Nutrition Tip of the Week 7-30-21

Set Weekly Intentions for Success

Do you want to improve your nutritional habits but don’t know where to begin? Start small by setting a few weekly intentions that align with your goals and your capacity for the week ahead. Take a look at the obstacles that you have in the coming week and choose one to three intentions that you can adhere to (a week at home is going to look different than a week of travel, for instance). Before declaring your intentions, examine the aspects of your habits you want to improve, and be honest with yourself about how much time and effort you are willing and capable of putting into planning, shopping and preparing.

Every Sunday, fellow BLOC coach Britany Snyder and I declare three weekly intentions to each other and complete an assessment of how closely we followed the previous week’s intentions. For example, my current weekly intentions are:

1. Prepare lunches ahead of time which contain a lean meat, two servings of vegetables, and sweet potatoes.
2. Be mindful about dinner portions.
3. Reduce nighttime snacking to no more than 300 calories after dinner.

I chose these as they address three aspects of my nutritional habits that most often get derailed. Frequently, when I get busy during the day I skip lunch or eat a small snack in place of it. For me, this leads to overeating at dinner time.  The other place where I have a tendency to get a little bit loose is dessert. Personally, this is the only part of the day that I utilize calorie counting as a strategy. 

Next week, I will be traveling and my intentions may look very different. They might look something like:

1. Prioritize hydration whenever possible by carrying a water bottle and hitting a minimum of 80oz of water per way. 
2. Pack emergency healthy snacks to avoid making poor choices during travel days.
3. Make the smartest choices possible on all snacks and two of my three main meals each day. 

As you can see, the intentions should line up with what you are capable of succeeding at that week. Pick small things that have a big impact!  What are your weekly intentions?