Less is More

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Have you ever felt that in regards to your nutrition you “should” be doing more?

I know I did!  I felt that there was always a new thing I had to cut out of my diet, a new type of food I had to incorporate, more calories to count, more food to weigh or measure, that I should eat less and diet more. 

My goodness! No wonder I always struggled to make any progress.

I always felt like I need to do…

  • More to live a healthier life.
  • More to loose weight.
  • More to gain weight.
  • More to be a stronger, better version of myself.

But in reality…

sometimes less is moresometimes less is more

In this article I’m going to help you focus on doing less to get BETTER results.  Doesn’t that sound fun?


THE KITCHEN FIRE AND THE SNOWBALL

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Imagine walking into your kitchen and there are 5 separate fires taking place at the same time.  Do you…

  1. Spray your fire extinguisher randomly all over at all the fires hoping that you can hold it off till help arrives, but never putting out any of the flames. Or…
  2. Focus on one fire, spend a little extra time extinguishing that one flame, then moving onto the next one, then the next flame, till they are all put out

The second choice seems like a solid plan to me! 

If you take the time to really nail putting out one fire then you wont have to worry about it and you can move onto the next one without having to look behind you and monitor the flames you’ve already passed.

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This process is called the SnowBall Effect which is basically an exponential domino effect.  You gain one success and move onto the next one and gain that success thus having a growing list of successes to help you tackle the next challenge. 

By initially doing LESS (focusing only on 1 flame at a time) you’re in turn doing MORE, by successfully putting out all the flames for good. 

This Kitchen Fire and SnowBall Method can easily be translated into your everyday nutrition!

FIRST, WRITE IT DOWN

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This list can be long once we get rolling on it.  No worries though, because we’re going to use the SnowBall Effect to tackle the list AND do less to succeed!   96  Normal  0      false  false  false   EN-US  X-NONE  X-NONE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          /* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:””;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Now if I wanted to tackle this list all at once I’d have A LOT of balls up in the air and juggling is hard AF!   Chances are that we’re bound to drop a ball (or five) because we lose focus and are expending too much energy in multiple places.

Remember our 5 fires; randomly spraying at all of them didn’t help, that’s a waste of energy.  

But if you focus on one thing at a time, you’re better set up to be successful.

NEXT, JUST PICK ONE THING

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THIRD, HAVE A PLAN

It’s super important to keep going once you have your focus or goal. Ask yourself these two questions to:

  1. Know where you are now
  2. What you need to do to get BETTER
question listquestion list
Example ListExample List

FINALLY, NAIL ONE OF THOSE AT A TIME

By now you should know that we REALLY like working on one thing at a time.  If you take your goal of eating more veggies, it’s okay to do all the things you can to do that…but having a single focus each day/week increases your chances of success by 1 billion percent. #TRUTH 🙂

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Roll that snowball gurrrrlllll!

As you REALLY focus all of your energy on your veggie intake it becomes a rock-solid element of your nutrition.  Congratulations you’ve acquired a new successful nutrition skill. Then you can move onto the next item on the list and nail that, too! And so on and so forth.

As you move down the list giving each skill or want it’s time and focus you don’t have to keep looking back to monitor it.  You wont feel as if you’ve dropped the ball and failed when moving onto the next task. Before you know it you’ve started an avalanche of good habits and REAL results. Yay!

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And by by gaining skills and habits over time:

  • You don’t have to back track and keep all the balls in the air
  • You feel more successful every step of the way
  • You learn stuff about yourself and make actual long lasting change!
  • You can work on the things you CAN improve
  • You’re less likely to fail

So, how much time does this take?

I’ll be real with you: it doesn’t happen overnight.  Change takes time. And typically way more than we think.

Next Steps

I recommend that you give each new skill or task at least 2 weeks before moving on.  Sometimes you need more time and that’s ok!

To get through the whole list? Give yourself at least full year. That way you’ll have enough time to roll a big ass snowball. Then, at the end of the year, look back at your successes and what you have changed in your nutrition. #SeeingIsBelieving

Note: A good strategy is to keep your list on your fridge as a reminder to keep nailing it!


Want more help with your nutrition? We’ve got you covered with the tools you’ll need to get started!


Lindsay.jpgLindsay.jpg

Lindsay is the co-founder and First Lady of First Guess Fitness. She’s the head nutrition coach in our AMPed Nutrition coaching program and implements a body-positive strategy to help our members NAIL their health and nutrition goals. She’s also soon-to-be mom (yay!) and is a pre- and post-natal coach for all things fitness.

  • 01
    Your endless to-do list
  • 02
    Your struggles to get fit in the past
  • 03
    Your stress and tension
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