So many of us have been told to “just be consistent” to reach our health goals… and I hate it.
This kind of advice is vague, unrealistic, and can lead to an all or nothing mindset.
If you’ve ever felt like missing a workout or slipping up on your diet means you’ve failed, you’re not alone. That’s the all or nothing mindset creeping in—and it’s a trap many of us fall into.
In my latest episode of the Macros Made Easy podcast, I tackle this all or nothing mindset, and share how we can shift our focus to something more flexible, sustainable, and, quite frankly, more fun.
Let’s break down the pressure of chasing perfection and explore how to create healthy habits that truly work for your life.
the problem with an all or nothing mindset
Let’s talk about Sarah. She’s one of my clients, and her story might sound familiar.
Sarah had a goal to work out five days a week and high hopes of sticking to a diet. But then life happened—kids got sick, work deadlines piled up, and suddenly, she missed a workout (or two) and turned to takeout instead of cooking at home.
For Sarah, this felt like total failure. She was caught in the all or nothing mindset, where one missed day meant the entire week was a waste.
Sound familiar? Here’s the truth: life isn’t perfect, and neither are we. What matters isn’t perfection—it’s patterns.
focus on frequency over consistency
Here’s the game-changer: your body doesn’t need you to be perfect every single day. It thrives on patterns and frequency over time. Instead of aiming to be flawless every week, focus on how often you engage in actions that create healthy habits.
When Sarah shifted away from an all or nothing mindset, she realized that when she missed a workout, it didn’t derail her progress. She started tracking her weekly efforts, celebrating small wins, and focusing on her long-term goals instead of obsessing over daily perfection.
how to create healthy habits without stress
Building habits that stick doesn’t have to feel like an uphill battle. The secret is to start small, stay consistent, and adjust as life changes.
Here are my favorite tips to get you started:
- Start with micro-goals – Small wins build momentum. Add one veggie to your dinner or walk for 10 minutes after lunch.
- Track progress visually – Mark a calendar or use an app to celebrate every effort, even if it’s tiny.
- Adjust as needed – Sticking to a diet or workout plan doesn’t mean rigidly following it forever. Life changes, and your goals can evolve too!
To dive deep into the four non-negotiable habits I tell all of my clients to engage in during coaching, check out this episode!
real-life example of ditching an all or nothing mindset: emily’s postpartum journey
Another client, Emily (yes, another Emily!), found herself in a similar boat after becoming a mom. She used to crush her workouts five days a week and track her meals religiously. But postpartum life was a whole new challenge.
Instead of feeling guilty for not meeting her old standards when she missed a workout or wasn’t sticking to a diet perfectly, she shifted her focus to what was possible.
She prioritized eating at regular intervals, doing shorter workouts, and focusing on protein intake. By embracing flexibility, she was able to make progress without the stress of having an all or nothing mindset.
sticking to a diet without an all or nothing mindset
If you’ve ever abandoned a diet because of one “off” day, this is for you. Sticking to a diet doesn’t mean being perfect, it means learning how to create healthy habits that work for you and focusing on the frequency of those habits over time.
It’s okay if you enjoy a slice of pizza or missed a workout—what matters is getting back on track without guilt.
create healthy habits by embracing patterns, priorities, and frequency
When you let go of the all or nothing mindset, you open yourself up to a world of possibilities. Focus on frequency, celebrate progress, and adjust your habits to fit your life. This isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress.
Ask yourself:
- What’s one small habit I can do most days this week?
- How can I focus on long-term patterns instead of daily perfection?
Let’s ditch the guilt and create healthy habits—one small step at a time.
ready to take the next step?
If you found this helpful, tune in to the full episode of Macros Made Easy where I dive even deeper into these concepts. Let’s make your health journey sustainable, enjoyable, and totally guilt-free.
Listen now, and let’s ditch the all or nothing mindset once and for all.
Emily Field 00:00:00 Consistency. It’s the buzzword everyone swears by when it comes to getting results. But what if I told you it’s one of my least favorite words in the health and nutrition space? Welcome to episode 42 of the Macros Made Easy podcast, where today we’re diving into why I can’t stand the word consistency and what you should focus on instead. For years, I’ve seen clients completely defeated by the idea of consistency. One client in particular stands out. She’d miss a couple of workouts during a busy week, or have a less than perfect weekend with food, and immediately she’d spiral into guilt. Convinced she was failing, she was so focused on being, quote, consistent that she couldn’t see the progress she was actually making. And the truth is, she’s not alone. This is a very common complaint with potential clients or for clients who are early in their coaching journey. The way that we talk about consistency is setting people up for unnecessary stress, confusion, and even burnout. So in today’s episode, we’re flipping the script on consistency.
