EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR HECTIC LIFESTYLES 4

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FITNESS & NUTRITIONCOACHING BREAKTHROUGHS

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR HECTIC LIFESTYLES

Getting a fresh start isn’t the ‘magic’ bullet people think it will be.

WHY THE PAUSE-BUTTON MENTALITY IS RUINING YOUR

HEALTH AND FITNESS

By John Berardi, Ph.D.

There’s a question that’s been finding its way to me a LOT lately— from Precision Nutrition Coaching clients, Certification students, and ProCoaches.

Coaching Breakthroughs | Effective Strategies for Hectic Lifestyles precisionnutrition.com

“Why don’t your programs offer a ‘pause’ feature?”

After all, what’s the harm in letting clients/patients take a break from a nutrition and fitness plan when they’re:

• leaving for vacation,

• completely swamped at work,

• pregnant, or just after delivery,

• injured, or

• caring for an ailing family member?

For a client, the thought process boils down to: If I miss some workouts, eat the wrong things, skip the homework… I fail. Aren’t I more likely to succeed if I take a break, just until I have the time to do it right?

This is what I call the ‘pause-button mentality.’

Now, don’t get me wrong.

I think it’s normal—even commendable—to want to do your best. To consider taking time to regroup and then resume (or start over) when life feels easier.


At the same time, this completely natural and well-meaning impulse is one of the fastest, surest, most reliable ways to sabotage your plans for improved nutrition, health, and fitness.

Here’s why—and what to do instead.

Starting fresh after you lose your way is a really comforting thought.

That’s probably why New Year’s resolutions are so popular, especially following the indulgence-fueled holiday season.

Give me that cheesecake. I’ll pick my diet back up on Monday! In fact, we’ve learned in our nutrition coaching programs that the idea of a do-over is so alluring you don’t even need a mess-up for the pause-button mentality to take over.

Every January, we welcome a new group of clients. Every July, we take in the second, and final, group of the year.

In July, six months in, just knowing that there are new clients starting the program fresh in January makes some July clients “itch” for a new beginning, even though they’re already making progress, changing their bodies.

If only you’d let me start over, I’d really nail it this time!


But here’s the problem: The pause-button mentality only builds the skill of pausing.

Whether it’s tomorrow, Monday, next week, or even next year, hitting that imaginary pause button gives you some sense of relief.

It allows you a little respite from what can be a really tough slog.

(And the middle is always a tough slog, it doesn’t matter what kind of project you’re working on.)

This perceived relief is compounded by the illusion that if we “start fresh” later we can find the magical “right time” to begin.

Listen, I get it.

It can feel absurd to try to improve your eating and exercise habits while you’re in the midst of chronic stress / looking for a job / starting a new job / going on vacation / caring for aging parents / raising small children / [insert any major life challenge here].

That’s probably why there are so many 21-day this and 90-day that. What adult has more than 90 days to go after their fitness goals with an all-out effort?

But what do these intense fitness sprints teach you?

The skill of getting fit within a very short (and completely non-representative) period of your life.


What don’t they teach you?

The skill of getting fit (or staying fit) in the midst of a normal, complicated, “how it really is” sort of life. This is why the yo-yo diet thing has become such a phenomenon.

It’s not about willpower. It’s about skills.In most fitness scenarios, you learn how to get fit under weird, tightly-controlled, white-knuckle life situations.

You build that one, solitary, non-transferable skill—to slam the gas pedal down, drive the needle into the red, and squeal down the road for a little while, burning the rubber off your tires until you (quickly) run out of gas and crash.

What you don’t build is the ability to get fit under real-life conditions.

That’s why it doesn’t stick. Not because you suck.

But because the natural and predictable consequence of having a limited skill set is short-term progress followed immediately by long-term frustration.

What will be different next time?I remember having lunch with a colleague who swore up and down that his low-carbohydrate diet plus daily running was the secret to staying in shape.


I had to follow up with a painful question: “Well, why aren’t you actually in shape?”

After a long pause: “Uhh, I’ve had a hard time sticking with it. We just had our second child. The holidays just ended. I just switched jobs.” He trailed off…

“But, once everything settles down, I’ll get with the program and get in shape again! I guess I’m just on a little break.”

