Last week, I told you a story about a conversation with a Neurosurgeon. This week, we have some more lessons from the hospital which directly apply to your health and fitness journey...
I was lucky enough to be on placement this week with a Consultant Gastro/Hepatologist who has probably been in the field for at least twice as long as I have been alive. He was discussing one of his gripes, which is the omission of a lipid panel from the blood tests completed on hospital admission. His issue with this was that, although patients are not fasted at that point and thus the test would not give the most reliable results, it is
still better than nothing and allows him to have some idea of where the patient is at.
You see, when we seek the perfect or optimal way of doing things, there are often additional barriers to implementation. In this case, it meant that patients often never actually had a lipid panel reported. In your case, it might mean that your training or nutrition often leaves a lot to be desired.
It is easy to see how this applies in nutrition. It often goes something like this...
- You intend to start a new diet plan. This diet plan focuses on having the perfect meals at the perfect times with the perfect balance of nutrients.
- Real life slaps you in the face. Something comes up, you didn't have time to cook, you ran out of ingredients, etc.
- You decide that if you can't adhere to the plan, you may as well just hit the "fuck it" button for today and get back on it tomorrow.
This may not sound like a big deal, and it's not... in the short term. But, over many weeks, months, and years, such an approach to nutrition can leave you feeling sick and tired of even trying. And, you know what's worse? People often try to remedy this by being more restrictive. For example, someone might say "I can never adhere to these meal plans, it must be my cravings, so I'm going to try
keto".
Similarly, this also creeps into training...
- You intend to start a new training plan. This training plan focuses on specific exercises, set numbers, rep ranges, and even progression rates (e.g. +5kg per week).
- Real life slaps you in the face. The equipment isn't available at the gym, you only have an hour, you miss a day, etc.
- You decide that if you can't adhere to the plan, you may as well just hit the "fuck it" button and start again next week, so you just mess around in the gym that week
It's the same story. And, the thing is, we all know this. We all know that it's probably better to be "good" consistently than "perfect" every now and then. But, what can you actually do?
Well, there is a lot you can do in terms of specifics. From a nutrition perspective, you may want to give yourself more freedom with meal timing, food selection, and instead of focusing on tracking every last detail, maybe just aim for a range of protein and calories and allow the rest to fall into place. With training, rather than prescribing every second of the session, maybe allow yourself to auto-regulate the load used by seeing how you
feel that day (e.g. RPE), or recognise that you can interchange exercises if you need to. And, whether it's training or nutrition, recognise what you can actually commit to: don't just aim for 6 meals per day and 2 hours of training if you genuinely know this does not suit your schedule.
But, specifics aside, a lot of this comes back to your mindset. The attraction of the perfect plan is understandable. I've been there. But, why set yourself up to feel like you are a failure for missing a meal? You know why? We all like the feeling that we are following what is "optimal", that we wouldn't settle for less. This is especially true of trainers. You don't want to be seen adhering to a plan that is not optimal, and it's
actually easier to tell someone that "today is just an off day" than it is to say "I eat some cookies most days" or "I know this exercise mightn't be optimal, but I like it". I understand that mindset, but eventually, you will come to realise that perfection is indeed the enemy of the good.
