Stages of Nutrition

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Stages of Nutrition

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[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left”]The weight loss diet that is going to work for you, for your life, is not a cookie cutter program and it isn’t going to be the same program forever. How you go about eating and structuring your diet now will be different than how you will do it in 6 months, and very different to how you will do it in 2 years.

This is where the stages of Nutrition comes into play. See the image below…

This graphic represents what I call the Stages of Nutrition. Your diet (like many things) consists of a progression, and you need to master one step before you move to the next. I’m going to steal my buddy Alwyn Cosgrove’s martial arts metaphor to illustrate my point.

If you want to learn Karate, you can’t start out training with Jet Li. You need to know a certain number of basic moves, master those, and progress from there to more advanced tactics.

Your diet is no different. If you can’t master certain basic components, then you have no business progressing to more complicated nutritional approaches.

The Stages of Nutrition:

Nutritional Freestyling: You eat whatever you want whenever you want.

Proper Food Choices Varying Compliance: You try to eat the right stuff but you just don’t do it consistently.

Proper Food Choices 90% Compliance: You eat the right stuff and you rarely falter (this is the target stage for most people).

Calorie/Portion Counting, Proper Food Choices 90% Compliance: You need to fine tune your diet more for a specific purpose (weight loss, health, performance) so you start counting calories or portions and you stay on your plan just about all the time.

If you are currently nutritional freestyling, then you can’t jump straight to counting calories. That is just a recipe for failure. If you aren’t currently making consistent proper food choices (in line with the 6 Pillars of Nutrition) then what makes you think that you will be able to consistently eat portioned, weighted, and calculated meals?

Making proper food choices and sticking to your plan requires a discipline and behavioral skill set that will be mastered as you progress through the Stages of Nutrition. Jumping ahead to a more ‘advanced’ stage will not get you better results faster. Instead it will lead to a pattern of brief results, diet relapse, and frustration.

Questions to ask yourself
1. What stage am I in?
2. What do I need to do to move to the next stage?

Be honest with yourself – do what is needed to move to the next stage and you will be rewarded with consistent and long term weight loss success.[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]