When someone firsts expresses interest in RxFIT, I’ll sit down with them in a meeting we call a No-Sweat Intro. In this meeting, I ask questions about their goals, what’s worked well (and what hasn’t) in the past, as well as some lifestyle questions.
Some of those lifestyle questions focus on nutrition. I’ll ask things like, “What are you eating at night on Sunday-Thursday? And what are you eating at night when the weekend hits on Friday and Saturday?”
The answer to questions like this are almost always, “Ah, my diet is pretty good. I might have some _________, but other than that, it’s pretty good.”
But Other Than That…
Excuses kill progress. If you’ve ever heard yourself using the words, “but other than that…”, you are justifying your behavior. If you really want to solve a problem, you need to cut out the excuses.
Now, please don’t misunderstand me. Life is worth enjoying and sometimes the intense, military approach to a healthy diet and sleep schedule are unnecessary.
But if you’re setting a goal surrounding weight-loss, we need to recognize and fix those excuses. If your habits surrounding nutrition were in fact “pretty good”, you wouldn’t be overweight. It’s as simple as that.
Takeaway
My favorite exercise in order to combat this false belief is called the “Habit Scorecard.” Performing the habit scorecard exercise is nothing more than writing down all of the things you do during the day.
After looking at all of your actions, you will add a (+) for positive habits and a (-) for negative habits. If the habit is neutral, however, leave it blank. Here’s a short example:
- Hit snooze when alarm goes off (-)
- Make the bed (+)
- Use the bathroom (neutral)
- Brush my teeth (+)
- Check my phone (-)
- etc.
The above video further explains the habit scorecard. After doing this for your day, write all of your positive habits on the left-hand side of another piece of paper. These are what I call your “asset” habits ; the behaviors you want to keep.
Then write all of the negative habits on the right-hand side. These are your “liability” habits; or the behaviors that you want to quit doing.
After writing this down, keep the piece of paper–I’ll tell you what to do with it tomorrow. The email will be titled “Your Fitness Financial Statements.”
Tyler