This story illustrates the point perfectly.

Here’s someone who’s built his fitness on a house of cards. He knows only one thing: How to get in shape by following a very challenging program when the conditions are perfect.

And whenever life isn’t perfect, which is most of the time, he hits the pause button. He waits for a better time. (All the while losing the health and fitness he previously worked so hard for.)

That’s why, when our clients ask to press pause, we usually ask them:

“What will be different when you come back?”

Nine times out of 10, the honest answer is nothing. Nothing at all will be different.

Life is just... happening. And it’ll happen again in January, or after the baby is born, or after Mom gets better, or at any other arbitrary point you pick.

And what then?


I’ve wanted to press “pause” myself.

If you’ve ever felt like pressing pause, or you feel this way right now, it might help to know I’ve felt exactly the same way.

A few years back, my wife and I decided to renovate a home. During the reno, we lived in a tiny apartment above my in-laws’ garage. At the time I was also starting up Precision Nutrition.

Every day we’d wake up and get straight to work. At the end of the day, we’d drive 1 ½ hours to the new house to chip away at the reno. Then, late at night, we’d drive 1 ½ hours back and fall into bed. Repeat.

At first, I thought there was no way to exercise. My schedule was completely packed, I had nowhere to work out, and my eating was less than ideal.

But after a couple of weeks I realized that something was going to be better than nothing. The renovations would continue. Running a business would only get more demanding. And we were planning to have our first child.

I realized I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t press pause. Because, if I didn’t continue, there’d never be that “perfect time” to hit play again.

I needed to find a way to squeeze in some kind of workout, however quick, easy, and unglamorous.


Let’s accept that life has no pause button.

The key lesson here is that, like it or not, the game of life keeps going. There is no timeout.

There’s never going to be an obvious moment when things are magically easier.

You can’t escape work, personal, and family demands. Nor can you escape the need for health and fitness in your life.

Here’s a thought experiment:

What if you tried to hit pause in other areas of your life?

Imagine you’re up for a big promotion at work. For the next two weeks, all you want to do is focus on mastering an upcoming presentation, and winning over your boss.

Trouble is, you’ve got two young children at home who tend to grasp, koala-like, onto your legs and demand your full attention.

Honey, you say to your spouse, I’m just gonna press pause on being a parent for now. I’ll be staying at a hotel. Don’t contact me. I don’t know about you, but that would NOT go over well in my family.

You can’t really press pause—and you definitely can’t hit reset—on being a parent. (You’ve thought about it, though. I know you have.)


Just like you can’t stop showing up for work and expect not to get fired. Or “take a break” from being married and not wind up divorced.

Generally, when it comes to life, we know we’re not always going to be on our A Game. Sometimes we’re superstars. Most of the time we just do our best.

We muddle through. We keep going.

So why do we expect it to be any different with fitness?

In my case, above, I hired a coach and we came up with a simple workout program that met these criteria:

• No more than three times a week.

• No more than 10 minutes per session.

• Has to be done upon waking up, right next to the bed.

• Requires no equipment.

I did that for about six months. Was it the Best Workout Ever? No! Did I end up, after six months, fitter than ever? Heck no!

But was it better than hitting the pause button and doing nothing? You bet!

See, perfectionism is not the point.

“Completing” a program, PN Coaching or any other, is not the point.


Being the “best” for a tiny window of time is not the point.

The point is to just keep going. Sometimes awkwardly, sometimes incompetently, sometimes downright half-assed. But to keep going nonetheless.

As I often teach our new clients:

The “all or nothing” mentality rarely gets us “all.” It usually gets us “nothing.”

That’s when I propose a new mantra:

“Always something.”

Instead of pressing pause, adjust the dial.

Nowadays, I like to think of my fitness and nutrition efforts as a dial.

There are times when I want to dial my efforts up, and there are certainly times when I want to dial them down. But I never want to turn the dial off completely.

Here’s how this plays out in the context of my life.

Sometimes, say when I’m training for a track competition or concentrating on a particular goal, my fitness dial might be tuned to 9 or 10 out of 10.


Channel 10 means I work out every day. Every meal is planned and carefully considered. I think a lot about fitness. And not much about anything else.

