Diets Suck – Here’s What to Do Instead

Diets Suck – Here’s What to Do Instead

Do you feel like diets keep failing you over and over again?

Do you hate even the thought of the word “diet?”

Have you tried following macro plans, following meal plans, cutting out certain food groups and everything in between?

You’re not alone. I’ve been there.

I used to jump from diet plan to diet plan and workout to workout thinking the next one would help me.

I was wrong.

They all got me the same results – almost nothing.

I read blogs, I bought e-books and followed the advice of bodybuilders, coaches and transformation specialists.

Still, I got nothing.

It wasn’t until I implemented the following principles that things actually started to change.

And if you implement them, you can see change as well.

The No. 1 principle has nothing to do with food.

You are the product of the people and places with whom and where you spend the most time.

Are you hanging around people who are motivated with their health and fitness?

Think about the people with whom you’ve spent time the past two weeks. It could be friends, family or co-workers.

Are these people bringing you closer to your goals?

Be brutally honest with yourself. Don’t just say “Oh, my environment is fine and my family and friends are great.” If you’re not getting results with your nutrition, your environment isn’t perfect. Something needs to be improved.

I’m still working on improving my environment every day.

Environment extends to what you feed your brain.

Are you watching negative news or are you reading posts/blogs about people who are lazy and not successful?

Are you reading posts from people who are talking about how they’re broke, overweight, hate their jobs or are out drinking every Friday and Saturday evening?

Wait, what does this have to do with nutrition?!?

The people you spend time with, the content you consume and the places you hang out affect how you think.

How you think affects how you execute a plan.

If your environment includes lots of unmotivated individuals, you’re not going to feel like scheduling time for meal prep and grocery shopping and aren’t going to have the willpower to say “No” to peer pressure involving eating or drinking things that aren’t serving you.

Environment is everything.

Change your environment. Change your nutrition. Get the results you want. Change your life.

ACTION STEP – Write down the five people you spend the most time with and the five social media accounts/blogs you spend the most time following. Are these people or things serving your goals?

I used to wonder why the various diet plans I followed didn’t work.

I felt like I had a lot of stuff going on and couldn’t seem to fit in everything I needed to do like prepping the meals ahead of time, grocery shopping and planning my meals.

Then, I realized I was spending tons of time doing things that weren’t serving me.

I was spending far too much time cleaning my kitchen, watching sports, watching TV, scrolling the internet and everything in between.

How are you spending your time during the day?

What are you doing right now that isn’t moving you forward with your health and fitness?

Are you spending too much time cleaning, watching TV or Netflix, scrolling social media, planning and preparing instead of taking action or playing fantasy sports leagues?

Now, it’s not to say you can’t do any of these things, but if you’re doing too many of them, you’re not devoting enough time to your health.

Remember, every time you say “Yes” to one thing, you’re saying “No” to something else.

What are your biggest priorities in your life? If your own health is one of them, you need to remove things in your life that aren’t serving that goal.

I’ve gone as far as to doing the dishes every 2-3 days because I used to spend far too much time cleaning and tidying the kitchen. Sure, the kitchen gets a bit messy at times, but I’m saving myself so much more time I can dedicate to other things.

ACTION STEP – Track everything you do in a day on a piece of paper for the next 3 days. While a week is preferable – 3 days is an easier way to start. Now, you’ll know everything you do in a day. And be completely honest with yourself. If you spend 15 minutes scrolling Facebook without even realizing it, write it down. Then, evaluate everything you’ve done at the end of the 3 days and determine what you can eliminate/minimize.

I know what you’re thinking – when are you going to tell me what to actually eat?!?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

What works for one person doesn’t always work for another person.

Two people can follow the exact same dietary protocol or workout program, and they can get completely different results.

I can also give you a formula to calculate your calories and macros (protein, carbs and fats) for your specific age, gender, height and weight. And it will probably only be accurate for 50% of the people who run the calculation.

Trust me, I followed various formulas that got me virtually nowhere.

That’s because formulas don’t take into account lifestyle factors like metabolic adaptation, stress levels, energy levels and a host of other things.

You’re a human being. And human beings aren’t robots.

We have emotions around food. We have other things going on in our lives not related to health and fitness.

We need something that works for us as individuals.

(As an aside, that’s one of the major reasons I’m so passionate about my LIFESTYLE COACHING PROGRAM because we cover all those things.)

Besides, it’s about the execution of the program and having the mindset you’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.

And it’s about doing it for a long period of time.

That’s why you need to pick an approach that’s sustainable for you and your lifestyle.

ACTION STEP – Take one action step today. Start tracking your food in MyFitnessPal. Aim for 40 grams of protein per meal over three meals in a day. Don’t wait. Start right away. Imperfect action is better than no action at all.