The Real Powerhouse in Nutrition is Consistency

Ever jumped on the latest diet trend, hoping it would be your golden ticket to all your weight loss and nutrition goals?

A week later, you’re back to square one, cursing the diet gods for forsaking you. Sound familiar? Here is the truth: you are not broken, there is nothing wrong with you and you did not fail. BUT there could be a few reasons why it is so hard to stick to some of your nutrition goals. The most obvious one - a lack of consistency!

Like any skill you want to master - you must do it over and over and over again. Why would nutrition be any different? It is the choices that you make over and over again that really solidify healthy sustainable habits.

Consistency: The Tortoise Beats the Hare.

In Aesop's fable, the tortoise wins the race not because he's faster but because he's consistent. When it comes to nutrition, being the tortoise is the goal. Yo-yo dieting is the hare—speedy and flashy but ultimately unreliable.

Here's the deal: your body loves routines. Imagine your metabolism as a well-oiled machine. The more consistently you feed it, the better it performs. It is also important to remember that your health goals won't be reached overnight. Sorry to break it to you, but those "lose 10 pounds in a week" claims are not authentic at best and dangerous at worst. Consistency helps you build sustainable habits and confidence and also have a cascading positive effect on other aspects of your life.

Better nutrition leads to more energy. More energy leads to better workouts. Better workouts lead to better mental health. So on and so on.

How to Keep it Consistent

There are lots of strategies to help with staying consistent but if I could give you two strategies that I, as a registered dietitian, find are the biggest contributing factor in creating consistency it would be this:

1. Focus on small goals. Why?

Builds Confidence: Achieving a small goal gives you a boost of self-confidence, which makes you more likely to stick with your plan.

Creates Momentum: Think of it like a snowball rolling down a hill. The more small goals you hit, the bigger your snowball of success becomes.

Easier to Track: Keeping tabs on small milestones is far less overwhelming than focusing on a huge end goal. It allows for quicker adjustments if things aren’t going as planned.

Habit Formation: Small goals often translate into daily habits. And daily habits, are the ticket for long term success.

2. Find Your Tribe: Why?

Surrounding yourself with people who share your health goals will keep you accountable especially when you don’t want to make them. Joining a community of like minded individuals striving for the same thing provides accountability which leads to consistency.

The Bottom Line

Being consistent in your nutritional choices is like making consistent contributions to your retirement fund. It might not show immediate, dazzling results, but the long-term gains are golden.

Chat soon,

Dee

MSc, RDN, PN1