Consistently Inconsistent Pt. 1
A consistently healthy lifestyle includes inconsistencies.
I am happy to report that I am seeing a lot of fitness and lifestyle models posting that they eat indulgent foods, and I am seeing the same thing from some pretty top tier fitness professionals and influencers. This real life stuff is a nice change up from either seeing no food at all, or rabbit food with some superiority, but on the side please.
Please do not misunderstand, I am not celebrating unhealthy eating. I think indulgent foods/drinks have their own times and places and “often” shouldn’t be the category they fall under. I do think that it is absolutely a good thing if you can enjoy good food with good people and do so mindfully. (Mindfully = knowing you are eating non-health giving foods/drinks, but also enjoying them. Antonym: eating/drinking all the things so fervently that when you finally come to, you’re regretting life and rockin’ a food baby.) There are reasons we eat together and I don’t think it’s any mystery to anyone, especially after the last year-ish, and there are reasons foods are part of human connection, bonding and celebrating.
In a perfect world, healthy eating happens 75%-95% of the time and the rest is left for the occasional delights. Where I have seen a lot of people get tripped up is with the “all or nothing” mindset. Think about it like this; if I eat a healthy breakfast of eggs, a berry cup, and some cinnamon oatmeal, then a chicken, berry and walnut salad for lunch, and a broccoli, sweet potato and salmon dinner, does all that health-giving, nutrient dense food just go to shit if I have two scoops of Cherry Garcia for dessert? I think you can probably tell by my “tone” that the answer is a resounding no!
The same goes for movement and workouts. If I typically work out 5 days a week and then have a week where I only get two workouts in, did the week prior not count? Does the week coming up go into the “fuck it” bucket too? Well what’s the point? I got off my routine…
Kids, shit happens. Life happens. And yet, despite it all, here we are. We always have options, but sometimes we forget, we act like we don’t, or perhaps we just don’t realize the power we have over our own lives. I’m here with you, so you’ll be getting no judgement from me. I’d like to share my approach when it comes to being thrown off your routine, deviating from healthy habits, etc.
May I present to you: the clean slate policy
So like I said, we always have options. Instead of dwelling on the beers from last night, the missed workout, or the week long buffet of all things yummy and southern goodness, try cutting yourself a bit’o’slack. Again, I don’t mean going down the rabbit hole of justifying bad habits, but berating yourself for dessert when you are supposed to be on a “diet” won’t erase the dessert. Instead, try zooming out.
I will be exhibit A. Just for you :)
I am coming up on a year of consistently working out (full disclosure, for the first time in my life). There will be a whole other blog post on that so I won’t dive in just yet but I want to take that amount of consistency into account. That is a lot of sweat, time, early mornings, and then there was the south… My boyfriend Drew is from Louisiana and oh my lanta do they know how to cook! We visited friends and family a couple weeks ago and I didn’t work out one single time. The only thing that made me sweat was the heat.
I ate my way through all three meals of almost every day and I have zero regrets. Did I feel amazing? No, but I was lucky enough to share delicious things with people I love and I made the conscious decision to try it all because I wanted the experience and connection. (Ps. Drew’s family and friends don’t actually eat poorly very often. They are all quite healthy but when little California comes to town, they show me all the tastiest things!)
Monday morning after we got home, I worked out at 6am and we had a healthy breakfast. Clean slate policy.
If you really think about it, every decision we make when it’s time for sustenance, is first a clean slate. Every new day, or break in the day, is also an opportunity for movement. Workouts, I get it, take prep and time, but taking the stairs doesn’t and neither does parking farther away to get in some movement where you can.
I just want to leave you with this: You can start now, AND you can restart now! There is no such thing as all or nothing, it doesn’t really exist outside of life or death I’m pretty sure. You’ll have interruptions and you’ll need rest days.
In the words of the greatest coach ever, Mr. Ted Lasso, “You know what the happiest animal in the world is? It's a goldfish. It's got a 10 second memory. Be the goldfish Sam.”.
In case you wanted more, here is a wonderfully helpful infographic from Precision Nutrition on how to eat healthfully. Not much of this whole post matters unless you know for yourself what “healthy” eating really means.
So here ya go:
What Should I Eat?!
OkayThankYouLoveYouBaiii!