Emily Field 00:00:57 You’ll learn why this word is overrated, how it can actually create mental blocks and what you should focus on instead. I’ll introduce you to a more new empowering framework built around patterns, priorities and frequency concepts that are easier to understand, more actionable and better aligned with real life. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a fresh perspective and practical tips to help you build sustainable habits without the pressure of perfection. So let’s dive in. Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I’m your host, Emily Field, a registered dietitian that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals. We’ll cover the basics of macronutrients how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I’ve helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you’ve tried macros and it just didn’t stick or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can’t wait to help you too.
Emily Field 00:02:00 The word consistency is a staple in the health and nutrition space, but it’s a term that often does more harm than good. It’s pretty vague, it’s overused, and it lacks a clear definition, leaving people to interpret it in ways that can feel unattainable or overly rigid. For many, consistency becomes synonymous with perfection. Doing everything right all the time with no room for error. This interpretation sets people up for failure, as life rarely is predictable or perfect. When somebody inevitably misses a workout, veers off their meal plan, or has an off day, the guilt and shame that follow can be overwhelming. This emotional weight often leads to paralysis, where people feel like they can’t do something perfectly. It’s just not worth doing at all. The real issue with focusing on consistency is that it doesn’t provide a clear framework for success. What does it actually mean to be consistent and how consistent is enough? The answers to these questions vary widely, making it a poor universal goal. People do not need a one size fits all buzzword.
Emily Field 00:03:00 They need actionable, practical concepts that they can apply to their daily lives. This is where focusing on patterns, priorities, and frequency becomes far more effective. These concepts provide clarity and direction, emphasizing sustainable habits, focusing on what truly moves the needle, and measuring success by what you do most often, not by what you can do perfectly. So by shifting the focus from perfection to progress, people can build a healthier, more resilient approach to achieving their goals. Let me tell you about Sarah. This is a great example of where that consistency framework really crumbles. Okay. When Sarah came to me, she felt like she was constantly failing. She had this goal to eat healthy and work out five days a week, and when she stuck to it, she felt great. She felt like she was on top of everything. She felt like she was on top of the world. But then inevitably, life would happen. Her kids would get sick, her workload would skyrocket, or a weekend trip would throw her completely off.
Emily Field 00:03:56 She’d miss a couple workouts. Grab takeout instead of cooking at home. And suddenly it was like everything came crashing down. She told me, I feel like if I can’t stick to the plan perfectly, what’s the point? I’ll just start over next week. And so maybe you can relate to that. That whole starting over on Monday. Starting over with a clean slate. Sarah was stuck in this cycle where consistency equaled perfection, and if she couldn’t check every box, she’d spiral into guilt and frustration. She felt like she was failing herself, and that heavy feeling would make it even harder to get back on track. But here’s the thing Sarah wasn’t failing. The problem was how she defines success. So we changed the conversation. Instead of focusing on being perfect every single day. Really checking every single box she had in her mind. We talked about her patterns, the habits she could realistically stick to most of the time, like aiming to include protein at her meals or squeezing in two workouts a week. When things got hectic, we narrowed down her priorities things like hitting her your calorie and protein goals mattered way more than stressing over every single macro.
Emily Field 00:05:00 And we talked about frequency, looking at what she was doing over the course of a week or a month, instead of zeroing in on one quote, bad day. So once Sarah started thinking about her progress this way, everything shifted. She no longer felt the pressure to be perfect. Instead, she could see her progress in the bigger picture. She even started celebrating small wins, like realizing she got three workouts in that week instead of zero. When in the past, if she had missed two, she would just skip the whole week. That paralysis in her perfection really, really held her back. And over time, those small wins added up to big results. What often gets overlooked in the conversation about consistency is the momentum that comes from simply following through on a habit, even a small one. It’s not just about checking the box, it’s about the ripple effect of one small win. That one small win can have a huge impact on your mindset, your confidence and your willingness to take another step.
