RESOURCES ARTICLES

What's Your Score Out of 21?

About a month ago I met a middle-aged client named Bridgette that was like many busy working moms. She had gained some weight over the last few years and was now starting to feel frustrated and down on herself about her expanding waistline. Two weeks after our fist nutrition coaching session she came back into my office for a follow up meeting. I could tell right away she was stressed. I asked her how she was doing and Bridgette wrinkled up her forehead and quietly muttered..."terrible." She went on to tell me that her nutrition plan was a total disaster and that she wondered how she would ever lose weight when she couldn't even stick to her plan for two weeks. She told me about her weekends and how she had totally overate and indulged in greasy appetizers, decadent desserts and too much alcohol. When I began to inquire about how the other meals during the week went, Bridgette told me she had stopped skipping meals, chose healthy foods and even lost a pound. In fact, when it came down to it, in the last week she really only had two meals that weren't great and 19 meals that were generally quite healthy. I pulled out my calculator and showed her that 19 divided by 21 was a score of over 90%. She left my office walking a bit more confidently, knowing that she could still succeed, despite not eating perfectly. Sometimes patience is the hardest part since results are often slow.

Are you like many people that dwell on what doesn't go well and forget to celebrate your successes?

I have a simple challenge for you this week.
There are 21 meals per week (7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 suppers). Print out this article and using the table below, place a check mark beside meals you believe you generally ate well at. This is a good activity to see just how good (or maybe just how bad) your eating habits really are.

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7
Breakfast
Lunch
Supper

At the end of your 7 days add up your checkmarks and divide by 21. Over time challenge yourself to keep working on this until you reach a score you are pleased with. Realize that in order to be healthy; you never need to achieve 100% and striving for this will only lead to frustration.