How to Stay Consistent with a Nutrition Plan

This is part 4 of a 4-part nutrition coaching series to teach you how to eat healthy and achieve your goals.

By the end of this article, you’ll have strategies to stay consistent and overcome obstacles, and you’ll know how to track progress to achieve your fitness goals.

Set Nutrition Priorities & Problem Solve

One of the most common mistakes that people make with nutrition is focusing too much on unimportant things like removing carbs and not enough on the big blocks of nutrition.

The problem for most people is not what they’re eating, but what they’re NOT eating. If you’re just starting out, focus on adding just one healthy thing at a time. Eat your protein goal per day and track this for one week. Once you’re able to do that, add in healthy fats or and do that for one week, and so on.

Focus on adding good foods into your diet before you try to remove less healthy options.

If your goal is to build muscle, your priority is protein and carbohydrates. If your goal is to lose fat, your priority is protein and fiber. Realize this is a long game, and don’t try to move too quickly.

Tips for Success

Start with Breakfast

People who have the most success changing their bodies do so because they’re able to stay consistent. The body loves routine and it adjusts to our routine. Eating breakfast at the same time and with the same foods saves you time and effort and allows you to get better results.

Red - Yellow - Green Foods

“Red” foods are unhealthy and don’t add much to your life. “You’re not hungry, you’re bored!” is how to identify “red” foods. An example would be eating chips while watching television. It doesn’t really add much to your life and it’s not good for you.

“Yellow” foods are less healthy, but they serve other purposes or provide values outside of just nutrition. An example is eating grandma’s cooking even if it’s not the healthiest, or eating pizza with friends because it’s a fun thing to do. These foods provide value in a social or mental health aspect. They should be moderated, but we still want to keep them.

“Green” foods are healthy and you want to eat them as often as possible.

Protein Tips

Keep chicken or steak in the freezer so you always have protein. Frozen chicken is cheap and quick to microwave when you need it. Yogurt or cottage cheese are fast and easy options. Add milk to any meal and you instantly increase the protein content. At restaurants, ask for extra protein and it makes your meal more nutritious.

Muscle Building Quick Tips

Buy a rice cooker so you never have to worry about carbs. If you’re a “hard-gainer” eat less nutritious foods that are higher in calories. If you have a really tough workout, eating a bunch of peanut butter or any delicious foods might be necessary for you to reach your calorie needs to build muscle. Don’t be scared to eat a little less healthy in order to reach your goals. You can only eat so much rice and chicken!

Eating On-the-Go

Make a list of healthy restaurants and what to order when you don’t have time to cook. Always start building your meal by focusing on the protein. Protein heals all. Start with protein.

Staying Consistent

If you’re struggling with consistency, don’t get upset, see it as a game to be played. The 2 most common reasons for a lack of consistency are a lack of meaningful goals or unrealistic habit expectations.

Re-visit your goal-setting exercise to ensure that you really want your goal. Stack the reasons and focus on goal setting daily until you feel motivated.

Choose habits that are achievable for you. Here are three books that can help you stay consistent:

• Mini Habits

• The Power of Habit

  • Video version

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

  • Video version

    
    

Choose a really easy habit and start tracking it daily. For example, track your habit of eating a healthy breakfast. Then continue to add healthy habits until your goal is reached.

Track Progress

Tools for measuring progress include:

• Habit consistency

• Exercise performance

• Weight

• Pictures

• A waist/muscle measurement

A sustainable weight loss goal is 1% of your body weight per week, and for muscle-gain 1% of your body weight per month.

Conclusion

Those are some tips for staying consistent with your nutrition plan. The only way you fail is if you give up. If you keep working towards what you want, you are guaranteed to succeed. If you feel stuck, reach out to your coach or ask for help. This concludes the nutrition coaching series. Let me know if you have questions or if you need help with anything else related to nutrition.

Hope this helps! - Tom