Emily Field 00:05:57 So following through, even on a small goal, reinforces a sense of self-efficacy, the belief that you can do what you set out to do. And when you feel capable, you’re more likely to tackle bigger goals, creating a positive feedback loop of success. So let’s go back to Sarah. Once she shifted her mindset from perfection to progress, we focused on one simple habit getting her protein in at breakfast. That’s it. Nothing overwhelming, just one small, manageable goal she could focus on each morning. At first it didn’t feel like much, just adding some egg whites to her scrambled eggs or Greek yogurt or a protein shake to her routine. But something amazing happened as that became a little bit more background noise for her, it became easy for her. Every time Sarah followed through on that small goal, she felt a little bit more confident in herself. That one habit started a snowball. She noticed that when she started her day with a balanced meal, she was more motivated to make healthier choices. Later in the day, she’d pack her lunch instead of grabbing fast food, or she’d have the energy to squeeze in a quick workout after work.
Emily Field 00:07:03 Those small wins started stacking up, and with each one, Sarah’s confidence grew. She began to trust herself to follow through, which made her want to follow through even more. This is the piece that so often missing in the consistency conversation. It’s not about being perfect every day. It’s about recognizing that every time you follow through, you’re reinforcing your ability to succeed. You’re building self-trust. And with that trust comes the confidence to take on bigger challenges. For Sarah, one small habit of prioritizing protein at breakfast became the foundation for a whole new way of approaching her health and fitness. It wasn’t flashy or dramatic, but it worked because it was sustainable and empowering. That’s the real power of focusing on patterns, priorities, and frequency over an abstract idea like consistency. See what matters far more than the elusive and often misunderstood concept of consistency is a framework rooted in patterns, priorities, and frequency. These three pillars shift the focus from perfection to progress, and provide actionable steps that anyone can apply to their unique circumstances, because everyone’s circumstances are different.
Emily Field 00:08:13 So let’s talk about those three things. Patterns refers to the habits and routines you build over time that align with your goals. These are not about strict daily adherence, but rather about creating a rhythm to your life that naturally supports your objectives. So, for example, consistently eating vegetables with most meals or strength training three times per week are patterns that, when repeated over weeks and months, produce meaningful progress without requiring perfection every single day. Priorities, on the other hand, focus on the actions that deliver the greatest return on effort. Not all habits carry the same weight in And understanding what truly moves the needle is essential. So if your goal is fat loss, for instance, prioritizing protein intake and staying within your calorie target will matter far more than obsessing over hitting every single macro perfectly or remaining in your perfect macro split. This focus allows you to streamline your efforts, ensuring that the energy you invest yields the best possible results. And finally, frequency frequency shifts the conversation from perfection to what you do most often.
Emily Field 00:09:22 Instead of fixating on missed days or moments of indulgent frequency, emphasizes the bigger picture the trends you establish over time. So, for example, hitting your nutrition and fitness goals four out of seven days of a week might not feel perfect, but it’s enough to make significant progress. Over time, these consistent efforts accumulate and lead to meaningful change. And I also want to widen this conversation to mean that what you do most frequently across multiple weeks can actually be a super meaningful assessment of your progress. So if you’re four of seven days, great. But what if you’re four of ten days or your ten of 30 days, or you’re 20 of 45 days? This is an example of maybe widening your lens and seeing actually, you know what? Even though I had a totally off week in the context of a whole month, I wasn’t that far off base. I am frequently engaging in this behavior that I want to be. The power of this shift lies in its practicality and sustainability by focusing on patterns, priorities, and frequency.
Emily Field 00:10:25 You remove the pressure to be perfect every day. This approach acknowledges that life is messy and unpredictable, and perfection is neither realistic nor necessary. Instead, you’re building a system that works with your life, not against it. It allows for flexibility, encourages resilience, and helps you build momentum over time. This framework isn’t about following a rigid plan. It’s about creating a lifestyle that supports your goals while leaving room for life’s inevitable ups and downs. By reframing the way you think about consistency, you can finally free yourself from that all or nothing mindset and focus on small, meaningful steps that lead to long term success. Applying the framework of patterns, priorities, and frequency is about breaking your goals into manageable, actionable steps that align with your lifestyle. The first step is to define your patterns, the habits and routines that will move you closer to your goals. Start by identifying specific actions you want to take consistently, focusing on those that are realistic and sustainable. So, for example, if you want to improve your nutrition, a pattern might be meal prepping every Sunday or making a point to include a protein source in every breakfast meal.
