Think in Weeks, Not Days

Think in Weeks, Not Days

If you had one bad game in whichever sport you played growing up, you didn't get kicked off the team.

If you have one bad day at work, you're not gonna get fired (unless it's really bad).

The same concept applies to your weight. You don't gain fat from one bad day of eating. It happens over time after an accumulation of bad choices over the course of multiple days, weeks, months, and years.

So if you have a bad day of eating, don't worry about it.

Put it behind you immediately, get right back on track, and make up for it tomorrow.

The key is not letting it snowball. Thinking that just because you had a big Friday night you may as well throw in the towel for the entire weekend. That attitude is how you get into trouble.

There are lots of people who believe their diet is on point because they have a good routine Monday - Thursday, but then eat and drink like an idiot all weekend.

Sorry, that is not gonna cut it. Treat your Sunday like a Monday and watch your gainz skyrocket.

When working with my clients I provide feedback on a weekly basis. I evaluate:

- Food tracking: weekly average for protein / calorie targets - Weekly weight trend - Whether all workouts for the week were completed - Average daily step count for the week - Weekly Check in Form

I'll emphasize further the importance of not letting daily fluctuations in your weight sway you. Your bodyweight fluctuates over the course of the day by as much as 4 pounds for reasons that have nothing to do with gaining / losing body fat. Things like water retention, sodium consumption, digestion and bowel movements all drive movement in the scale.

You may have had a perfect day where you nailed your nutrition targets, got a great pump in, walked over 10k steps, etc. but happened to eat food with high sodium content that left some water weight retention and therefore caused the scale to go up by a pound or two the day after.

And alternatively, there will be days where you know you could've been more dialed in but the scale still goes down the day after. That's just how it goes.

But that's also why it's important to weigh yourself every day during a fat loss phase. If you only weigh yourself weekly, and you happen to clock in at one of those times when other factors are driving the scale up, you may get discouraged even though you shouldn't.

Start thinking in weeks, not days. Then start stacking weeks. And then watch the fat melt. And the muscle (slowly) build.

Stay well this week, Hal the Health Coach