It’s the end of January and the struggle is real. Each year, people make New year’s resolutions to either lose weight, get back in shape, get strong, and feel confident in the clothes they use to wear.
You are now at the point whether you have made it or not. If you did, go you. Keep it up!
If you are like the 95 percent of us, myself included, you struggled with the consistency of this.
We all struggle with reaching our fitness goals. Partly, because these goals evolve once we have reached a certain level and the novelty at that level wears off. The other reason is, we focus on the outcome and not the actions that will get us there. This is completely normal. Our intentions are so good, our motivations are real, but we trip over ourselves the moment we have a small hiccup.
Do you know why that is?
Recently, I have been listening to a book called Atomic Habits, by James Clear (can’t recommend highly enough) and in this book he discusses the science of habit formation. Even further, he talks about how to make habits something that you can truly own and use as a way to get exactly what you want in life.
During the morning on my way in to work, it dawned on me, that nutrition and people’s knowledge of nutrition is often not the problem, rather its the habits that influence your choices when it comes to a sound nutrition game.
What do I mean by this?
Well if a solid nutrition routine is just the summation of good habits, then your environment, is one of the largest contributors to why making healthy choices becomes hard. We are after all creatures of habit and often fail to recognize patterns we do everyday.
I want you think about this really fast. Do you know what is exactly in your fridge right now? Do you know what kind of foods you have in your pantry or on the counter?
Now, I am not saying that you need to know exactly what is in there, but realize that these foods hold influence over you, especially when they are available to you. In the book, Clear talks about how to make certain habits attractive and others unattractive. He calls it, reducing or increasing the friction of habits.
If I take this concept and apply it to myself, what I do to make good choices or reduce the friction to make healthy food choices are:
-I meal prep every sunday and pack away enough food, for Monday to Thursday.
-I remove the ice cream that I have waiting for me in my freezer (Increasing the friction).
You can do this too. It just takes some awareness, practice, and patience. Nutrition is a constant battle of trial and error, and takes time to dial in. It’s an ever changing piece of the puzzle, that is never perfectly clear to everyone.
To sum this blog up here is the main point.
To help you get even better, and keep yourself accountable, enlist the right support. During my monthly pow wows with my accountability group at Core Principles, I try to focus on the habits thats will help people reach their goals. Weekly check-ins, action steps, and strategies are the bulk of what I try to help my people get after what they want.
If you are interested in some habit based coaching, and ready to get the results you want, feel free to email us at Info@coreprinciples-sc.com or hit us up on facebook at Core Principles Strength and Conditioning.
Toodles,
Coach Jim
