You’ve probably heard the old saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
This saying is very true in most aspects of our our daily lives.
Imagine jumping in the car for a drive across the country without looking at a map or using a GPS. You either wouldn’t make it to your destination or it would take you forever!
This is why we need to plan for the things that are important to us, the moments we want to experience, and the aspirations we have. Without laying out a plan, we don’t have the steps we need to take in front of us to check off and keep us from straying off the path to the ‘end goal’.
This is a major reason we use planning tools with the people we work with.
If we can coach you to plan your workouts in advance, and plan your weekly meals around your lifestyle, you will be on the right track towards your specific goals no matter what they are. Whether you’re looking to drop body fat, pack on a little muscle or increase your performance, the planning aspect doesn’t change, it’s just the specifics of the training program, frequency, intensity and the nutrition macronutrients that differ.
Planning your workouts is probably the easier of the two and we use our systems to help you plan and keep you accountable.
Nutrition on the other hand, is a bit trickier with most people. This is caused by years of bad habits, poor information and misconception. We have access to so much information these days that it can become extremely confusing and overwhelming for someone starting out on changing their diet.
This is why I put together the FREE downloadable ebook “THE BASIC DIET”. You can grab a copy by clicking here.
This book gives you the basics to lose weight or build muscle without weighing your food, counting calories and tracking your macros. This is where most of us fall down, when we try and commit to doing all of these extra tasks we aren’t accustomed to and it just gets too much. Not that there is anything wrong with counting calories and tracking it all, it’s actually very necessary to take your physique to the next level but only once you build the foundations with the basic steps first.
K.I.S.S. – “Keep It Simple Stupid” is an acronym I learnt at an early age growing up playing football, and it sticks in my mind with everything I do today. I sometimes complicate things in the moment of trying to pursue a goal, but when I realise I’m complicating it, I sit back and think “KISS”.
So if you want to learn a LONG-TERM solution to eating for your goals, that is easy to learn, I suggest you download “THE BASIC DIET”.
Back to nutrition planning… Planning is a major part of the process to success with habit change.
Use something like this 7-day food journal to plan your next week’s meals in advance.
You can download a printable version of this journal by clicking here.
It doesn’t have to be overly specific and complicated, just get pen to paper on what you want to eat at each meal. I start with working out what events I have on that week that may be challenging to prepare food for due to eating out. Depending on what the event is, I can either plan a free food meal (cheat) or plan what I’m going to eat at that particular place. I suggest when starting out, pick one whole day and then one other meal during the week to relax on the guidelines
Then I work around it and start plugging in foods in the boxes that I want to eat at different meals. I personally eat 5-6 meals a day, but you may choose to do 3-4, there is no rule with this. Everyone is different and as long as you get the right in take for your body type and goals it really doesn’t matter if you have 2 or 10 meals in a day (KISS).
To recap, here are the steps to get started:
- Download THE BASIC DIET ebook for the simple to follow guidelines and plan.
- Print the food diary for planning your week in advance.
- On the food diary, work out your cheat day/meal
- Start planning the rest of your meals