Emily Field 00:11:33 If your goal is to be more active, it could mean walking after dinner most nights or dedicating three days a week to strength training. The key is to choose habits that fit seamlessly into your life, so they’re not so far away that you’re going to have to change a lot about your life in order to make them happen. They’re usually just a couple of steps ahead of where you are right now, and that’s done on purpose so that it feels less like a chore and more like a natural part of your routine. The second step is to set your priorities by identifying the actions that have the greatest impact on your success and well-being. And maybe these first two steps really go together. You know, not all habits are created equal, and focusing on what matters most can help you maximize your time and energy. So, for example, if you’re short on time, prioritizing a quick, effective workout over preparing an elaborate meal might better serve your goals. Similarly, if fat loss is a focus, hitting your calorie and protein targets will likely yield better results than worrying about your perfect macronutrient breakdown.
Emily Field 00:12:32 This step is about simplifying your approach, eliminating unnecessary stress, and zeroing in on the habits that truly make a difference. This might be a great time to go back and review our previous episode about the four non-negotiable habits I tell all of my clients to engage in in some form and capacity during coaching. That could be a really great way for you to distill down to what are the really big needle moving habits when it comes to your health and nutrition? All right. And finally, we’re going to embrace frequency as your success metric rather than striving for perfection. Instead of fixating on doing something perfectly every single day exactly the same way over and over and over again. We’re going to measure how often you’re doing it over time. So, for example, hitting your protein target for 4 to 5 days a week or getting to the gym three times a week might not seem perfect, but it’s totally enough to build progress. It’s totally enough to see results. Reflect on your actions regularly by asking yourself, what am I doing most often and is it aligned with my goals? A really great journal prompt that might be helpful for you at this point in your journey is, say, if someone were to look at my life and how I spend my time each day or each week.
Emily Field 00:13:47 Would they know what’s important to me? And if your main goal right now is to get lean, strong and fit, and the biggest chunks of your time and energy are not going towards people, places, things, habits that are aligning with those goals, then maybe it might be a great time to reprioritize. It might be a great time to rethink how we are spreading our time and our energy across those habits and behaviors. This reflection helps you focus on trends and progress rather than individual moments of failure by prioritizing frequency. You’re building a foundation of habits that work together to support long term success. It really does come down to what you do imperfectly, more often, versus perfectly less often. Okay. Doing a reflection on where you spend your time and energy is going to really play that out for you. What are the things that you’re doing? Most often, they’re the things that are creating your reality. And the first step in really getting farther along is embracing where you are at right now. Being very brutally honest with where you are right now.
Emily Field 00:14:52 How frequent are you engaging in behaviors that do or don’t align with the life that you see for yourself? This is a great time to be doing some reflection, some looking inward, some analysis of the things that you do most often. Because again, these are the things that are really going to drive change into the future. I’m going to share the story of a client named Emily, who perfectly embodies this journey of establishing patterns, priorities, and frequency. Before having her first child, Emily was a picture of consistency, at least what she thought consistency was supposed to look like. She worked out five days a week without fail, and she tracked every bite of food with precision. She actually really enjoyed the weighing and measuring process, and because she was single and living alone, it was very easy for her to do that, to have that much control over her food. But now married and in postpartum life with her first baby looks very different. She feels overwhelmed by trying to meet those same expectations. In some weeks, she’s proud to hit the gym three times, but guilt creeps in because it doesn’t feel like enough.
Emily Field 00:15:55 She’s constantly comparing herself to who she once was. She wants to track her macros. She really aligns with the approach, but the thought of weighing and measuring every single thing feels impossible while juggling the needs of a newborn. So when it comes to nutrition, she finds herself constantly second guessing every choice, distracted by conflicting information about seed oils, carnivore versus plant based eating, and other debates that she’s seeing online. That’s just clouding her judgment and leading to this feeling of guilt. When we introduced the framework of patterns, priorities and frequency, everything started to shift for Emily. First, we worked on defining her patterns simple, repeatable habits that fit into her current lifestyle. Instead of aiming to perfectly track every meal, we focused on eating at regular intervals to support her blood sugar and energy levels, which had been a struggle with the demands of a newborn. Emily committed to having something to eat every 3 to 4 hours, even if it was just a quick snack like a handful of trail mix or a piece of fruit with nut butter.
