Hi friends!
Here is your weekly Tri-Tip Tuesday, sharing our current thoughts on food, fitness, & travel. Please forward this to others if you think they may be inspired.
Food: the no two-strikes rule
My nutrition approach is all about progress, not perfection. To have a sustainable and positive relationship with food, it’s transformative to break the all-or-nothing mentality. When you can shake off the expectation of perfection, you also eliminate the mental roadblocks that come with it, such as guilt and shame.
It can take some trial and error to break the on-or-off diet mindset, but it’s worth the persistence.
One helpful trick is to follow the “No Two Strikes” rule. For example, let’s say you had an eating session that was far from your plan. A common question is, how do we move forward from that? In this example, the slip-up was ending lunch with five cupcakes. The cupcakes happened, and they are calories you didn’t necessarily need. You’ll be over for caloric/sugar/fat/carb goals for that day, that’s inevitable. But your next meal is your next choice. This is where the rule comes into play, where you can make your next meal check all the boxes.
Notice how I don’t say skip your next meal to make up for the cupcakes. Skipping meals, punishing yourself, or "making up for" what happened are the last things you want to consider doing. Instead, get back on track with the habits that you know will make up a nutritiously dense meal: get 30+ grams of protein, get 5-10 grams of fiber from vegetables, and keep the focus mostly on meat and vegetables.
If you have five cupcakes after lunch, don’t let that be your gateway to having ice cream with dinner. That becomes a pattern and a pattern leads to habits. This is the exact slippery slope into what people are trying to get away from. You’ve had your strike, your next meal is your next opportunity to get your train back on the tracks and keep going. Then those five cupcakes are in your rearview mirror and you forget about them. Imperfect consistency takes you incredibly far, so strive to be consistently imperfect.
Fitness: the bad workouts are the most important
It's easy to train when you feel good, but it's crucial to show up when you don't feel like it—even if you do less than you typically strive for. Part of changing your lifestyle habits and becoming a healthy person is changing your self-identity. This means you show up and walk the walk, even if you don’t want to.
Now, I’m not talking about situations where you are sick, injured, or in general need a rest day. That’s different, and you should listen to your body in those cases. Right now I am talking about your mental. YOU know the difference between physically needing rest and mentally retaliating!
If you mentally don’t want to show up…this is where you need to make it a non-negotiable and show up. Show up for 10-15 minutes, or just one set of your routine.
Doing your bad workout for 15 minutes might not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity. It's not always about what happens during the workout. It's about becoming the type of person who doesn't miss workouts. It’s about being the person that you envision your future self to be.
Travel: it's a good sign when...
If you find yourself away from home or whatever your normal way of life is for an extended time, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself saying “I can’t wait to get back to my…”
It may be your workouts, your kitchen, your bed, your dogs, or all of the above.
Typically, the first day or two away from your routine can be a relieving break. It’s all fun and games until all of a sudden, you feel lousy. Your body is stiff and lethargic from lack of activity and motion. Your mental health is depressed from eating poor foods, and your gut may be yelling at you from the inside as well.
Oftentimes, my clients will have big events in life that are important, and special, and even though they thrive living it, in the end, they “can’t wait to get back to their routine”. It makes me so happy to hear these words.
It’s a sign of progress, and what your new normal is. Your identity truly has shifted. Your body has been used to getting a certain level of exercise, nutritious food, and rest, and when it doesn’t get it, it knows it.
Make it a great week!
Christine Irene
NASM-CPT, Senior Fitness Specialist, Precision Nutrition Pn1 + Pn2 Certified, & Avid Traveler
"It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own." - MARCUS AURELIUS
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