Day Two Hundred and Nine!!!!!

FITT


Part of the accountability factor is to determine your fit principle. In order to have an overall positive effect to anything you decide to take on, there are four things that need to be taken into consideration. The FITT principle stands for; frequency, intensity, time, and type.The basis of the FITT principle is to do with exercise, but I think that it’s such a good principle that we can expand it to anything and everything you decide to do. Whether it be exercise, diet, studying, self care, or something as simple as having your nails done.


The truth is that once you decide to take something on, there is always a honeymoon period of the excitement of the endeavour, this could be the new diet, or the new exercise program or even buying a house. Once the newness wears off, it always becomes about maintenance, there is the original outlay, but then you have to determine what you are going to do in order to keep things up. 


How often are you going to invest in the maintenance? Frequency is important to consider because once you are taking things on you are actually making a commitment. This is your accountability factor. 


Next is to do with the intensity in which you decide to do the new thing. For example, how much money are you willing to spend on it? How serious are you going to be about it? Is it something that you want to do lightly? Or is it something that you want to do intensely? 


Next is the time commitment. How much time are you willing to invest in it? For example, if we are talking about food preparation there is a time commitment in regards to the time investment, and it needs to be set up in a timely fashion in order to be able to work for you. Compared to, lets just say, at the spur of the moment going through the drive through. There is a time commitment to that too, but the truth is it is a completely different commitment of intensity.


This leads us to type. Type is to do with all of the previous three factors in order to determine which it is that you would like to take on. Type could be the Keto diet compared to Paleo or if we are talking about your nails, it could be going to have them done at the salon or DIY. If instead we take a look at exercise, it could be going for a walk, or hiring a trainer or everything in between.


So lets talk about the Emotionally Focussed Eating Program. 


Frequency is determined by keeping a daily food journal, doing weekly shopping, doing weekly food planning as well as daily food preparation. As well, frequency is to do with weekly monitoring as well as commitment to the emotional/psychological investment of individual participation to clear away all of those driving forces behind being an emotional eater. 


Intensity is to do with how much you want to research, look for recipes, devote to cooking, self identify to the new lifestyle, and work through issues of the past, present, future psychologically and emotionally, that might be holding you back. Also,how much time and money you are willing to invest. For this program, everyone is different and comes with a different history, the more convoluted the psychological/ emotional components are, the more work needs to be done to detach those driving forces from the need to emotionally eat.
Time commitment is to do with your devotion to the program, and how much time you are willing to invest in not only the creative aspects of cookery but also food preparation, shopping, reading, self care, introspections, reflection, redirecting from eating to other activities, etc.


Now we get to type. For some, reading through a work book is all they need to do in order to develop a new pattern, for others they need to have continuous alerts provided by apps and weekly check-ins. It is good to be able to determine the different types of supports that you are wanting to put in place in order to keep you committed and dedicated to the program. The more investment that you need the more the investments of frequency, intensity, time all need to be adjusted. 


What does your FITT plan look like for the different areas of your life that you wish to change?