Work, family, hobbies... they’re all in maintenance mode (with the permission of the people this affects, of course).

However, as I write this, my life involves the following:

• Settling into a new home.

• Conducting major home renovations.

• Raising four children, one of them still a baby.

• Running a growing business with nearly 100 team members.

So these days, the dial rarely goes past 3 or 4. I work out, maybe, three days a week. And most of my meals are just “good enough.”

(For the record, I’m totally cool with that. There is no guilt about having my dial set a little lower. What’s most important is that the dial is still set to “on.”)

The important lesson: There’s a big difference between tuning your dial to 3, 2, or even a 1, and turning the whole thing off.

And when you realize how doable—and effective—channels 3 and 2 and 1 can be, you see that there’s never a good reason to hit “pause.”


I get it. It’s easy to discount the lower channels. Especially when you’ve done more in the past. But remember your new mantra...

“Always something.”

Precision Nutrition Coaching graduate Susan Olding was dealing with a family crisis during the program: Her dad became ill and eventually passed away.

Susan could have given up when her dad was sick. Asked for a pause. And no one would have blamed her.

Instead, she challenged herself to embrace imperfection and do something every day:


Each day, I asked myself: If I can’t do what was asked of me, what can I do? What can I manage (physically, emotionally, mentally) now? Then I went and did it. Meanwhile, I also tried to add spontaneous activity into my days. I paced the hospital halls, parked at a distance and walked to the hospital door. I went for evening walks. Anything to stay active. I remember Susan telling me about the random sets of squats she did in the corner of her dad’s hospital room while he was resting.

Susan’s takeaway: Perfection never happens in real life. We’re always going to be doing the best we can with what we have. And that’s okay. We can still make progress toward our goals and still improve our health and our fitness—whatever’s going on in our lives. That progress doesn’t happen if you “press pause” and wait for a better time.

It doesn’t happen if you say “I’ll squat again once the Dad situation


resolves itself.” Or if you ask for a re-do next week or next month or next year.

“Fitness in the context of real human life.”

That’s one of our mottos here at Precision Nutrition.

It’s what I think we’re the best in the world at: Helping clients be healthy and fit in the context of their real lives.

Not while pretending to be someone they’re not. Not by signing up for a 12-week boot camp with daily workouts and restrictive diets.

But by living their own lives and practicing “always something.”

In my opinion, pressing pause is buying into an imaginary ideal: a “perfect” time when everything will fall into place; a beautiful, linear trajectory from total suckiness to apex awesomeness:


Asking for a restart because you don’t want to mess that line up is deluding yourself that somehow, next time will be easier. Next time will be perfect. No interruptions, no distractions... no... life.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect time.

We may have magical moments, of course. Short periods of time when things seem to “click” and come together.

But then the dog poops on the rug. Or the kid throws up on the couch. Or both… and then one or the other tracks it all through the house.

You keep pressing pause, and your progress looks like this.

Or, worse yet, you end up flatlining, stuck on a never-ending (maybe eternal) pause.


What to do next: Some tips from Precision NutritionFitness in the context of real human life is just like the rest of life.

We’re all just doing the best we can in often challenging and complicated circumstances. We are all living messy, imperfect lives. We are all human.

If we can just keep moving forward, no matter what happens, no pause buttons, no do-overs, we win the game.

Here are a few strategies for getting out of the pause-button mentality and into a more realistic, effective, sustainable way of thinking.

1. Try the dial method.

Think of your fitness like a dial that goes from 1 to 10.

If you were to dial it up to “10”...

• What would your workouts look like?

• What would your nutrition look like?

• What other actions/habits would you practice in that scenario?

If you were to dial it down to “1”...

• What would your workouts look like?

• What would your nutrition look like?

• What other actions/habits would you practice in that scenario?

Giving thought to your life right now, where is your dial set?


Would you like to make any adjustments?

Could you move the dial up a channel, or even half a channel?

If so, what would that look like?

On the other hand…

Should you move the dial down a channel so you can stick with health and fitness even during a difficult time?

2. Aim for a little bit better.

An all-or-nothing approach usually doesn’t get us “all.” It usually gets us “nothing.”

You know what actually works?

