LAST CHANCE NOTICE! If you haven’t heard about our Target Practice nutrition challenge, or you have but are hesitant, here is a message just for you!
“It must just come easy for you.” I have heard it numerous times, mostly about either regular exercise or eating healthy. I always want to deny it, to downplay it back to the person making the statement. It isn’t easy, honestly. And, it also isn’t that hard. I think a more accurate statement should be: It must be consistent for you.
And consistency really just means getting in the reps over a significant amount of time.
Establishing necessary habits starts as a challenge. Here challenge refers to the resistance we encounter or feel, and not a 4 or 6 week duration. That’s because mastery of the habit will take more time than that. But one must get started somehow, and for that it can help to make a thing of it and get some short term initial leverage to follow through.
It doesn’t come easy, but it does get easier.
With change, a good place to start is by asking yourself the question: what would this look like if it were easy?
Ah, that is a better question to ask than should I eat better or do I feel like working out? Because you already know you should. Now, how can you make yourself take an action that you likely succeed at? Easy and actionable will always beat out perfect and complicated every time.
With nutrition, most of the time I practice easy and repeatable action. It is my base. It’s where I most often return to, and if there is anything that could be labeled as 3 Secret Tricks to Health & Fitness That Professionals Hate For You To Know… it’s this:
- I prioritize protein.
- I prioritize veggies.
- I aim for satiety (this means I pay attention to hunger/fullness as it aligns with calories)
Want a bonus? I play the Plate Method game as often as I can. So there are 3 “secrets” PLUS a bonus.
There are good reasons for these as my base and there are more habits that can be stacked on top of them but I always come back to this simple practice.
You might be saying to yourself ‘that’s actually too simple to be effective. I can do those already on my own.’ Sure…you could have been doing them all this time.
So why haven’t you?
Until you get good and consistent with them it is important to add a little leverage to hold your hand to the fire until you have a track record that can carry you through the speedbumps and hiccups of life.
That leverage is having some skin in the game and showing your work.
Putting some money down helps you take it seriously and puts skin in the game. Not a ridiculous amount but enough to not want to waste it. I went for breakfast with friends the other day and the tab was easily $25 just for myself. Do that once per week for 6 weeks adds up to $150 but does nothing for my health (unless I practice my “easy” habits while doing it). Anyone go out more than once per week?
Showing your work is being accountable to someone else, like a coach or a group on the same path.
We have a target nutrition challenge starting this week and its purpose is to build and strengthen the 3 key habits above. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as everyone will start to think about Christmas soon and all the gatherings and indulgences that go along with it. People are so resistant to do nutrition or start doing nutrition over holidays but if New Year resolutions are any indication, people definitely ought to.
We want to get a head start now so that we can relax a bit and not add the usual regrets (ragrets?) going into 2025.
Are there 10-15 people that would like to get really good at the easy stuff in the next 6 weeks? To build some solid habits and learn why they are so clutch (hey you can actually do them at family gatherings!)? Take the next 6 weeks and make them count, get good at something so other people can say ‘It must just come easy for you.’
This officially starts November 4 but would be fun with a few more people! If you are on the fence, get off and do something for yourself. Email today with Count me in, Coach!