Mindset
Last week, the focus was on believing it to be possible that you could lose weight or improve your health. Despite the many attempts you may have made previously, where perhaps maybe you only made it so far or maybe you were successful for a short time then quit, I encouraged you to focus on the belief that change is possible for you despite those past experiences.
This week, we will focus on a key factor that holds many people back from progress. It’s something that has plagued me too. It’s the focus on perfection.
Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Believe it or not, there are far fewer benefits to perfection than one might think. Focusing on being perfect means you don’t leave room to enjoy an impromptu night out with a loved one. A focus on being perfect doesn’t allow for life circumstances that we didn’t plan on, such as getting sick or having to spend the day with someone at the hospital. Stressing perfection overlooks one key factor: you’re human.
I’ll break it to you now: you’re going to make mistakes. You won’t figure this out in a day, a week, a month, maybe even three months. This process of lifestyle habit change takes time. Tough love moment: you didn’t gain the weight in three months and you aren’t going to lose it in three months.
I also need you to recognize this key fact: progress is not linear. Sometimes it will feel like two steps forward and one step back. Another example would be fluctuations on the scale, and we’ll talk about those, but do not expect the number there to continuously move downward. You can do everything “perfect” and still see an increase due to factors outside your control. All of that is normal.
What I need you to focus on is consistency. We are what we do consistently, not what we occasionally do. In other words, our health is not the result of two healthy meals–it’s the result of dozens or hundreds of healthier meals. Our fitness is not the result of two workouts completed–it’s the results of dozens or hundreds of completed workouts. I’d rather you accumulate dozens or hundreds of average weeks rather than getting in two perfect days, then quitting the rest of the week.
The major thing I don’t want to see you do is consistently quit. Quitting every time you make a mistake or you don’t have a perfect day is the exact habit that is holding you back. I emphasized earlier: you are not going to figure this out in a day, a week, or even a month. This is a learning process. Imagine giving up as an infant because you kept falling when learning to walk, throwing your hands up in the air and saying, “whelp, I guess I’ll never learn” or “whelp, I guess walking isn’t for me.” Sounds ridiculous, right? Then why do we hold ourselves to such a stupid standard in other areas of our life?
One of my favorite words is “yet.” I like to think it implies future success. For example, “I haven’t figured out how to consume an adequate amount of protein yet, but I will.” “I can’t quite do that new exercise yet, but someday I will be able to.” Adding “yet” implies you will be able to do it in time given sufficient time to learn and practice.
In closing, be focused on consistency over perfection. Be prepared to focus on learning from when your plan didn’t go well, as well as learning from when everything went according to plan. Every one of these occurrences is an opportunity in learning.
Education
One of the most important habits you can start to work to develop is that of reading labels. Marketing teams do a lot to hype up various foods to lead people to believe they are better for them than they really are. This makes it especially important that you become more knowledgeable about what is in your food to be able to make more informed decisions about what you eat.
Below is an example of a nutrition label. Numbers one (1), two (2) and three (3) are the most important that I want you to focus on at the moment. Let’s touch base on each one of them a little here and why I feel it’s important you be aware of these when choosing what foods you prioritize for your health.
Going from top to bottom, the first component is the serving size information and the servings per container. Many people are out of touch with what a serving size is. One that surprises people often is salad dressings. How much we enjoy applying to our salads and what constitutes a serving size are often very different things! This is not to say that you shouldn’t eat salad dressing, but it is something that you should be mindful of portions with. Another example would be cereals. I grew up consuming a certain portion size routinely that is not the same recommended serving size.
The next component is the calories within the food. My goal for you is not to focus on consuming the least amount of calories possible, but to choose foods based on the calories that support your goals. For example, when training for or participating in an endurance event, I strive to consume a certain number of calories and I need to be aware of that. When I am striving to focus on improving my body composition, I shift slightly to focusing on keeping within a certain caloric intake number.
Particularly when it comes to losing weight, one needs to be in a caloric deficit meaning, you burn more calories than you consume. Let me pause and emphasize, I will never by no means recommend an extreme caloric deficit such as eating less than 1200 calories a day, nor will I recommend you wear your watch and strive to burn as many calories as possible in a workout. I can easily go off on a tangent about how those two examples are by far the worst things you can do when striving to lose weight or improve your health, but I will address those topics in future weeks. The main takeaway I want for you right now is that you need to be aware of your total caloric intake. The ultimate goal: consume as many calories as possible while still losing weight.
