A lot of people hire personal trainers with body composition goals in mind. And in the society we live in, it's hard not to have a body composition goal. However, nutrition can also become a huge source of overwhelm for many people.

Oftentimes, people feel the need to change many different elements of their nutrition, without necessarily thinking of longer term outcomes - they want change NOW. They want a trainer to just provide them a set of macros and tell them exactly what to do to get the results they want.

And that's completely fine! It's easy to ride the short-term willpower people have when they decide they want change. It makes sense that we as people operate this way.

What isn't easy, is to be asked to adjust one simple behavior and stay consistent with that. This feels TOO easy. It feels like it's not enough. And it's definitely not going to be fast. Remember, we want that change NOW.

And that's exactly the issue...

What are people going to do when that willpower and motivation fades? What practices have you really thought through and made real change with? How to we make this last our entire life so we don't ride this cycle of jumping from diet to diet every ____? How do we make this the LAST time we embark on this journey?

We focus on adjusting our behaviors surrounding food.

We focus on adjusting our environment to foster these behaviors.

It's not sexy. It's not exciting. It's not fast.

But, if you really try to implement this, the results will last much, much longer.

So, here are 8 behaviors you can begin to implement. Choose one to start with and see if you can adhere to it for 2 weeks. It doesn't have to be perfect, but aim for 80-90%. If that feels good after two weeks, consider adding another.

1. Add 12-16oz of water every ______. Choose a frequency you think you can hit. If it gets overwhelming, lower that. Example: "...every meal," or, "...every lunch."

2. Think about your protein source when building a meal. Protein can help us stay satiated and aids in the recovery of muscle tissue (among other things). Without adequate protein intake, we risk under-recovering from our training and minimizing those gains we all want.

3. Aim for 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein at one/_____ meals. A palm-sized serving of a protein source is roughly 20-30g of protein. Hand measurements are a great alternative to measuring out our foods on a scale.

4. Buy one new whole food item at the grocery this week and try it out. Try something new! People often get stuck with the foods they know they like but there are a ton of great options out there. Try something new and diversify the foods your consume.

5. Put your fork down between bites. This can help us slow down so we stay aware of our fullness better. It can also help us stay present with those around us more, too.

6. Include one fruit / veggie at each meal. We want to include a variety of fruits and vegetables in our diets to facilitate micronutrient diversity. Micronutrients help ensure that our body functions as it should.

7. Eat as many different colored whole foods as you can. Diversify your intake. Think about the colors of the rainbow. When you eat a variety of colors in your meal from whole foods, you are helping to ensure diverse micronutrient uptake.

8. Take a breath after you're finished chewing each bite. Similar to above, this helps people slow down, remain present, and be more aware of our fullness. All of these can help prevent people from overeating.

Give any one of these a shot and build from there! There are plenty of other ways you can build lifelong nutritional behaviors, so don't feel that these are the only options. We'll dive into more in future blog posts!