Small improvements done consistently over time work—we have proof in the over 100,000 clients we’ve helped through Precision Nutrition Coaching method.

You might be trying to make a meal out of hospital cafeteria food, or gas station food, or airplane food. You might be spending hours awake with a newborn in the middle of the night, or stuck in yet another full-day meeting.

These aren’t ideal scenarios, but they’re not necessarily hopeless either

Look around. Get creative. See if you can find some small—maybe minuscule—improvements.


3. Anticipate, strategize and plan.

Since we already know that stuff is going to go wrong, the best thing we can do is anticipate and make plans for how to deal when they do.

A simple way to do this is by answering two questions:

1. What’s likely to get in the way of what I hope to accomplish?

2. What is something I can do today to help me keep going when I face those obstacles?

For some people, that might be a Sunday ritual where they prep food for the week so they won’t be scrambling for healthy meals on busy weeknights. For others, it might mean having a healthy meal-delivery service on speed dial.

Don’t be surprised and dismayed when things go haywire. They will at some point. Just arm yourself with the best tools and strategies so you can stay in the game when you’re thrown a curveball.

How to prioritize health, organize your schedule, and get things done.

7 WAYS TO MAKE TIME FOR EXERCISE AND NUTRITION

By Alex Picot-Annand


You just finished drop-off, are running late for work, and know your day is packed with meetings. Thinking ahead to dinner, you’re wondering how you’ll manage anything more involved than ordering a pizza on your takeout app.

And when the kids are finally fed and in bed? You just want to put your feet up and veg out in front of the TV or get stuck in a good book.

Most days, it seems like you’re meeting basic needs—work, food, clothes, a not-filthy home—by the skin of your teeth. How are you supposed to find eight hours to sleep, never mind an hour for yoga plus 10 minutes to chop veggies?!

If you’ve been wanting to eat better and exercise for a long time but life feels like an endless conveyor belt of busyness, and you can’t get off, we get it.

At Precision Nutrition, we’ve coached over 100,000 clients. Many are busy moms, overworked professionals, single parents, students working multiple jobs, caregivers to aging parents—sometimes all of the above.

Heck, many of us are in the same boat, which means we’re no strangers to busy clients and busy lifestyles. The good news? We’ve found a system for helping folks prioritize health, organize their schedules, and get things done.

And, in this infographic, we’ll share that system with you.


ASK YOURSELF ‘WHY’

7 EFFECTIVE WAYSTO MAKE TIME FOR

EXERCISE AND NUTRITION

Understanding exactly why you want to eat better and exercise more gives you the motivation to prioritize it over other things.

When life’s already busy, here's how you can make timeto eat better and move more often.

1

Why do I want to eat healthier and exercise more?

Because when I’m wearing smaller pants, I’ll look better.

But why do I want to fit in smaller pants?

But why do I want to look better?

But why do I want to feel good about myself?

But why do I want to be more assertive and confident?

Because I want to fit in smaller pants.

Because when I look good, I feel good about myself.

Because when I feel good about myself, I’m more assertive and confident.

Because when I’m more assertive and confident, I’m in control, my fears won’t stop me, and I can finally go for my dreams.

Keep asking ‘why’ until you find your compelling reason.


2 IDENTIFY YOURTOP PRIORITIES

Think of your time as a jar, which you can fill with a finite number of rocks, pebbles, and sand.

Everyone’s rocks, pebbles, and sand will look different. But regardless, if you fill your jar with too much sand first, the rocks and pebbles won’t fit.

Your big rocks represent the stuff that’s most necessary to feel fulfilled in life. They often relate to family, health, and livelihood.

TIME WITH FRIENDSAND FAMILY

HEALTH

EARNING A LIVING

GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP

Your pebbles add extra fun and satisfaction to life, but aren’t totally necessary.

HOBBIES

EXCELLING AT WORK

BEING A COMPETITIVEATHLETE

WORKING ON A“PASSION PROJECT”

Your sand is purely “bonus” activity. It can be enjoyable, but it’s not crucial to your survival or fulfillment.

WATCHING TV

SOCIAL MEDIA

PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

GOING OUT DRINKING


KEEP A TIME DIARY

Your schedule reflects how you’re prioritizing the activities in your life. Track your time for a couple weeks to find out if it’s consistent with your goals and values.