Something else that can be tough for people to hear or to recognize: nearly every calorie matters. Some folks tend to think that “a little taste here” and a “little taste there” don’t matter, and they do. For example, a “splash of olive oil” can be about 100-200 calories all depending on what a “splash” means to you. A “handful” of granola can easily be 50-100 more calories than you had planned on. Note, I did not say not eat either of these foods, but you do need to recognize the caloric impact a food has on your daily caloric goal.
Think of your daily caloric intake goal as a budget. You have a certain amount that you can spend each day however you want. Many times, there are foods to me that aren’t worth “wasting” my calories on because I know I could eat far more than that of something else and feel fuller and more satisfied.
This helps me transition to the third section of the nutrition label, the nutrients. The nutrient portion of the label helps us better understand some of the finer characteristics of our food and the macronutrient breakdown. The macronutrients, the protein, carbohydrate, and fat content, are what require most of your attention. You can still dive even deeper within each one of those when gauging how “healthy” a product is, but I want to start with an emphasis on even just recognizing each of those total numbers.
Going back to what I mentioned earlier, marketing does a lot to mislead you regarding the quality of our food. There are numerous products that are marketed as being better for you than they really are. As an informed consumer, you will quickly learn otherwise. An example of one that I will pick on is Dannon Light & Fit yogurt. This product is marketed to people in a way to lead them to believe it will help them become “light & fit.” However, when you look closer at the nutrients, you learn that it has 13 grams of carbs (carbohydrates), 8 of which are from sugar, and only has about 5 grams of protein. Many people rely on this as a breakfast food, eat it, then are surprised why just a little while later, they are already hungry again. In future weeks, we’ll discuss the priority of protein and how it helps manage appetite. An early suggestion I will make is to prioritize higher protein foods as they generally do support improved overall health. Let me again point out, nowhere did I say do not eat that food. Instead, I want you to be more aware of its nutrient makeup and then it is up to you to decide if that contributes to your overall goals and whether it fits your caloric budget for the day.
Looking at the label example provided, we see a protein content of 3 grams, a carbohydrate content of 37 grams, and a fat content of 8 grams. Again, marketing does a lot to try to convince you that a food has certain properties or value. There are lots of food products out there that are marketed as “high protein” that really aren’t that high in protein and that is why you need to pay attention.
First and foremost, did you do the homework for last week? If not, please do that. Each week will be building upon one another. The key to you being successful with losing weight and improving your health is actually doing the work. If you just go through and read, but don’t actually “do,” you won’t be successful.
I saw a great quote in my “You are a Badass” calendar where it said, “in order to kickass, you must first lift up your foot.” Successful people don’t become successful by reading books about success…they actually do the work they read about!
Last week, I asked you to reflect on a goal that you were proud of achieving. Glance back at that. Maybe you reflected on how having a plan helped you achieve your goal, or that you focused on accomplishing small steps along the way, or how you focused on just one small part of the goal at a given time. Weight loss is no different.
I don’t want you to think about the 100 pounds you might need to lose, I want you to focus on those first five (5). Then we’ll focus on the next five, and the next five, etc.
Your homework this week:
1) Read the labels of the foods you eat this week. Take note of serving sizes, calories per serving size, and how many grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fats a product has. Any foods that surprised you? Feel free to post an example of what you were surprised with in the Facebook group. (Click or tap the button below to join our free, private Facebook group!).
2) Last week, I asked you to download a calorie tracker app and asked you to track your intake for a day. This week, I want you to track two different days this week. Consider tracking one day during the week and a day on the weekend. We will focus on cals and other macros at a later time, but I want you to really take notice of your protein.
Take notice of your total protein each day.
Take notice of what foods provided you with the most protein.
Were there foods that you thought provided you with more protein than they did?
Feel free to email Coach Candice to share your thoughts and noticings!
In case you missed it, you can check out Week 1 of the book in the Achieve blog!
Check out Coach Candice’s first book on Amazon!