I’m not writing this email in my usual fashion. Mondays are typically my work-from-home days and I’m really focused, ready to get a ton of work done for the week.
Today instead I’m writing you this email from the Charlotte NC airport. I was at a seminar this weekend and was scheduled to fly back last night. There were some crazy winds in NC and the delay would have caused me to miss my connection. So instead I booked a room and just rolled with the punches.
I’m going to write an email next week on why I think things like this reveal the character of a person, but that’s for another story entirely…
Today I wanted to tell you how I screwed up.
I’m all for eating healthy, obviously.
Do we all need a little guidance though? For sure. I think every coach should have a coach.
That’s why I’m personally going through our 90 day nutrition coaching program at the gym. (It’s completely sold out until August just from one seminar, we’ll be taking more applications this summer).
Does that mean that every day is perfect?
Hell no.
The other day I was stressed. I’m very much an internal person when it comes to stress. I literally feel it in my gut and I used to get severe stomach pains because I let stress build up.
I’m much better with that now.
But just like pretty much everyone that I know, I sometimes get the “I want to eat my feelings” day.
Last Wednesday I was stressed out and honestly I can’t even remember why.
I ate really well, totally on point with my macros and hit all of my calories.
Then the shoe dropped.
I got a huge wave of stress that evening and as I was in the cabinet getting my protein powder out for my shake the next day, I noticed a bag of chocolate chips.
Pretty innocent right?
I mean, who really likes chocolate chips?
Okay, fine, I do.
I’m not sure why they were even in there but they sure were calling for me.
I didn’t really think about it, I just grabbed them and before I knew it I had about 3 handfuls gone.
So was my “perfect” eating day.
Is the point of this email to tell you that I was so pissed that I ruined my perfect eating day and I let the stress get to me and I didn’t just walk away or do some “coping” mechanism that I should know better?
No.
I want you to know that I’m human. I don’t talk about myself very much, that actually makes me very uncomfortable.
But I want you to know that I did NOT agonize over it.
I figured out WHY I did it.
I was stressed out and I should have taken a few minutes to work through that, instead of be impulsive with food and think that would make it better.
Is 3 handfuls of chocolate chips the worst thing ever?
No.
But does it align with my goals?
No.
The other moral of the story is that when you mess up, just get back on course the next day.
This isn’t license to just eat whatever because you don’t have to feel guilty the next day.
The goal is to understand you are human, you will have slip ups but beating yourself up is even worse sometimes.
Feeling guilty about food only leads to more discomfort around the whole subject.
Figure out why it happened.
Drink lots of fluids the next day and use the good, healthy food to nourish your body and fuel your training sessions.
If it’s happening over and over, then you need to address the real issue at hand.
I’ll admit, I was kinda pissed that I did it at first, but I got over it and realized that being hard on myself is NOT going to solve anything.
Use this gauge with yourself. If you slip up once, figure out why and move on.
Don’t feel guilty or agonize.
If you slip up time after time, you’ll want to look a little deeper at why the food is the trigger or the soothing thing.
Have an awesome week and I’ll be back with some videos and recaps of my trip later this week.
Callie