Emily Field 00:16:51 And this approach gave her structure without added stress, and helped her avoid the energy crashes that often lead to feeling overwhelmed or reaching for convenience foods that didn’t align with her goals for her workouts. We established a realistic pattern three 30 minute sessions a week, emphasizing strength training because she enjoyed it. These shorter workouts were manageable in her new schedule and gave her a sense of accomplishment without the pressure of her pre-baby five day routine. So together, these smaller, sustainable habits remove the overwhelm she had been feeling and allowed her to start seeing progress in a way that fit into her current season of life. Next, we honed in on her priorities. Emily realized she was spending too much mental energy worrying about doing everything right. Together, we identified what mattered most for her goals hitting her calorie and protein targets most days and building strength through three weekly workouts. She let go of the need to have a perfectly balanced meal and track everything down to the gram. And this gave her clarity and helped her stay focused on actions that had the greatest impact on her progress.
Emily Field 00:17:55 Finally, we shifted her mindset toward frequency. Instead of beating herself up for not working out five days a week or for having a day when tracking wasn’t possible. Emily began to focus on her frequency. Over time, she started to notice patterns of success, hitting her protein target four days a week, making it to the gym three times most weeks, and consistently preparing meals ahead of time on Sundays. These wins, even if imperfect, helped her build confidence and momentum. She no longer fixated on what she wasn’t doing, but instead focused on how much she was doing to align with her goals. So through this process, Emily not only made progress towards her physical goals, but she also felt less stressed and more in control of her choices. By applying the framework of patterns, pattern’s priorities and frequency. She reframed her idea of consistency not as perfection, but as progress, and it made all the difference in her journey. I love focusing on frequency, especially when it’s at the face of doing it over perfection, right? Rarely does life run on a predictable schedule between holidays, work deadlines, unexpected sick days, last minute obligations.
Emily Field 00:19:05 It’s easy to feel like sticking to a routine is impossible. But progress isn’t about perfection. It’s about adaptability. When you embrace the idea of frequency, you free yourself from the pressure of getting everything exactly right every single time. It’s not about how flawless your plan is, but about how frequently you return to it. Even when life gets chaotic. Imagine you’re traveling and miss a workout or two. Rather than focusing on what didn’t happen. Look at what you have done. Have you regularly been showing up for your workouts over the past month? Those sessions still count and they’re what build your momentum even if you hit a temporary bump in the road. The same applies to nutrition. One indulgent meal doesn’t undo the weeks of nourishing your body with intention. So instead of viewing those moments as failures, taking them as yield rather than stop signs, progress is cumulative. It’s the sum of your actions over time, not the result of a single day or week. A missed workout or an untracked meal isn’t a setback.
Emily Field 00:20:04 It’s a reflection of life happening. So when you focus on frequency, you allow more flexibility while still moving forward. I want you to think of frequency as the rhythm of your habits. It’s about showing up more often than not and letting those efforts compound into meaningful results. The missed moments won’t hold you back as long as you keep coming back to your patterns. So this mindset is going to help you let go of guilt, build resilience, and keep the bigger picture of progress in sight. What matters most is staying in the game, not how perfectly you play the game. So this whole conversation about frequency reminds me of a client named Amanda. Amanda was someone who was fixated on hitting for strength training sessions every single week. Her mindset was rigid. If she missed a workout due to a busy schedule or an unexpected sick day, she would immediately spiral into frustration. She’d label the week as a failure and convinced herself that she needed to start over on Monday. And this got to be really bad, so she would have two lower days and two upper days in her strength training program.
Emily Field 00:21:08 And if she wasn’t able to get all four in a week, she would just not even count that week and restart that same week of the programming in the following week. She essentially was saying, if I couldn’t do this workout program as prescribed, then it’s not worth doing at all. This all or nothing mindset, as you can imagine, kept her stuck in a cycle of inconsistency where the pursuit of perfection totally sabotaged her progress. When we reframed her perspective with the concept of Frequency, everything started to change. I explained to her that the body doesn’t operate on a seven day calendar. It doesn’t know what Monday or Sunday is. What matters is the cumulative effort over time. So whether Amanda hit her four workouts in seven days, nine days, or even ten days, her body would still reap the same benefits of regular strength training. By letting go of the rigid weekly timeline and focusing on getting four workouts in whenever her schedule allowed. Amanda found the flexibility she needed to stay on track. She no longer felt like she needed to, quote Start Over, but instead focused on what she could do most of the time given her unpredictable schedule.
