item in the bathroom so your alarm won’t stop ringing until you do that. (warning, this will annoy anyone/everyone in your house, but it works.)

It also has puzzle-solving/shake your phone and lots of other annoying tasks to pull you away from that remnant sleep and clear some brain fog.

Using an app like “Stay Focused” – you can set a 5-minute window where your alarm will keep going off until you scan two barcodes far away from your bed in a different room altogether, after 5 minutes, Stay Focused will block your alarm app again. Your alarm will still be going off with no option to disable it now. 

You can set the timetable, so you have access after 9 am, you don’t need your alarm going off for 12 hours.

(On strict mode, so you can’t delete it or alter the time frame you have access as well on a timetable that you choose; which is great for locking down Facebook/Instagram usage.)

These two things combined permanently lock you into needing to get up, go downstairs and scan a barcode if you want your alarm to quit nagging you. At which point, you’ll have achieved the goal of getting up, and going downstairs with no alternative options (snoozing).

Like the ship mast and rope for Ulysses, your alarm is now unchangeable and will hold you accountable to a future arrangement. 

I know that sounds extreme. It is, but it also works.

Now you’re probably thinking, how does that relate to weight loss?

There are a few ways you can do this.

One that arguably isn’t technically holding yourself accountable is making your goals public. 

Someone may or may not question your actions if you succeed or not, but making your intentions public creates a sense of social pressure that will ultimately make not following through more uncomfortable than merely doing your three daily tasks.

“For the next 100 days, I am going to: 

-Be active for a minimum of once a day, doing Yoga/Pilates/Workouts for a minimum for four days a week.

-I am going to be mindful in how and what I eat, and stop when 80% full

-I am going to replace half of my rice/pasta/bread/cereal portions with a mix of vegetables.

I will measure my progress by crossing off each successful day on a calendar.”

You can edit the above to whatever three tasks suit you and post it.

You could post about your progress each week, it might not be comfortable, but your comfort zone isn’t where you will make progress.

An even better option that’s more in line with our Ulysses contract is using something like StickK – StickK is an app that holds you accountable to your goals based on a monetary value. 

As I mentioned above, it’s how I went from not getting up at my 5:30 am to getting up and walk to the gym. 

It cost me money not to go. (So does having a gym membership and not going, but the money is usually already paid and doesn’t have the same feel as the consequence of losing it.)  

Psychologically we are more averse to potential loss than to potential gain. 

It’s more motivating not to want to lose €10 than it is to potentially gain €10, even though it’s the same value.

Say you picked your three actions for 100 days, you would specify them as goals in the app, and commit as much money as you feel is enough motivation. €10 probably won’t cut it. 

Think upwards of €100-1000 for the 100 days – €5 a day would be a good target, it’s not a massive loss if you miss a day, but you wouldn’t want to go beyond missing 2-3 days.

Again, you may need a referee for this one because it’s easy just to tick a box to say “I did what I was supposed to” when you’re the one checking if you did or didn’t.

A referee can reject your submission, so having a partner or close friend help you here can be a big help.

Alternatively, you could have a trainer (me), hold you accountable to your StickK commitments. 

There are a bunch of similar apps and sites that may help you in the same form as StickK. – check them out here.

So now you know that one secret that personal trainer’s don’t want you to know that obliterates fat in just DAYS. – just kidding, you still have to put in the work. It’s just easier to get started.

100 Days is also an example, you could work on more than three habits in that time, say 25 days at a time, but the important part is maintaining each that you add in, not just ticking them off a list before moving onto the next. 

Found this helpful? Share with someone who also has trouble StickKing to their goals!

Here’s a list of alternative nutrition habits:

-Drink water before/during/after each meal.

-Eat the rainbow of vegetables; red, green, orange, white, purple.

-Eat fruit, don’t drink it.

-Eat protein with every meal; Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

-Eat 2-3 different vegetables with each meal.

-Eat minimally processed foods. Stick to Veg/Fruit/Meat/Legumes where possible.

-Avoid high sugar drinks/juices – diet/no sugar is fine if you like fizzy drinks. 

-Include high fibre foods in meals (gradually!).

-Choose “Smart Carbs” – Oats/Legumes/Startchy Veg [Peas, corn, carrots, sweet potatoes]/Whole grain cereals

If you’re unsure about the juice/sweet drinks one, there is little to no evidence of harmful effects of sweeteners vs lots of evidence for potential adverse effects of excessive body mass [Obesity] like;

Heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, Atherosclerosis, Cancer, Fatty Liver Disease, Gall Bladder Disease, Stroke Risks, Osteoarthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Dementia, Depression, Joint Pain – this isn’t the full list. 

Reducing sugar intake is essential when it comes to managing weight. Sugar isn’t inherently harmful, but excessive calories can be.