Without judgment, ask yourself if your schedule reflects your true priorities.

3

TRACK YOUR DAY IN15 MINUTE INCREMENTS7:00 - 7:15woke up; brushed; teeth; washed face7:15 - 7:30checked Instagram7:30 - 7:45still on Instagram7:45 - 8:00made coffee...

ACTUAL

Watching TV

Time withloved ones

Surfing theinternet

Work

Sleep

Exercise

Healthy meal prep

THEN, ANALYZE IT

DESIRED

Time in natureTV / internet

Time withloved ones

Work

Sleep Exercise

Healthymeal prep


Watching TV

-15 MINUTES

Healthy meal prep+15 MINUTES

To start to align your schedule with what you want to accomplish, replace low-value activities with high-value ones, little by little.

With a little extra time and effort up front, you can create an environment that significantly reduces the time needed to eat well and move more.

CREATE SYSTEMS THAT MAKE HEALTH AND FITNESS FASTER AND EASIER5

Reduce or eliminate “treat” foods

Keep fresh, whole foods in plain sight

Establish a morning or weekend routine to chop

veggies and prepare protein + complex carbs in bulk

INCREASE HEALTH AND FITNESS ACTIVITIES IN 15-MINUTE INCREMENTS4


PUT MEAL PREP AND MOVEMENT IN YOUR CALENDAR6

For more ways to establish a healthy environment: precisionnutrition.com/18-ways-to-transform-your-body

If we waited until we “felt like it”, a lot of important things would get neglected. Schedule it in, and stick to it.

Keep berries and greens in the freezer (for quick

Super Shakes)

Sign up for a CSA box and/or healthy meal

delivery

Join the gym closest to home or work

Leave weights and resistance bands lying around for quick,

convenient workouts

Keep a packed gym bag in your car or by the

front door

Hold gatherings and meetings at parks

and gyms

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY SUNDAY

5 P.M.

PUMP IRON

5 P.M.

INTERVAL TRAINING

5 P.M.PUMP IRON

PREP MEALS

FOR THE WEEK

PARK


REVIEW AT THE END OF EACH WEEK7Did you use your time to support your health and fitness?

NO

NO

YES

What did you do instead?

Low-priority (“sand”) stuff High-priority (“rock”) stuff

That's ok! Life happens. Return to your goals and keep practicing.

Set smaller weekly health + fitness goals and keep improving your systems

Reduce environmental triggers (e.g. move TV to basement; use an app that limits internet time).

Get coaching for accountability and motivation.

Explore what worked, and keep doing that

Celebrate!You deserve it!

Add 15 more minutes of healthy food prep and movement next week

YESYES

Delegate / hire out important tasks (e.g. sign up for healthy meal delivery; arrange childcare so you can go to the gym).

Combine “rock" activities with health + fitness (e.g. have family participate in food prep; take work calls while walking outside).

Get coaching to develop better systems and realistic goals.

Does it happen often?

Combine "sand" activities with fitness + nutrition (e.g. watch TV on the treadmill or while prepping food).


...AND IT’S SUPPORTED BY ALL THE THINKING, PRIORITIZING,

STRATEGIZING, AND PLANNING UNDERNEATH.

EATING WELL AND WORKING OUT IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG...

AS YOU CAN SEE, “BEING HEALTHY AND FIT” IS LIKE AN ICEBERG.

For more information visit: precisionnutrition.com/make-time-for-exercise-and-nutrition-infographic

One thing it doesn’t require: Perfection. (Not even close.)

NEARLY 1 MILLION DATA POINTS SHOW WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO

LOSE FAT, GET HEALTHY, AND CHANGE YOUR BODY

By Brian St. Pierre, M.S., RD, CSCS and Camille DePutter


There is no perfect person.

(No matter how awesome you are.)

Yet when many of us contemplate a health plan, weight loss program, or other lifestyle change, we start with the expectation that we need to be perfect.

But how could you be?

You have stress, and feelings, and previous habits, and maybe a job or school or kids or a pet, and days when you feel like crap. Plus, Netflix.

If perfection is required, then most of us might as well not even bother.

