How To Create Simple Nutritional Habits.

3001Fitness • Mar 13, 2018

SOOOOOOO, we talk a lot about forming and formulating strong simple nutritional habits that will create longevity change and get you the results you want. BUT, lately I have realized that people just don’t understand what we mean when we say these things. Worse yet, we expect people to understand what those things mean without a context and framework to go off of. While, I agree that you are in control of your own guidelines and nutrition acquisition, I do believe that proper guidance and education is a must to understanding what a habit based on nutrition is suppose to look like.

SOOOOOOO, today I want to give you some examples of how to approach this on a smaller milestone basis, which ranges from month to month. This will hopefully show you how to create strong habits that reflect your goals and take away the confusion of focusing on an outcome and more on the process.

 

Let’s start simple…..

 

Goal: Get more water and feel more hydrated.

Habit: Drink an extra glass of water a day.

 

So, let’s say the goal above reflects a longer term goal of feeling more energetic. I am not here to argue the science on this, just understand water is important to aid all the systems and functions of the body. With that said, let’s focus on where things fall off. Typically, a person will equate more water consumption with ounces needed daily. While I don’t disagree, that is not a habit, that is an outcome of a habit. If the goal for this is to get more water daily or 2-3 days out of the week there are a few ways to approach this.

 

  1. Place a glass of water at night in the room you go into first thing in the morning.

This will help ensure that you are reminded to drink that glass of water first thing in the morning, and start off the day right with the amount of water you have deemed appropriate. For a real behavior change sandwich it with a reward following your glass of water. For example, a glass of water and then follow it with that coffee you love to drink.

 

  1. Carry around a reusable bottle to fill frequently throughout the day.

Carrying a reusable water bottle is a visual/kinesthetic reminder that you have a goal. Here you have outsourced your goal to a tool that represents your goal, whatever the daily parameters are. That bottle represents the amount of ounces you feel is a good amount and to take it a step further you can refill it a few times to insure a hydration goal. Let’s say that number is 4 times a day. If it’s a 20 ounce bottle and you do that 4 times. Well, i’ll let you do the math…..

 

Ok, let’s move onto another goal that I hear more frequently

 

Goal: Lose Weight to fit in old clothes (Bigger goal and more ambiguous, but same principles still apply).

Habit for the month: Eat more veggies 2-3 days out of the week.

(Notice, we have gotten more specific with our parameters in the habit, month-to-month, just 2-3 days to ensure intake is met and successful).

 

Again, this just an example of what you might be working on, not a prescription of what works for all. We all know veggies are good for us and this is just a fictitious example  representing what someone, may need to get in order to aid their weight loss goal.

 

  1. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you will get an extra helping of veggies during dinner, where you know you get veggies each day. If you noticed we didn’t talk about where to subtract something or placing veggies at a point in the day where you don’t normally eat anything. We just added it in a place where we know the veggies are available and you can meet the habit. We took a step further by only doing it 3 days out of the week, based upon your lifestyle and what you can be successful at.

 

  1. Ok, same days but let’s say you barely eats veggies. Let’s set a reminder on your phone or calender to grab a small serving of veggies during a meal where you have the ability to either cook or you know you are going to eat out that day. This is a bit more arbitrary and requires a bit more diligence, but it can be achieved if the routines is followed weekly. If you’re not getting the three days in, we can reduce to 1-2 days or get a supplementation in their that represents those veggies to aid weight loss goal. In order to see the obstacles getting in your way, we need to establish the monthly goal parameters and see where the problem is occuring to work through it. This is a practice, not a pursuit of perfection

 

Now, I could ramble on for hours, but that’s not the point. The idea here is to show you and begin to engage in the process of thinking about habit forming and the process of your goal. Yo-Yo dieting does work, but only for a short while and falls prey to restrictive means. We want people to understand the process and goal-habit formation so that they may make better choices for themselves without our help all the time. I mean why look good/feel good for 1 year when you can look good/feel good for a lifetime?

 

Got Questions?! Hit us up on facebook or feel free to give us a call at Core Principles Strength and Conditioning. Remember, you can achieve anything you want, you just need to find the starting line

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