I heard it again today. “I know what to do but I just can’t do it.”
If I’ve heard this once I’ve heard it a thousand (million) times.
I know what to do but I just can’t do it.
At Castro Valley Fitness we believe that, for the most part, people know just about everything they need to know about nutrition. You don’t need me to tell you that an apple is healthier than a candy bar and that you should eat your vegetables, right?
You may be asking yourself, if people know all they need to know, then what’s the problem?
Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? If we answer that, we can pretty much solve everyone’s food issues, right? The problem is that this isn’t as easy as it sounds.
It requires work that really has very little to do with food itself.
It requires an approach that is both honest and unemotional. Both of these qualities tend to get lost when we think about how and why we eat.
Let me give you a few things that have worked for some of our members when they’ve been tying to figure some things out.
Slow down. Sometimes I’ll ask someone how fast they eat. Usually they just laugh. Slowing down allows your stomach to let your brain know it’s full. That can take 10-15 minutes. How much food can you eat in that time? It also gets you out of GO-GO-GO-GO mode which is when so many of us wind up eating whatever is easy and fast. That’s not usually conducive to making good decisions.
Keep a journal. Just reading that might have given you a chill.
An actual person when asked to keep a food journal.
If it did frighten you, you should ask yourself why. You just might figure out something that’s been holding you back. Journaling keeps us honest and accountable. It also can reveal things that we didn’t know. You might not have realized how much you actually snack in a given day, for instance.
Aim for progress not perfection. One of the biggest problems I see is all-or-nothing thinking. This is when people think that one slight slip counteracts all the good they’ve done or they feel like they the “perfect” plan to get started. The truth is that there is no such thing as perfect. No perfect diet or perfect workout. The closest thing we have to perfection is in this picture right here.
The Closest Thing To Perfection
All we need to aim for is progress in whatever form it takes.
Listen, we all have crazy lives. Kids, work, family. We sit in traffic for hours each week. The more we can figure out the REAL issues behind our diet the better off we will be.
Let me know what you think. Have a great day!
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Level 2 Lean Eating Coach, FMS Castro Valley Fitness 2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley 510-755-9191
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