But what if changing your body isn’t a pass/fail scenario?

What if almost any effort—no matter how imperfect—could result in real, measurable progress?

Turns out, that’s not just a nice idea: It’s the truth.

Changing your body doesn’t require 100 percent consistency.

We’ve got the data to prove it.

Our team just finished crunching an insane amount of data from our nutrition coaching program where clients give us daily feedback.


• 12 months

• 1,000 clients

• Nearly 1 MILLION data points

All to better understand how much effort it takes to make real, meaningful change.

Now, if you’re not familiar with our year-long coaching program for both men and women, here’s a snapshot of how it works: Clients check in every day and tell us whether or not they completed a workout (or other activity) and did “their habits.”

Habits are daily health practices—such as eating lean protein at each meal or consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables—that we give them every two weeks. These habits accumulate, and by the end of the year, they’re incorporating about 25 in total. (Spoiler alert: This is how you change!)

They also regularly report their body measurements and answer progress surveys, where they tell us other important stuff, like how they’re feeling.

So, we looked at changes in our client’s bodies combined with how often they said they did their habits and workouts.

We focused on those who said losing weight was their top priority, and looked at how much weight (or body girth) they actually lost after a year.

And we asked...


How consistent do you have to be in order to make “good progress”?

What we discovered didn’t surprise us, but it might surprise you.

It could even inspire you (or your clients) to embrace your “imperfect” self, and make the (surprisingly small) changes that can transform your body and your life.

Surprise #1: Just putting in some effort—no matter how small—changes things.

What happens when people do their habits and workouts less than half of the time?

You might assume their efforts are a total waste.

You’d be wrong.

People lost weight anyway.

Clients who are less than 50 percent consistent—but stay in the program for the full year—wind up losing between 5-6 percent of their total body weight.


Now, 5-6 percent loss of body weight might not sound like much, but you can see the average weight loss for both men and women was 11 pounds. That’s sustained weight loss—something that stays with you, and something you can build on.

And people did it by kinda-sorta practicing some small healthy habits, not following rigid meal plans or extreme diets that eliminate entire food groups.

People also got healthier.

That’s because research suggests a 5-6 percent decrease in body weight can lead to:

• better cardiovascular health

• decreased cancer and diabetes risk

• better sleep (with less apnea)


• better mood

• less inflammation

• better immunity; and maybe best of all...

• a zestier sex drive.

What does less-than-half consistency look like?

Let’s think about how this might play out in real life.

Maybe you eat a lot of fast food and packaged snacks. And your assigned habit is “eat more whole foods.”

If you eat four times per day—say, three meals and one snack—that means you’re eating 28 times a week. If just 12 of those meals or snacks were made of fresh, minimally processed foods, you’d be about 40 percent consistent.

This would be the equivalent of swapping out a fast food lunch for a green salad topped with lean protein every day, along with having a piece of fruit for a snack most days, but then changing nothing else.

And by the way, although we’re using 40 percent as our example here, there were certainly people who were 30 percent, 20 percent, and even just 10 percent consistent that achieved similar results, on average. Almost any consistent effort, applied over time, seems to be enough to move you forward.


Here’s another way to look at it.

Let’s say you want to eat more fruits and vegetables (another assigned habit in the PN Coaching program). If 100 percent consistency means you eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, that would be 35 servings per week.

If you were aiming for 40 percent consistency, you’d need to consume just 14 servings of produce in one week. Or an average of 2 servings per day.

What about workouts?

If doing something active every day means you’re being 100 percent consistent, then doing something active 40 percent of the time would


require 2.8 activities. In real life, that might translate to two intense workouts, plus two long walks per week.

But remember, these are just examples.

Your goals will be relative to your starting point.

For instance, if you haven’t exercised in a year, 100 percent consistency might mean being active just three days a week. And as a result, 40 percent consistency would be just 1.2 weekly workouts.

If all of this sounds easy, you’re right.

It’s about learning to accept that better is better, and even a little effort can translate into real weight loss and health benefits.

Surprise #2: Showing up between 50-79 percent of the time actually makes a big difference.

50-79 percent: The beautiful balance between half-assing and getting results.