Emily Field 00:22:14 This shift helped Amanda break free from the guilt and stress of missing workouts. Life is messy, and perfection is completely unrealistic. By focusing on frequency what she was doing most often, she built habits that were sustainable and resilient. Whether it was a busy workweek, a family emergency, or a holiday trip, Amanda learned to adapt and keep her momentum going. Her progress no longer hinged on nailing a perfect week, but her ability to stay consistent enough over time. I like comparing progress to building a savings account. It’s the cumulative deposits that you make, not whether you skipped 1 or 2 along the way, or whether some were small and some were large deposits. Amanda started to realize that a missed workout here and there was definitely not a failure. It was just part of life. But by focusing on frequency, she gave herself some grace to be human while moving steadily towards her goals. She’s readily making deposits in her bank account of strength training or muscle building. And it doesn’t matter if that workout is 30 minutes or 60 minutes, or if she got four in across seven, nine, ten days, something like that.
Emily Field 00:23:21 The cumulative effort is definitely paying off for Amanda. I want to lastly talk to the person who struggles with getting started. There’s a mountain in between where they are right now and where they want to be. I want to remind you that building a sustainable framework starts with very simple and small wins. When you’re just getting started, it’s important to focus on 1 or 2 habits that feel very realistic and achievable. So, for instance, instead of overhauling your entire routine, start by adding a vegetable to one meal a day or aiming for a five minute walk after dinner a few times a week, these small, manageable goals give you a sense of accomplishment and help you build trust in your ability to stick to new habits. I think that’s what’s missing for a lot of people. They don’t trust themselves to keep on it and they just expect themselves to fail. But what if it is about lowering the bar so low that it’s impossible to fail? And then you can layer on the detail. We want those basics to feel natural before we add a level of detail, a level of complexity or push to push you farther down in that progress journey.
Emily Field 00:24:33 Ernie. So, for example, after you’ve established the habit of walking after dinner, you might extend it to ten minutes or add another walk during your lunch break. If you’ve been focusing on one balanced meal a day, you can expand that to 2 or 3 meals as you gain confidence. Think of these layers as stepping stones that guide you towards bigger changes without the overwhelm of doing everything all at once. Tracking progress in a way that feels encouraging can also help here. I know it really works for me. Use a simple system, like placing a check mark on your calendar or jotting down one win from the day, such as Ada protein Rich breakfast, or walked for five minutes or parked far away when I had a different option. These small wins will remind you that you’re moving forward, even when it feels like nothing much has changed at the moment. Over time, those frequent actions add up and give you the confidence to keep building, to keep layering. Most importantly, celebrate every milestone, no matter how small.
Emily Field 00:25:32 If you prep lunches for two days this week when you’ve never meal prepped before, that’s a win worth acknowledging. If you hit a goal of two walks this week. That’s a step in the right direction as well. Remember the act of following through on something you said you were going to do is powerful in and of itself, so we need to keep this at the forefront of your brain by reminding yourself of what you’ve achieved. Great habits beget more great habits, so don’t be afraid to recount and celebrate your small wins and milestones. I’ve said it a hundred times this episode, but progress is not about perfection. It’s about showing up, starting small, and letting those efforts grow into habits that fit your life. By focusing on the basics and adding layers, gradually, you’ll build a foundation that feels sustainable and empowering. This part of the conversation really reminds me of a client named Katie, who came to me with pretty big goals and a clear sense of what she wanted, but she struggled with that distance, really, between where she was right now and where she saw herself getting.
Emily Field 00:26:32 And I will say this. You know, when we are in coaching and we’re talking about those needle moving drivers of change in your body composition. We’ve talked about this before. It’s really having a regular routine of strength training. It’s getting up and moving throughout your daily life, not being sedentary. It’s about hitting your protein targets and staying relatively close to your calorie goals. I think Katie was, depending on the momentum of just simply signing up for coaching and engaging in a coaching relationship, she thought that would change her life. She would all of a sudden be able to do all of these things that she saw herself needing to do, but obviously that’s not true. Spoiler alert just by engaging in a coaching relationship doesn’t necessarily mean your life’s going to suddenly look different the next day. And so when we dug into her routine, we noticed she was struggling to consistently get, you know, even three out of four of those habits on multiple days in the week. She was barely averaging one day a week where she could really nail protein and calories or strength training or whatever it might be.
