At my office, which if you weren’t aware, is within my friend’s gym, I have a white board that is titled “The Feel Good Nutrition Nugget”. I change it 2-3 times per week and typically have something on there in regards to nutrition such as a fun fact or how to manage nutrition around a workout. Occasionally I’ll have a motivational quote or saying. And when I’m feeling like there has been a lack of energy in the gym lately, I’ll simply post “Bacon… you’re welcome”.

Well recently my message was “There is no miracle food. There is no magic pill. The secret lies in one word… Consistency.” And just to emphasize how important I thought that was to one’s health/weight/fitness success, I added, “great, now I’m out of a job”. Because that’s really it. You may do great on a higher carbohydrate diet and long, slow distance running while someone else may prefer a lower carbohydrate, higher protein and fat diet and prefer mostly high intensity interval training. Without getting too deep into it, they can both work just fine… if done consistently over a long period of time. And therein lies the problem.

There’s always some ass bag out there telling us that one way is better than another. Two weeks later, up pops Dr. Douche saying that his miracle way of doing things is best. What’s the public to believe? They try to keep up with it, but get confused, assume it’s their fault, and give up. That’s yo-yo dieting at its core. And it drives me crazy.

Consistency, my friends, is key. It’s your choice. You can:

1. Consistently eat properly, exercise, get adequate sleep, and keep stress either at bay or channel it properly

Or…

2. Consistently eat like shit, skip workouts and sleep, and let your job make you pull your hair out.

Or…

3. I’ll even take it a step further. You can also inconsistently eat properly, exercise, get adequate sleep, and deal with stress and see mediocre results.

In my experience, I think most of the people I see fall into the third category. The problem is that they expect to get these amazing bodies while only doing things properly maybe 66% of the time. So right about now, you might be thinking to yourself, “where the hell did he get 66% from?” Again, in my experience, most folks do relatively well throughout the week. And then there’s the weekends. Many times its a free-for-all. This is evidenced by the hoards of people lining up for treadmills and bench press machines every Monday. You typically don’t have that problem on Fridays do you?

Well anywho, I decided to run some numbers. I figured that most people mentally check out around noon on Friday. So if you count from noon on Friday until Monday morning, that’s 33% of your week. Therefore, you might do well for 66% of the time. And just as a reminder, in school that’s a D+. Do you think a D+ diet and exercise regimen is really going to get you the body of Jennifer Aniston or Ryan Gosling? I say that not to be a jerk, but to just give it to you straight. This is why I ask my clients “Do you want six pack abs?” Of course their answer is “Yes”. I then reply with, “No, you don’t”. I explain what it takes to get there and by the end of that, most don’t want them anymore.

So in closing, I understand that people are busy and that makes it hard to be consistently consistent with their health and fitness habits. But if that’s the case, then we probably need to change our perception of what we should look and feel like. To get Brad Pitt’s abs from Fight Club you need to first be born to Brad Pitt’s parents. Then you need to train like a guy who gets paid to train. Get my drift? Be happy with whatcha got, but don’t stop striving to be a bit better every day. Strive to be consistently consistent.

Peace