Good habits are HARD, but worth it
The work week offers structure and consistency, which in theory makes it easier to stick to a nutrition and training rhythm. Barring hiccups like long hours, a tiring commute, or family obligations, the work week often looks like this:
Wake up
Breakfast
Commute to work or enter your home office
Lunch
Commute home or leave your home office
Dinner
Misc
Bedtime
The habits you should work toward include going to bed at a reasonable time, eliminating electronic use 60 minutes before bed, and setting an alarm that gives you enough time to eat, prepare food for the day, and get to work on time. This doesn’t even include the gym, since eating healthy doesn’t require one.
Exercise is an incredible habit to form, and I recommend it to everyone regardless of fitness level, but eating healthy is the foundation.
Forming habits takes time, especially since unhealthy ones provide comfort. Those habits that hurt your health and quality of life need to be minimized if you want to pursue a healthier path.
Food may not be addictive, but the convenience of fast food certainly feels that way. It just feels and tastes damn good to grab Burger King instead of cooking dinner at home, not to mention the time and effort saved.
We live in a society built on instant gratification, and it’s only getting worse. Amazon offers same-day delivery in many areas, while in the 80s and 90s, you had to wait weeks for catalogue orders. That conditioning has made us expect instant results and comfort.
Healthy habits are the opposite. They won’t offer comfort at first because you’re replacing the ease of routine with something new. They won’t give immediate satisfaction because chicken, rice, and vegetables aren’t as exciting as pizza from the local shop. Results take time. You didn’t end up where you are now in a week, and it will take just as long to reach your goals physically and mentally.
Weekends complicate this further, as many people treat them like a free-for-all. Two days of cutting loose can undo a week’s worth of progress, leaving you bloated, off track, and mentally shaken.
This is why it’s critical to build habits that support your lifestyle.
Habits aren’t perfect, kindness is.
How many times have you fallen short of a goal only to beat yourself up for it? I’m not talking about demanding better of yourself and doing the work, but that feeling of doom and failure that eats at you. Many of us are far harder on ourselves than we need to be.
Put it in perspective. If you eat three meals and one snack per day, that’s 28 meals per week. If three of those meals are total disasters, no tracking, overeating, nutritionally empty choices, you’re still on point for 90% of your meals. That’s a damn good rate, but people obsess over the 10% they got wrong instead of the 90% they got right.
That’s Western culture in a nutshell: blame, punish, and hope it doesn’t happen again. But what good does it do to punish yourself for an off meal? Does it help? Does it change anything?
Reframing your mindset after a misstep is key. Some people do this more easily than others, but almost everyone benefits from self-kindness when it comes to nutrition.
A 2021 study on 100 mothers concluded:
“In sum, the present study highlighted the significant associations of self-compassion with women’s diet quality and eating behaviours and showed that these links occur, in part, due to improved body esteem… Future research is necessary, however, in order to build upon the present findings as well as to study the generalizability of the results in different samples (e.g., in males or in clinical samples) and to determine if self-compassion or body esteem can be enhanced through interventions in the hope of improving diet quality, increasing intuitive eating, and lessening emotional eating.”
Source: Carbonneau, N., Holding, A., Lavigne, G., & Robitaille, J. (2021). *Feel Good, Eat Better: The Role of Self-Compassion and Body Esteem in Mothers’ Healthy Eating Behaviours*. Nutrients, 13(11), 3907. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13113907
As research into nutritional psychology expands, evidence continues to link behavioral health, self-kindness, and proper intervention. Another review concluded:
“Starting the work focused on motivation and awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle on both physical and psychological health from the first contact between the patients and the health professionals could improve the long-term results.”
Source: Flore, G.; Preti, A.; Carta, M.G.; Deledda, A.; Fosci, M.; Nardi, A.E.; Loviselli, A.; Velluzzi, F. *Weight Maintenance after Dietary Weight Loss: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of Behavioural Intensive Intervention*. Nutrients 2022, 14, 1259. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14061259
The psychology of nutritional success is complex. Everyone has unique motivations, adherence struggles, and stressors that affect their likelihood of success. It’s never as simple as “eat healthy and count calories.”
Food isn’t the enemy. The chips, candy, boxed food, or takeout aren’t forcing you to eat them. The real challenge is our perception of food and the influences that shape our choices.
Fixing perception isn’t simple, and many nutrition coaches aren’t equipped to deal with the psychological side of food. That doesn’t mean you’re lost. It means food can’t be treated as a black-and-white issue.
Perception and psychology shape our entire lives, and food is no exception. If you struggle with food, you owe it to yourself to seek help from someone who can guide you beyond numbers and meal plans; someone who can teach you how to handle cravings, bounce back after a bad day, and practice self-kindness.
Whatever your goals with food, your relationship with it will determine your long-term success. That relationship is tangled up with life itself, and it doesn’t disappear just because you want it to.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. You can learn how to do it if you’re willing to be a little uncomfortable with change.
I am accepting clients for nutrition and training services. With over 25 years of experience in the fitness industry, I can help you achieve your goals.
Studying for my Master’s in Psychology from APUS
BAS in Applied Nutrition and Health from ASU
AAAI/ISMA - ISSA Strength and Conditioning - Pn1 Certified - ISSA Sports Nutrition
Former Superleague Rugby player
Competitive Strongman from 1999 - 2010
Former NPC Masters Physique Competitor
Former assistant rugby coach for Mentor HS (OH) and former Assistant Rugby Coach at Liberty HS (MO)
2011 Speaker at Denison University’s Strength and Conditioning conference
Three self-published training books
Multiple magazine articles for Muscle and Performance, Muscle & Fitness, and Ironman
Published on PPSC, Elite FTS, and top articles of the week from Ben Bruno and PTDC
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