When it Comes to Nutrition, Planning to Fail is Planning to Succeed!

fitness-failure-mariahfitness-failure-mariah

You can learn a lot from successful people like Mariah Carey.

She failed HARD on New Years Eve 2016…

Okay, well, actually you can’t learn much from her.  She handled it terribly and became a viral meme within minutes.

But hey — everybody fails. Some by performing in front of millions (live and on television), and others fail at staying consistent with their nutrition plans.

Despite knowing that consistency is most likely the key to successful nutrition, the majority of people struggle with it immensely.

Including me…

Until I figured out  what I’m about to tell you.

Like many trainers, I spent years over-simplifying nutrition for clients to the point that it was detrimental. I would break it down into something like: Pick ONE thing that you know you can do consistently, and do that.

But guess what.

Even if we broke it down to the smallest detail, many would still struggle with consistency.

Often, it wasn’t their fault. Life would happen and they’d get stuck in a meeting, out to lunch with a client or end up getting home late from work. Due to a lack of time and/or options, they wouldn’t be able to follow the ‘plan’.

Suddenly, their nutrition was no longer nurturing their body, but instead causing stress and guilt.

fast-food-failfast-food-fail

EFFFF That noise.

Why You MUST Plan To Fail

Let’s use meal prep as an example and say the act of preparing a few meals for the week is unbelievably simple. All you need is food, tupperware, and 30-60 minutes to cook everything. Prepping meals ahead means you’ll be able to control the quality/quantity of the food you’re eating which is inarguably a huge part of getting your nutrition sexy AF.

Blah blah blah – you already know this stuff.

And you also know how difficult it is to actually do.

So how can something so simple be so hard?

Stoic philosophers used to practice something called the premeditation of evil. In other words, before starting something, they’d think a lot about what could go wrong, and what they’d do about it. Long story short – they realized that just because a task seems simple, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll be easy.

philosophy-memephilosophy-meme

The inconvenient reality is that unforeseen challenges are impossible to avoid.

  • Your flight might get delayed so you have to eat airport food.
  • You might be sick on Sunday and unable to prepare you food.
  • You might forget your lunch at home.
  • You might have a catered meeting that you can’t get out of.

Okay, Mr. Philosophy Meme Guy… What can I actually do about it?

Don’t fear!  In fact, you’re just as well off if you have to shove something other than what you planned on into your mouth hole.

Let’s look at certain scenario’s and how we can ensure success regardless of what happens.

  1. Best case – You bring your food to work

    1. Yay! Go you!

  2. Medium case – You forget food at work

    1. There is (probably) at least 2-3 places close to work that have at least one option on the menu that you will both like, and that will fuel your body with the right things. Know those places and those menu items – and keep it in your back pocket.  (note: Boston is one of the healthiest cities in the world and new places are popping up err day!)

  3. Worst case – You’re stuck in a meeting, and it’s been catered… With pizza.

    1. Get yourself a slice of pizza and enjoy! Maybe even grab two slices. Eat slowly and until you’re 80% full. You’ve probably consumed (close to) the same amount of calories as whatever healthy meal you would’ve had (So, no, this won’t make you fat) but probably not quite as much protein. Add some extra protein to your dinner and you will be just fine!

The Final Step (Do This Now)

Long story short, if we feel like there is only one solution, it can be very hard to NOT feel like a failure when things don’t go to plan. But, if we’ve explored all possible outcomes, we’ll also have all possible solutions.

Take a second –  pick ONE thing that you can do consistently, think of every possible way that it could go wrong, and have a plan B for each situation.

The (Other) Final Step

Do you find yourself struggling with your nutrition habits?  Is it because you KNOW what to do but just find you’re not able to do it?  Do you find that you’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work?  And if it does it’s impossible to sustain?

If you answered a resounding YES to any of those questions and you’re looking to finally build the skills necessary to lose the weight and feel your best… we want to help!  CLICK HERE to find out more about our online nutrition coaching program and get in the BEST shape of your life for the REST of your life!