My #1 Tip for Success

The more clients I work with, the more my eyes are opened to the common thread of beautiful humans eager to take their first step on a new health journey, and immediately feeling overwhelmed at the sheer breadth of information and recommendations they are given. To many people, this new lifestyle seems intimidatingly foreign – something they could never begin to understand, let alone adopt in their own lives.

So, to simplify things, here is my #1 Tip to bring you that much closer to achieving your goals:

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

This is the trap I see the most people fall into, particularly women who’ve been caught in the diet cycle or disordered eating behaviors for most of their lives. It was one of the biggest challenges I had to personally overcome in my own health journey, and the most common reason many people have so much trouble achieving a healthy weight.

Meal plans represent the ideal day – a day which, in reality, almost never happens. Life happens. Curve balls happen. More often than not, we need to get creative and improvise when it comes to how we eat and exercise. Maybe we get invited out to Happy Hour with friends and miss our workout, or we get stuck at work and don’t have time to make dinner. That’s okay. It’s healthy to be social and to have other goals and balance in our lives. The important thing is that we make the best decisions we can in any given situation. And if we don’t, to leave it behind us with no guilt or regrets, and with gratitude for the fun we were able to have.

These circumstances are many things – opportunities, experience, gifts, challenges, memories… What they are not, however, is a reason to throw all of your progress out the window. Just because your coworker surprises you with a whipped-cream-smothered frappuccino in the morning doesn’t mean you might as well eat whatever you want for the remainder of the day, “and start fresh tomorrow”. The reality is the damage that could be done by binging out for the rest of the day far outweighs the miniscule dent made by that frozen coffee treat (which, although not ideal, would probably make no real difference at all, in the grand scheme of things).

There is no bigger enemy to progress than an all-or-nothing mindset. You would not empty your entire bank account just because you spent $10 more dollars than you meant to, would you?

We all want the perfect, nutritionist-designed, Tupperware-meal-prepped day. But we probably won’t get it. Life isn’t perfect. And neither are we. Life is not all-or-nothing, black-or-white, triumph-or-disaster. True, lasting progress happens in the middle, when we are just doing our best, learning to surf the waves rather than being drowned by them.

Here are a few Emergency Hacks to help get you through those shades of grey:

• If you don’t have time to meal-prep elaborate Buddha Bowls or bake homemade protein muffins, just grab a bunch of raw, prep-free foods to snack on throughout the day. Whole cucumber, carrots, apples, avocado, watermelon, and nuts are some of my favourites. They take zero time to prepare and will bring you way closer to your goals than that lunchroom donut will.
• Rather than going through a drive-through or hitting up a food court, make a pit stop at the nearest grocery store and pick up a pre-made salad, protein bar, smoothie, sushi or veggie tray.
• If you must eat out, know that it’s possible to make healthy decisions just about anywhere you go. Some great options are: a 6-inch Veggie Sub from Subway, Egg-White Breakfast Sandwich or Protein Bowl from Starbucks, most smoothies or fresh-pressed juices from a smoothie bar so long as they don’t contain too much sugar, and veggie sushi, so long as you avoid tempura and mayonnaise-based sauces.