Willpower < Systems
One of the fastest ways to tell a good coach from a bad coach is their language. If you have ever heard the following phrase, you need to find a different coach NOW. “The reason you aren’t seeing results is because you don’t have any willpower.” Willpower is a terrible way to gauge someone’s ability to follow and stick to a plan. The reason that someone fails to follow the plan is usually NOT because they don’t have willpower (which they probably do in most aspects of their life), but the systems and environment aren’t set up for them to succeed.
Willpower fails when you are hungry at the end of the day. Willpower fails when you are frustrated from work, or kids, or lack of sleep. Willpower fails when your spouse wants to go to a fancy dinner. Willpower fails when you skip eating your meals because you got too busy at work and you pass by several fast food places on the way home. Most of all willpower fails when the task is too hard for the individual.
Instead of using willpower, my recommendation is to set up your environment and develop systems that make it almost impossible to fail. In order to do this, much more thought and effort is required than simply sticking to a nutrient prescription. The nutrient prescription is the “what”, and the systems and environment is the “how”. When choosing to stick to a nutrition plan, the very next question that needs to be answered is “how am I going to stick to this plan?” Willpower isn’t the answer because it doesn't account for the emotional component of foods nor the way you can get it done if everything else fails.
Examples of systems and environment are: planning your meals ahead of time, grocery shopping for your meals on Saturdays, meal prepping on Sundays, sticking to your grocery list when you are grocery shopping, setting your meals to take with you in the front part of the refrigerator and leaving your lunch box out and visible so you remember to pack it with the meals you made. Sticking to a schedule is a system, and setting your meals and lunchbox up is an example of “environment”. There are books and workshops dedicated to each one of those systems and how to set up your environment. Everything from how and what to plan for your meals, to how to set up your environment to make it next to impossible to fail you has been covered. However, the only thing that really matters is; find something that works for you consistently at least 80% of the time. For the best, most consistent results, it helps to have both of those things working together. If you don’t have systems and environment working for you, find someone that does and ask for ideas, or find a coach that can help you set up your systems and environment with you.
Systems: Meal planning on Fridays after work
Grocery shopping after lunch on Saturdays
Meal prepping on Sundays after lunch
Eating your meals at predefined times
Setting an alarm for each meal time
Environment: Keeping treat foods out of the house
Packing your meals in a lunchbox and taking it to work
Choosing healthier restaurants and locations for meetings
Surrounding yourself with people that support your goals
Shanti Wolfe | Director of Nutrition
