Good afternoon, friends!
Hope your weekend was successful.
If not, here's a thought: only 10 days til Thanksgiving... can you eat clean every day until then? (there's a new mini-challenge for you!)
Okay, so we know that consistency is the key to fat loss. We know that you consistently need to be in caloric deficit in order for your body to willingly give up its fat stores over a period of time.
That means... every day, you eat just a little bit less. Almost every day, you incorporate exercise (to keep the metabolism elevated, and to help increase the gap b/w caloric intake and caloric expenditure). And every week, you plan and prepare your healthy meals and your infrequent cheat meals - so there's nothing left to chance. And so your decisions will be predetermined, instead of being based on emotion and mood (remember... don't think, just do!).
I know you are all trying to be consistent. But a week of perfection, followed by a weekend of uncontrolled eating - that just doesn't cut it! Or, more realistically for some people: three perfect days, two semi-perfect days, then a weekend of indulgence. Or even: one perfect day, a handful of almost perfect days, one horrible day, then back to perfect.
Does any of this sound familiar? What's the point if you can't control yourself?! If you won't, then no one else will! And it's easy to forget, but... every little bit counts when you're trying to lose!
You NEED to be consistent. But are you really being consistent enough?
How do you know if you are truly sticking with your healthy habits enough to make progress? Are you tracking your consistency? Do you have a good idea as to how consistent you need to be?
Well, here's a hint.
Research has shown that there is very little difference b/w eating clean 90% of the time versus 100% of the time. Any difference is very small and insignificant. However, persons who drop below 90% adherence to a diet tend to find that their progress often comes to a halt. So, you should be striving to eat healthy, supportive meals 90% of the time - and you can feel free to "cheat" 10% of the time.
That means, if you are consistently eating 6 "meals" per day, then you are consuming 42 meals per week. Ten percent of 42? That's 4 cheat meals. Plan 'em into your weekly eating schedule.
If you are eating less frequently, you get less chances to cheat. If you are eating more frequently (but hopefully keeping the meals/snacks a bit smaller), then you get more chances to cheat.
But "cheating" doesn't mean binging. It simply means that you get to indulge in a food that you aren't normally advised to eat. A favorite food, a couple alcoholic beverages, or a sweet treat, for instance.
So - this week, you have homework. I've provided a link to an "adherence table". I want you to print it out and track your eating habits. For example... when eating meal #1 on day #1; put an "x" in that specific box if you consumed a healthy meal, put an "o" in the box if you chose an unhealthy meal, and put a "-" in the box for a missed meal. Continue tracking your meals every time you eat during the day. Tally up your total meals at the end of the week, then tally up your healthy meals. Type the number of healthy meals into your calculator, divide by the number of total meals, and write down the percentage that you come up with. That's your adherence, your compliance, your dieting consistency.
Will you be 90% consistent? I sure hope so. I really want to see each of you succeed!
I can definitely tell you, from experience... even 70-80% consistency may keep you at weight maintenance. And weight maintenance will be great - when you finally get down to your goal body composition. But, right now, we're not trying to maintain. We're trying to lose! And to do that, we need to consistently eat a little bit less, make better choices, and minimize the cheats. Consistently.
Alright, friends - time to see how consistent you really are... if you pass the consistency test, good for you! But if you adhere to healthy eating way below the 90% mark, then you're not doing the best you can. Plain and simple. So, you need to do better.
Remember, without consistency, your efforts will not give you the results you want.
(And without tracking your eating habits, you won't know your consistency! So give it a try.)
*If you need help deciding what's considered "healthy" and what is not, please contact me for options, or simply sign up for my affordable online nutrition program: http://www.deliberatemovement
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