All or Nothing
If you feel you struggle with the balance of trying to stick to a diet, then ‘falling off the wagon’, leading to a binge, to then feeling guilty, trying to be restrictive and strict until you cannot do it anymore… you need to read on.
Why your goals are failing you?
The Problem: Your all or nothing mindset sabotages you.
You will have been made to believe your nutrition goals fail because you lack discipline. In part, perhaps this is true, however many of us are unable to be a disciplined and robotic human when it comes to food, as we take so much more than just nutrition from eating. For many, meals with family or friends is a way of bonding over a shared experience of culinary pleasure! This industry forced narrative of lacking discipline only creates guilt and pushes you towards the all or nothing approach and a constant sense of failure.
One key reason you may struggle with your nutrition goals, is because you set pass or fail goals that are hard to stick to, and do not fit your ever changing and challenging lifestyle. With pass/fail goals, it is only a matter of time before you do not meet your goal and you fall into the all or nothing trap.
As an example, let me set the scene:
You have been out for post work drinks on the weekend, only to wake up with a half eaten McDonald’s in bed next to you. You were supposed to be on a ‘diet’ of no ‘processed food’ but now you have messed up, you might as well write off the weekend and start again fresh on Monday. This then leads you to make poor food choices all weekend, in turn making you feel pretty rubbish and lethargic and massively lacking motivation to move. You put all of the pressure on Monday and expect a clear cut mindset shift and guess what it does not happen… Perhaps an extreme example, but it highlights the issue we are trying to prevent occurring; the all or nothing mindset.
But how can you change this? We need to adjust your goals to a framework, as opposed to a rule based pass/fail goal.
The Goal Shift: From rules based to a framework
When it comes to goals, we are encouraged to be as specific as we can, this makes it clear cut as to whether we have achieved the desired outcome. However, we know now that with nutritional based goals, this is going to eventually lead to a slip up and that all-or-nothing behaviour that we are trying to avoid. Also… there is NO perfect when it comes to your own nutrition, everything has context and every decision should be based on your goals and the enjoyment you get out of food.
How can we use a framework?
If a rules based specific nutrition goal was to eat 150g of protein a day, the framework equivalent would be to consume a good quality source of protein at every meal, as well as having another source of quality protein across any snacks you may have between meals or around training. Following the framework, you will likely get close to this 150g target, however you are no longer so caught up in the specific numbers and if you were to have a meal where you did not have any protein, you have not slipped up as notably, therefore less likely to fall into the all-or-nothing and give up on it.
The key to the framework approach is being less specific (in quantitative terms) in the hope to allow for more compliance towards the goals, and therefore prevent the ‘fall off’ we may have in the above weekend scenario. We are aiming to align with the framework goals we set say 80% of the time, with the remaining 20% being a more relaxed approach, however avoiding a guilt fuelled weekend binge because you have not stuck to your pass/fail goal.
A basic yet effective framework you could follow that would have a positive impact on your nutrition and health might consist of only two principals:
1) Eating more protein
2) Eating like an adult (most of the time)
The Framework in Action: an 80/20 approach beats aiming for 100%
Eating more protein…
Rather than putting specific numbers on this, such as with the 150g example above, instead you are going to adopt the approach we discussed above. Across the three meals you eat, you are going to form your plate around a good protein source. Similarly, let’s say you have two snacks throughout the day, these will also be revolved around another good protein source on each occasion. [we will share a blog with good quality protein sources in due course - this will also discuss why protein is important]
If we can get you aiming to eat a decent source of protein up to 5 times a day, you’ll likely be on the right track to eating sufficient protein.
Eating like an adult
This is a bit of a ‘tongue in cheek’ term for getting you to eat more fruit and veg, rather than just eating breaded dino nuggets, curly fries and ketchup (or mayo if you’re a wrongun). This is actually a perfect example of where you could apply eating like an adult. If you want to eat dino nuggets for ease, go for it, but maybe you could add a decent portion of broccoli to it and if you fancy something sweet afterwards, you could have some fruit before you tuck into your favourite chocolate. These are just two basic examples of how you can apply ‘eating like an adult’ to your current diet without making any major changes. I often find when talking to clients, they do things they would NEVER let their children do… ex. eat loads of sugar before bed, because they probably would not sleep. Another example is give them an iPad before bed, because again they want their child to sleep, yet they will doom scroll just before bed creating stimulation and affecting sleep quality. When I point this out, people don’t often realise these two parallels but applying the same rules to ourselves that we do to children is hugely beneficial.
The Success: Consistency wins and less is more
Perhaps at this stage you are thinking, I am not going to bother with this as it is not going to make as much of a difference as the rule specific goals you normally set yourself. Well in some ways, you could be right. If you stick to very specific rules when you eat you could likely create a big change to your body composition. However, we are here because that is unrealistic for so many of us and if anything, leads to a worse outcome in the end. If you follow these two suggested framework goals the majority of the time for a 2-3 month period, you will not only create a difference with your nutrition but also you will start to build habits of actively looking to eat more protein, fruit and veg. Perhaps once you practise and build these habits you will be able to then add in some more rule specific goals, but until then, adopt a framework that prevents you from ‘giving it all up’ for the weekend if you do not quite meet your targets. It is important to remember, progress is not linear and so there will be bumps and slip ups along the way. That is why a framework will keep you compliant for longer, and the longer you are complaint, the better your results will be.
To Finish: Small changes go a long way
I like niche facts that highlight the compounding nature of life and how little things really do add up. Brushing your teeth twice a day is a habit we all do. If done for the recommended time, that’s a full day each year you spend brushing your teeth. Now imagine we apply that to your nutrition.