Wanting to start your nutrition journey can be daunting at times and even unrealistic. Fortunately it does not have to be this way. These 4 basic actions you’re about to read can be implemented by anyone, anywhere, and anytime.
It doesn’t have to be all four in one day; it can even be 1 action every second day. An action that you feel is most important to you, that you feel should be changed. Perhaps your goal is to eat more vegetables daily, reduce how much processed foods you are consuming, or maybe you are wanting to control your craving or indulgence of your favourite snack, even something as simple as drinking 1 glass of water when waking up could be your goal.
These 4 actions will ensure a successful start towards your goal:
Setting a goal
Having a goal is the first step that gives the motivation or reasoning for wanting to change or improve something in your life that you are not satisfied with. Think to yourself as you’re reading this ‘What’s my goal?’ This can be a goal that you want to achieve within the short term such as 1-3 months, or the long term such as 12+ months. Having a coach during this stage can help clarify your goal, why you’ve chosen that goal, what you’re willing to do, and to understand what sacrifices and struggles you may encounter along the nutrition journey.
Starting now
You’ve now got a goal, but maybe you’re thinking ’I’ll start when the time is right’, ‘I’m not ready just yet’, ‘I don’t have enough time today, tomorrow looks better’, this thought process can become an endless cycle of putting off starting your goal and eventually using it as an excuse to not get started. There is no perfect time and never will be, the time to start is NOW!
Starting small
Personally this step was the most impactful for myself in making a change; finding an action that 95-100% of the time I could complete without fail, no matter how small it seemed. You could think its not worth doing because of how small it looks, but in perspective, doing that little thing day by day slowly adds up. Going back to step 2, no matter how small or insignificant you may think it is, just remember that you started! Great! Fantastic! You just did one of the hardest parts of your nutrition journey.
Consistency
To get closer to your goal, consistency trumps all for both short and long term success. As an example lets say I asked you to write an entire book containing 365 pages for me tomorrow, you would quickly respond back ‘you are out of your mind’; but If I asked for you to write me a single page every day, in a year, we’ve got a book containing 365 pages, that definitely seems more realistic and achievable right?
If you imagine the thickness of a book, that’s a lot of pages, but if you look at the thickness of a single page, it’s so thin it seems insignificant. But it’s the consistency that adds up over time. Starting small, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem at first, in the grand scheme of things, you would’ve made progress and achieved it each time, getting closer every time to your goal.
With these 4 actions now set in stone, stay tuned for next week as we will go over 1-2 strategies you can start applying to each action to get yourself started on your nutrition journey.
Coach Pat
