Why it is better to be consistently pretty good than occasionally excellent

Don’t fall out of the boat

As many of you know I’m a proud (and tired) dad of 2 young & energetic boys.

 Being a parent is amazing, frustrating, wonderful, terrifying. 

It also means that you can’t always stick to a perfect meal plan…you have to be flexible at all times.

Your health is important, but it should not come at a huge cost to your mental well being.

We only have one life, don’t spend it trying to fight the current all the time, sometimes the best thing to do is go with the flow for a little while, get your bearings and carry on, back on course.

DON’T do ROBOT NUTRITION

I think I should probably define robotic nutrition: it is eating the perfect breakdown of macros (protein/fats/carbohydrates) at the perfect time through consuming nothing but the healthiest of food and drink options. 

An example would be 5 meals per day with everything weighed out to the last gram, consisting of: plain porridge oats, chicken breast (unseasoned), steamed rice with a calculated amount of salt added, an array of green vegetables (unseasoned), nuts, turkey mince (unseasoned), 3 litres of water and a singe portion of fruit. 

I’m sure some people reading this will think that doesn’t sound too bad, however for most, myself included, this is not the way to go about organising nutrition. 

Most people could sustain the above for a few days, maybe a couple weeks at a push, but sooner of later the monotony would result in breakdown. 

This means binging and self loathing in many cases, then the cycle begins again.

A much better idea is to try to have pretty good food intake most of the time (80% is a good figure to aim for) and allow yourself a life. 

More importantly make small additions to your healthy intake that you can sustain, rather than drastic alterations: it is much better to be consistently pretty good than occasionally excellent.

Think of it like an ocean you’re trying to cross from where you are now to the new fitter you, with the difference in food choices equating to waves. It’s much smoother sailing if the sea is a fairly undulating or just a little choppy at times, rather than huge waves of perfection with massive troughs of disaster in between. 

It’s also much better for you mentally – allowing yourself to have a life without letting things spiral out of control or feeling like you can’t take part in something because it might lead to you ‘falling out of the boat’.

Today’s boat related message was brought to you by a non-sleeping 10 month old, some nice coffee and a desire to have something else than tuna, rice and veg for lunch!

All the Best

A.