Diet is an Iterative Process

Ever feel like eating these days is a lot like balancing some strawberries on a banana?

You probably wish, as I do, that ‘diet‘ was a simple matter of being told exactly what to eat, and then you just eat it, and get the results you’re looking for right?

Honestly, I wish it was as easy to say, ‘eat this, this and this, don’t eat that or that, and you’ll be thirty pounds lighter in no time!‘

Ethically though, I can’t say that because what works for you, doesn’t work me for me, won’t work for Jane Doe and definitely doesn’t do it for John Smith.

There are evil forces at play that make us all…

A) Culturally Different (Halal, is just different from Kosher.)

B) Socially Different (Certain people gather in different ways, for both food and exercise.)

C) Personal Preference (You know, not everybody likes broccoli, or some other ‘healthy‘ food, you’d be ‘crazy‘ not to eat. I’m not a big fan of Cow’s Liver, them’s the breaks.)

D) Genetically Similar, but still ‘Different’ (Maybe the human genome is 99% similar between all people, but some people can break down Lactose just fine, other’s can’t.)

E) Financially Different (Some people can easily afford personal training, food delivery, or dietician calls daily, others have to do more themselves.)

F) Value Different Things (Some people battle their need to play video games, others feel compelled to get outside, some cook, others don’t.)

Iteration

a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result

You see this in computer software all the time, version 2.1, version 5.6.3, etc…etc…

Just like computer software, you can always make it a bit better, which is what this article hints at.

Today, I’m going to give you a little insight into the secret world of nutrition coaching…

The Process

It’s not just what you eat, as you may have been led to believe, it’s about how you eat it, and why you eat it too.

Sometimes even ‘when‘ you eat it, but nutrient timing is another article…

Understanding where you’re coming from, what you value, how to make your diet, uniquely your own, is a huge component of long-term weight loss success.

These are all more important than knowing where you want to be 3 months from now.

Absorb what is useful. Disregard what is useless. Absorb what is inherently your own.

~ Bruce Lee

The process is perpetual.

Nothing drives me more insane than trying to fit round pegs in square holes and I’m sure you’ll agree.

There are thousands of dogmatic doctrine oriented nutrition practitioners out there and only a handful are good coaches.

What worked for you five years ago, probably won’t work for you today, nor will it work for you five years from now.

Diet, is a never-ending trial and error pattern.

Ever feel a stomach cramp after a meal you’ve had before with no problem?

Here the coaching secret to fix your diet:

1. Ask: ‘Why is this happening?”
2. Discover/Learn about what might have happened to hone in one the possible changes you can make.
3. Decide on what you need to change or manipulate, and ideally which one will potentially make the biggest impact to your current situation.
4. Act on that decision, or execute the plan and make sure it’s something you can do every day.
5. Ask: “Did it Work?”
6. If yes, then move onto something new as a challenge (could be non-food related even…)
7. If no, then again, ask “why didn’t that change?”
8. Repeat the problem solving cycle as many times as necessary to fix the food problem.

 See this problem solving paradigm in more detail from my personal blog here.