Understand This Concept For Better Diet Control
Takeaway: Work to build a good level of awareness around your food choices, understanding what factors influence your decisions. That skill can serve you well in navigating the tricky terrain of modern day nutrition.
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Understand This Concept For Better Diet Control
With clients, I often talk about the concept of food situations.
A food situation is a scenario where you can predict that it'll be tough to stick to your goals, or where you've already made a decision about food that was misaligned with your intended goal.
For example, a food situation could be going out to eat and ordering something you didn't plan that set you over your calories. Or it could be a surprise work event where food is catered and will challenge your normal routine.
A food situation could also be a moment when you made a conscious choice to deviate from your plan to enjoy yourself.
Not all food situations are negative.
There are three main types of food situations, and an understanding of each is important to distinguish those which are okay and those which may be holding you back.
1) Situation of pressure. (Social or otherwise.)
2) Situation of opportunity.
3) Situation of choice.
A situation of pressure could be the scenario of going out with friends and intending to order one thing, but being swayed to order something else. Maybe it's extra drinks, a different entree, or more appetizers. In these situations, some external pressure influenced you to go against your original intentions.
A situation of opportunity is more or less about having easy access to foods you didn’t intend to consume. You visit a Mexican restaurant and can’t avoid the chips at the table. You're at a friend's house for dinner and the presence of the cookies on the table pushes you to grab a few. Or you find that you can’t avoid the candy jar at the office.
A situation of choice is one where you make the conscious decision to deviate from your plan. Usually, this involves choosing ahead of time—before environmental factors might influence you—but it can also be a last-minute decision. The key here is that your decision was consciously made with some amount of consideration, and not solely a result of outside influence.
Situations of choice are completely acceptable. You’re never wrong if you make a conscious choice that involves weighing the pros and cons, and are deciding to live with the consequences of your actions.
I remind my clients of this all the time. If they have a day of eating that doesn’t align with their goals, and they tell me it was a conscious choice that they made, I can never be disappointed by that.
It’s the situations of pressure and opportunity that you want to be vigilant with. These are unplanned and usually don’t involve purposeful intent. These situations can lead to guilt, unwanted habitual behaviors, and have a far more negative impact on reaching your goals.
Work to build a good level of awareness around your food choices, understanding what factors influence your decisions. That skill can serve you well in navigating the tricky terrain of modern day nutrition. Strive for less food situations of pressure and opportunity. Ensure the situations of choice are saved for special occasions and that you truly weigh the trade-offs.
These insights can help you be more successful with managing your diet.
~ Coach Alex