Now, here’s the magic zone between “not too difficult” and “making real progress”: somewhere between 50 and 79 percent consistent.

Our data showed no statistical difference between groups that hit this level of consistency, whether it was 50-59 percent, 60-69 percent, or 70-79 percent.

Wrap your head around that.


Not only do you not need to be “perfect” to get results, you don’t even need to be “pretty good.”

For example, by doing their habit practice and workouts at least half the time:

• Men lost an average of 6 pounds more, compared to the guys who did their habits and workouts less.

• Women dropped just one more pound (they weighed less to begin with), but they lost 4 more total inches.

A “habits at least half the time” approach also burned through belly fat, as both men and women shrunk their waists, moving them out of the high risk categories (35 inches of circumference for women; 40 inches for men) for heart disease, diabetes, and other metabolic health problems.


Surprise #3: Being at least 50 percent consistent with your health and lifestyle improvements might be easier than you think.

You don’t need to be a superstar.

With some small, manageable changes (especially if you get help and support from a coach), you—yes, even you, with the children and covered in dog hair and rushing to soccer practice—can be pretty darn consistent.

Most of our clients end up in the 50-79 percent consistent group (even though they often feel like they’re “not doing enough”).


Once again, think about what this might mean in the context of your life.

Maybe dinners at your house are nuts. The family is scrambling to get homework done, or get to extra-curricular activities; the teenager or toddler is complaining about the food; someone brought home greasy takeout, and it’s a whirlwind.

Right now, eating “whole foods” mindfully and slowly with the right portion size is so not happening for you.

But… what if you could figure out how to organize your breakfasts and lunches a little better—without a lot of life disruption?

If you nail a healthy breakfast and lunch, plus the occasional snack, you could hit your mark of eating nutritious foods at 17 out of 28 weekly meals. And boom... 60 percent.

Or perhaps you want to control your portions. At Precision Nutrition, one of our core habits is called “eating to 80 percent full.” This helps you naturally reduce your intake by learning to tune into hunger and fullness cues, and getting used to stopping when you’re satisfied, but not stuffed.

If your goal were eat to 80 percent full at breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day (21 meals per week), you’d be 60 percent consistent if you did that at only 13 meals.


Another example: Let’s say you love wine but want to drink less.

And let’s say that “100 percent consistent” is never drinking. (Wait… stop screaming. Stick with us here.)

If you normally have three glasses of wine each night, and you cut that down to one, you still get a daily Chardonnay, and you’ve knocked out two-thirds of your regular habit.

Perfect? No, but definitely better. And better is the goal.

In all these cases, you’ve got lots of wiggle room. And as the data shows, you’ll still come out ahead.


Surprise #4. Even super-dramatic changes don’t require 100 percent consistency.

As you may know, some PN clients achieve incredible body transformations.

Of course, if you’re after big changes, you’ll have to be more consistent, and make more tradeoffs or adjustments to your lifestyle.

But even so, you still don’t have to be perfect.

Our data show that being 80 percent-89 percent consistent with your nutrition and lifestyle habits can result in significant—and, more importantly, sustained—losses in body weight and waist size.


How does this level of consistency take shape in real life?

Let’s go back to our practice of eating nutritious meals, made of mostly whole, fresh, minimally processed foods with lots of good stuff in them. (What we call “PN-friendly.”)

If you eat four meals a day, again, that’s 28 meals a week. Achieving 80 percent consistency means about 22-23 meals are “PN-friendly.” And that means 5-6 meals might be “less optimal.”

Now suppose you’re trying to cut out desserts.

If you’re used to eating a dessert every evening, then 80 percent consistent would mean skipping that dessert about 5-6 times over the course of a full week.

That’s a big change, but it doesn’t mean total dessert deprivation. You’d still have 1-2 desserts to enjoy each week, and the rest of the week is highly consistent. Double win!

Surprise #5: People’s actual circumstances didn’t determine what they were able to do.You’d think having particular demands on you would make it harder to stick to your habits. That’s why we ask our clients about things like their work schedule, whether they have kids, whether they travel a lot, and/or how much stress they feel.

In fact, there was no correlation between how much stress people felt at home or at work, or how well they said they were coping with


that stress, and the results they got.

