I am learning how to choose progress over perfection, simply because perfection doesn’t exist.
I can be such a jerk to myself when I don’t get things right. For example, I’m getting down to the wire here with a body goal of mine…
For the most part, things have been going well, except sometimes I blow my calories. Somedays, I go over in fats; other days, it’s carbs, and not being “perfect” with it drives me crazy. This habit, unfortunately, has been happening a lot lately.
Usually, I am an intuitive eater, and I advocate eating this way versus dieting. With intuitive eating, I eat what I need, how much I need, and I use my intuition and normal hunger responses as my guide. This eating method is the most sustainable for me, but I needed to apply a new tracking method to keep myself dialed for this body goal.
Perfection isn’t going to get me results.
As I started to become frustrated with overeating, I remembered what I told my clients. It’s NOT YOUR FAULT! So I decided to accept my advice because beating myself up for not being “perfect” isn’t going to give me the results I want.
Good thing I specialize in behavior design, and I’m a freaking ninja when it comes to habits.
Getting to the root of the habit in 5 simple steps:
1. Identify the Problem
My problem is overeating calories.
2. Get Real, Get Specific
I noticed that I am most likely to do this whenever:
- I plate each meal individually
- Eating out at restaurants
- Whenever I snack as I make coffee first thing in the morning
- Whenever my training days aren’t as structured
3. Choose Your Focus
I picked the easiest habit to break first – snacking in the morning as I make coffee. I realized that I would mindlessly eat nut butter first thing as I waited for my coffee to brew. It’s like the spoon just magically ended up in my mouth as I would make coffee every morning, ha!
4. Interrupt the Pattern
To break this habit, I needed to remove the prompt – in this case, all I needed to do is to remove the almond butter from sight (I usually keep it right next to the other pantry goods like coffee). Removing prompts seems too simple, yet it’s highly effective.
5. Install a New Habit
I decided to install a new habit of journaling instead of hanging out next to the coffee pot waiting for my coffee to brew. My new habit formula, “after I press start on the coffee machine, I will go to the couch and journal.” Clear, concise, straightforward, do-able, and gets me away from the scene of the crime.
Did it work? YES
Did I eat too many calories? NO
Is that a win? F*CK YES!
Progress Over Perfection
You may be thinking that I am a total nerd, and that’s okay! This story’s point is not to explain my weird obsession with nut butter, but to demonstrate that being an a**hole to yourself when you don’t get things RIGHT isn’t the solution to your problems.
You see, our habits have a system to them, and when you can unlock this system and untangle these habits strategically, you can get yourself to do, or stop doing, anything you want, like eating nut butter!
Don’t Let Perfection Be The Enemy To Your Progress
By relying on willpower, motivation, guilt, shame, and the other low vibe BS we like to put on ourselves through, nothing ever gets accomplished in the way we intend. The cycle here will continually perpetuate until we intervene or, worse, give up.
Habit change is the real one on one work I do with my nutrition clients!
To learn about how you can change your habits, please get on my waitlist for March by clicking on this link right here.
Krista Living Large