Another 80/20?

Quick Quiz. What is the best diet?

As we have looked at before, the world’s best diet is the healthy diet you WANT to follow for a sustained period of time.

But what if that diet isn’t perfect. What if it’s far from perfect? Can you still get results?

I think you can.

Now a disclaimer. This post is not for the health professional. This is not for the elite athlete or the person looking to get super lean. This is for the everyday Joe who wants to make healthier choices and lose some weight.

Today I want to play with some numbers.

Let’s pretend that right now exactly zero of the meals you eat are healthy meals.

This puts you on the left end of our continuum...0%.

Now instead of jumping to 100% of meals being healthy (unrealistic for almost everyone), let’s just change breakfast.

Let’s say breakfast is an easy meal for you to control. So you decide to have a veggie and fruit-packed smoothie each morning with some steel-cut oats and an egg.

Congratulations. You have just added 7 healthy meals to your week.

0/21 meals = 0% healthy

7/21 meals = 33% healthy

Now, after giving yourself some time to adjust, what if you packed your lunch with a healthy salad each day. A salad loaded with lean protein, healthy fat, and of course a ton of veggies.

0/21 meals = 0% healthy

7/21 meals = 33% healthy

14/21 meals = 67% healthy

D’s get degrees? In the nutrition world, I would argue that eating 67% healthy meals is better than a D. It is a pretty good start.

Now what if after some time, we threw in 3 healthy dinners a week. Recalculating…

0/21 meals = 0% healthy

7/21 meals = 33% healthy

14/21 meals = 67% healthy

17/21 meals= 81% healthy

Look at that. We are at 80%.

Now could we see results just doing breakfast?

If we went from 0 to 33%...yes.

What about breakfast and lunch?

Again, if we’re moving along the continuum...yes.

What about 67% or 81%? Now we’re talking.

This 80%-90% is a pretty good place to be.

For many people, trying to be too perfectionistic will likely backfire. But that’s a conversation for a different day.

My point today is this. Don’t let perfectionism keep you from starting.

Start somewhere. Start small. And build. And build...And build...one-minute at a time.