As you evaluate your health goals (increase strength, lose weight, increase speed, lose body fat) gather enough meaningful info to begin outlining and influencing the rest of the program. Research and determine which process and outcome measures matter to your program.

Let’s start by understanding your level, readiness, and willingness. Your ability to change will determine the rate at which we build your program of success.

Level 1: Relatively new to “healthy” eating habits or programming

• Responds best to encouragement, clear direction for one habit at a time.
• Believe specific calories or grams are needed, but that much detail can be detrimental to focus on more basic behavior consistency.

This is actually where most people belong when starting a nutrition plan

 Level 2: Has a strong understanding but poor execution of healthy habits

• Know what to do but not consistent
• Often needs more stern direction and may need a bit more detail about the program
• Needs education and coaching to achieve approximate macronutrient ratios or food serving sizes, etc. but may not need meticulous tracking of calories, timing, or grams quite yet.

Less than a third of people begin nutrition coaching at this level

Level 3: Already has a strong foundation of eating and exercise habits, has the desire to perform at peak potential or has detailed aesthetic goals

• Will likely need & respond best to a detail-oriented program built on labs, metabolic testing, and very specific meal plan guidance.
• Obtaining the best physique ever: will require patience, precision, and trust.

As you evaluate your health goals (increase strength, lose weight, increase speed, lose body fat) gather enough meaningful info to begin outlining and influencing the rest of the program. Research and determine which process and outcome measures matter to your program.

Let’s start by understanding your level, readiness, and willingness. Your ability to change will determine the rate at which we build your program of success.

Level 1: Relatively new to “healthy” eating habits or programming

• Responds best to encouragement, clear direction for one habit at a time.
• Believe specific calories or grams are needed, but that much detail can be detrimental to focus on more basic behavior consistency.

This is actually where most people belong when starting a nutrition plan

 Level 2: Has a strong understanding but poor execution of healthy habits

• Know what to do but not consistent
• Often needs more stern direction and may need a bit more detail about the program
• Needs education and coaching to achieve approximate macronutrient ratios or food serving sizes, etc. but may not need meticulous tracking of calories, timing, or grams quite yet.

Less than a third of people begin nutrition coaching at this level

Level 3: Already has a strong foundation of eating and exercise habits, has the desire to perform at peak potential or has detailed aesthetic goals

• Will likely need & respond best to a detail-oriented program built on labs, metabolic testing, and very specific meal plan guidance.
• Obtaining the best physique ever: will require patience, precision, and trust.

A very small percentage of members fall into this category

What “LEVEL” do you feel comfortable starting at?

Why?

There are 12 essential steps to building lifelong sustainable healthier nutrition habits.  This article covers the first 3 that you should start incorporation into your daily habits. You need to make good nutrition habits apart of your lifestyle. This doesn’t mean following a structured diet, but rather making some smart choices every day. Prioritize healthy habits to get the most return for your effort. Often time, we are very motivated and excited to start a plan in the beginning. Because of the excitement, we tend to try and change everything at once and eventually burn out before the changes can remain part of our lifestyle. Give yourself short and long-term goals for nutritional habits to clearly outline progression. As you go through these priorities, the habits, in the beginning, may not take as much time or effort to build into your lifestyle.  Build success on quick obtainable goals to get a sense of accomplishment and other habits will likely stick long-term.

1. TAKE High-Quality Multi-Vitamins & Omega-3 Fish Oil Every Day
2. Food alone isn’t enough to nourish our bodies to their full potential.
3. Modern eating habits create rampant nutrient insufficiencies.
4. Contemporary lifestyles demand convenience- even for nourishment

Supplements make better nourishments more convenient, but they do not alone replace healthy eating habits. Supplements should add, not replace. Most adults have terrible eating habits that result in insufficient amounts of key vitamins & minerals. Much of our food supply is grown in nutrient-poor soils compared to 50-60 years ago. Eating better’ now can’t make up for nutrient deficits created through years of dieting or poor eating. Supplementing wisely is an easy healthy habit to practice while adopting more difficult healthy habits.

Why should we supplement it?

Vitamins & Minerals:

• With insufficient levels, our metabolism cannot operate to its full potential
• Supports carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism
• Promotes optimal health and longevity

Omega 3’s:

• Decrease inflammation
• Increase the body’s ability to burn fat
• Downregulates fat-storing genes making it easier to maintain a healthy weight
• Supports neurological function and improves mood

Look for thoroughly tested Vitamins & Minerals free of anything that shouldn’t be added. Make sure they are easily absorbable and use the highest quality ingredients available.

• Eat Slowly

Why eat slow:

• Fast eating environments fail to allow for true nourishment from their food sources.
• It can act as a calorie or portion control strategy that you can build success on without changing current food choices
• Our digestive system needs thorough chewing & a relatively low-stress environment to absorb nutrients best.
• Our brain takes time to recognize we’ve eaten enough- generally about 20 mins

Eating Pace:

• Eating at a fast pace will like to increase the chances of over-consuming food and gaining weight
• Increase the amount of satisfaction you feel from meals

TIPS TO SLOW DOWN EATING PACE:

• Set utensils down between bites
• Use a non-dominate hand to use a fork, spoon, etc.
• Use chopsticks to control sizes of bites
• Chew each bite at least 20 times before swallowing

Eating Environment:

• Eating while in a distracting environment increases the rate in which you eat your food
• Tips for better eating environments:

Avoid eating in front of a screen as much as possible

Avoid eating while driving or I meetings where your focus in not centralized on eating

Don’t eat while at your desk/keyboard

Have a conversation with someone while you eat, forcing you to talk between bites.

• Stop eating when 80% full
• Decreases the frequency in which you overeat
• Shown to improve overall health and longevity
• Strengthen your will power to make better food choices
• The ability to truly assess fullness allows your body to determine food amounts, not a food scale
• The feeling of being satisfied feels a lot better than that of feeling full.

Recognizing fullness:

• When you begin to feel full, food pleasure begins to decrease
• The feeling of discomfort or a descended comes over the stomach

In closing

            As with everything that you do to get results you must measure progress.

The healthy habits covered here may seem simple to do, however, new behaviors for many adults will require 60 repetitions or more to turn a new behavior into an actual habitual act.  Make your new healthy habits easier to achieve by keeping your habits minimum, about 1-3 per time to keep your nutritional program consistent until you start to plateau.

Remember;

Poor execution, poor progress: if this is the execution don’t change the plan but rather work on reducing inconstancies.

Good execution, good progress (CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE READY): consider adjusting the guidelines to make it more difficult.

Photo Credit: Creator: Marilyn Barbone | Credit: marilyn barbone – stock.adobe.com