In other words, no matter what a dumpster fire of flaming stress some people’s lives were… if they were able to figure out how to take small, meaningful actions day to day, they were able to be consistent anyway.

This often meant having creative solutions, like:

• Eating the same meal for breakfast and lunch, rather than prepping two separate ones.

• Getting meal or grocery delivery, if they could afford it.

• Enlisting older kids into shopping and meal prep help.

And so on.

It also meant knowing how to scale back a little—rather than completely shutting down—whenever things didn’t go as scheduled.

For example, imagine you sleep through your alarm, or drop a carton of eggs on the floor at breakfast. Suddenly, you have no time to get to the gym.

Instead of skipping your workout all together, you can turn a walk with the baby in the stroller or a trip to the playground into the “workout.” It may not have been what you planned, but you still got some exercise.

This is the concept of adjusting the dial, which you learned about earlier in this lesson. It helps you stay consistent, even when life gets messy.


As you devise these work-arounds, your consistency is sure to improve, as will your results. In fact, some of our clients became so good at this they were able to achieve an astounding 90-100 percent consistency.

And again, their increased effort paid off, with more weight and more inches lost.

To be sure, this level of consistency isn’t doable for everyone. And that’s okay.

Not all of us desire to work this hard or live with all the tradeoffs it requires—or even care about such dramatic physique changes.


But even so, 17 percent of our clients were able to hit this mark. And they did it by adding one habit at a time and building from there. Just like everyone else.

Now... have a look at the results from all groups together, and take note. It provides a nice visual of how improvements in consistency truly drive change. (Have we made our point yet?)


Surprise #6: Just making some effort—however inconsistent and imperfect—can make you feel better about how your body looks, feels and moves.

Consistency creates confidence.

Many forms of progress are invisible to the bathroom scale.

That’s why we include a 13-question “resilience index” in our PN Coaching program. We ask clients to tell us how they feel, by indicating how strongly they agree or disagree with statements like:

• I’m the person I want to be.

• I lead a meaningful and purposeful life.

• I feel good about how my body looks.

• I feel healthy and physically thriving.

• I feel confident in my ability to take charge of my life.

What we found:

The more consistent people were, the better they felt about their life in general.

In part, this happens because people feel good about the changes they see in their bodies, such as less pain, more fitness, and the ability to do more movements, more easily.


But it also happens because people are acting on their own behalf.

We gain positive energy, confidence, and resilience after and because we act, not the other way around.

Even a small boost in confidence might mean:

• You walk into a gym for the first time.

• You try a new exercise.

• You say hi to that attractive person.

• You dress better.

• You take on a physical challenge, like a race.

• You consider a more active vacation, like a hiking trip.

• You finally wear that bathing suit, or take off your shirt, at the beach or pool.

• You ask for what you need and want, or say no to what you don’t want.

• You take care better care of you.

And each action you take only creates more action.

No perfection required.

You can still become, at last, the healthy, thriving, confident person you’ve wanted to be—just by putting in whatever effort you’ve got.

Whether that’s 40 percent, 60 percent, or 80 percent, your best—or your clients’ best—really is good enough.


Discover how to help anyone eat better— starting now.

If you want to take your nutrition expertise to the next level, check out the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. It’s the most respected nutrition coaching education program in the world—and the next group kicks off soon.

Created specifically for working (and aspiring) health and fitness pros, our self-paced nutrition certification teaches you the science of nutrition and the art of world-class coaching.

Developed over 15 years. Proven with over 100,000 clients. Trusted by professionals in every corner of the industry—from personal trainers, strength coaches, and group exercise instructors to medical doctors, registered dieticians, nutritionists, and beyond.

Whether you’re already mid-career or just starting out, this self-study nutrition certification will give you the knowledge, systems, and tools to make a real, lasting change with anyone you work with.

Visit this link for more information: http://get.pn/level-1. (Already a student or graduate of the Level 1 Certification? Take the next step and check out our Level 2 Certification. It’s an exclusive, year-long Master Class for elite professionals who want an immersive, career-changing experience you can’t get anywhere else.)

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrition-certification-level-1-presale-list

http://get.pn/level-1

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrition-certification-level-2-presale-list

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR HECTIC LIFESTYLES 4

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