Any seasoned dieter will tell you that losing weight is the easy part. 

Keeping it off is another thing entirely!

Culture Conscious

Many people, who start to take diet and exercise seriously, do it because of a health scare. It jolts them into taking action.

Determined to succeed, would be dieters purge their cupboards of unhealthy temptations. Kitchen scales and diet book recipes take on religious significance. Food choice and portions become measured against their contribution to the goal.

Portion control is designed to ensure bodily fat burns quickly. As they move toward their final weight goal; they have to push a little harder just to shed those last few stubborn pounds.

Culture Creep

On reaching their goal they become self-assured and proud their hard work has paid off. They enter into coast along or maintenance mode.

They think they can be a little less strict with weights and measures. The scales begin to gather dust.

They rationalise a few creamy Costa coffees won’t do much harm.

Until,

some weeks later, when they are laying on the floor trying to zip up their jeans, they realise the pounds have sneaked up on them. They didn’t even notice. Surely those few cream cakes, bags of crisps, bottles of wine in the evening didn’t do this much damage?

Additionally, those few pounds have brought along a few extra saddle bags for the ride. Slowly but surely, culture creep kicked in and somewhere along the line a culture shift took place, and it wasn’t a healthy one!

Culture Shift

If you are series about remaining outstanding or moving toward outstanding, you must first be 100% sure that your healthy culture foundations are still fit for purpose.

No point in 2 hours a day on the treadmill when you are polishing of 5 creamy Costa’s at lunch time.

Any service, with an Inspection on the horizon, would do well to take a fearless healthy culture inventory because,

Being outstanding is like being on a healthy diet because both need a culture of continuous improvement to succeed!

Ask yourself?

1. Have you been stealthily ambushed by ‘unhealthy culture creep’?

2. Is the culture that got you to outstanding in the first place still intact?

3. Have you cut a few compliance or healthy practice corners since your last ofsted inspection?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions then you need to put those right before you take your Inspection preparation any further!

Be good to yourself