Emily Field 00:27:35 And that frustration of missing her goals was leaving her feeling defeated. But instead of pushing her to, quote, get it together or hold her to unrealistic standards, we decided to start very small and build gradually. We acknowledge that the habit she wanted to establish were important. You know, these are the needle moving drivers of change here. But the key for her success was going to be finding a way to fit them into her real life, not an idealized version of her life. Okay. Katie decided that the most important thing to her was establishing a workout routine. It really just spilled into other benefits in her life, so she really wanted to focus on that strength training first. So we decided to reduce the frequency of that strength training goal rather than pushing for four days a week. We started with just two sessions. That way, she could still experience the benefits of strength training without it feeling overwhelming. Next, we simplified her step goal. She’d been aiming for ten K steps per day, but was barely averaging about 4 to 5000 steps per day.
Emily Field 00:28:39 So we started with the target just slightly out of her comfort zone, about 6000 steps, and then worked up to 8000. When she was ready, she has to do some work, as with you. If you’re listening, she has to do some work to examine where she’s going to fit these activities in. It makes no sense to come out of the gate saying, I’m going to suddenly find space and time and energy for four workouts per week and 10,000 steps per day, when it hasn’t been happening already. Your motivation might be high and you might be really excited for these changes, but outside of that first week, that energy is really not going to carry you through for sustainable change and habit forming. Okay, so we need to lower the bar. We need to see where this stuff can fit in in slight little pockets of your day and in your week. And then we can expand that pocket because your brain starts to recognize where can I rearrange my schedule? Or we’re going to pull back in certain areas to allow for more time in this thing.
Emily Field 00:29:36 That’s really important to me. So simplifying the goal, lowering the bar is a really great strategy for encouraging someone to later add on more level detail. Your brain will almost do the work for you if you get that foot in the door with just a small version of the same habit. Later, it’s going to expand and we’re going to throw open the door and you can layer on and add more detail. The same thing is true for her nutrition. We shifted the focus to hitting her protein targets at least three times per week. Instead of expecting perfection every day, she really saw herself wanting to be one of those people that nailed her protein target every single day. But I think what we started with is just hitting 100g most days of the week. Then, when that felt easy, we raised the bar to her actual protein target, which is about 130g per day. Most days of the week. And then that eventually. Felt easy. That eventually started to fold into the background of her day. She realized what she needed to do in order to make that goal of reality.
Emily Field 00:30:39 We gave her permission to just ease off that pressure of hitting everything perfectly, and instead encouraged her to just focus on that frequency, doing what she could most often, and letting go of the guilt when she couldn’t do it all. Once Katie started following through on these smaller, more attainable goals, she saw immediate benefits. Her confidence grew. She began to realize how she could rearrange her day to make room for these habits. Whether that meant prepping a few meals ahead of time or prioritizing her workouts at the beginning of the day. Slowly, she gained momentum. We added more details, like increasing her steps to 8-K and then adding a third day of strength training. Now Katie is hitting all of those, quote needle moving habits at a frequency we’d like to see. She’s strength training three days a week with a progressively overloaded templated program. She’s hitting her protein targets daily. She’s getting about 8 to 10 K steps pretty consistently throughout the week and remains within her calorie goals. All of this was made possible because we started small and built momentum with simple, repeatable habits.
Emily Field 00:31:43 Katie’s story highlights how starting with small changes can create a foundation for long term success, and how finding a sustainable pace can unlock a level of consistency that once felt out of reach for her. All right, we’ve talked about the word consistency and how it often sets us up for frustration and burnout. It’s a big ask to expect ourselves to do things perfectly every day, especially with the unpredictable nature of life. Instead, we’ve looked at why focusing on patterns, priorities, and frequency is a much more realistic and empowering approach. These are the tools that help us build sustainable habits that actually stick. So I want to leave you with a couple of reflections. What’s one small habit you can start doing most often this week. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just frequent enough to build momentum. And how can you shift your focus from chasing daily perfection to focusing on long term patterns that truly move the needle? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to share your reflections or wins with me. You can reach out via Instagram, email, or even drop a message in my DMs.
Emily Field 00:32:47 Let me know how you’re shifting your focus and what small habit you’re going to tackle first. Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you’re listening to right now to share it on your Instagram Stories, and tag me @emilyfield so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress free way. If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website at www.emilyfieldrd.com. Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you on the next episode.