Written by Catherine Swail PTS, BA, BEd, Facial Stretch Therapist, Soft Tissue Mobilization Practitioner

Hi, I’m Catherine! Your local Personal Trainer with a focus on mindset, movement and mobility. 

I hosted a free webinar recently on my favourite nutrition strategies for sustainability. Against the word, my approach is – if you can’t sustain it – then don’t do it. 

In the “Trim & Thrive Protocol” webinar, I outlined the seven steps for reaching your nutrition goals so that you can lose fat, fit into your clothes better, have fewer cravings, and be less food-obsessed. 

Here are your steps to less dieting, no deprivation and long-term success:

Step One: Know where you are now – this is your POINT A. What are your current habits and behaviours around food? Do you eat while you’re cooking? Do you regularly skip breakfast? Do you eat while you’re watching TV? Do you drink your calories? Eat very little all day and then binge into the evening or stay up late and snack? 

Step Two: Define your POINT B. Since you know where your POINT A is (where you are now) — where do you want to go? What does your destination look like? What habits do you have at POINT B?

Step Three: Do you have any obstacles that could get in your way? Are there people or things that could prevent you from getting to your goals? While it’s not always possible to remove these obstacles, knowing what they are will help you navigate around them when needed. 

Step Four: Gather Data. Do this by writing down everything that you’re eating and drinking in a food journal. Take note of what you’re eating, when you’re eating, and most importantly, take note of the WHY. When and why we eat will tie into our relationship with food. If we’re feeling particularly emotional or stressed, we might be drawn to sweets or something salty. We may eat more mindlessly in this situation.

A food journal will help you to problem solve and give you an honest picture of how much you are eating, and under which conditions.

Step Five: Create an action plan. Take a look at your current habits and behaviours around food (POINT A). Pick 1-3 of these that you think you can improve upon to get closer to POINT B. For example, maybe you’d like to start eating breakfast – can you complete this action with 90% certainty? If not, how can you make the action more possible for you to complete?

Step Six: Experiment. Put your action plan…into ACTION. Those 1-3 things that you said you could complete with 90% certainty? Now it’s time to make it happen over a two week period. Remember: nothing is written in stone. So, if it’s not working, then you go back to the drawing board to adapt the action plan to  make it more doable for you. 

Step Seven: Observe and monitor. Were your tasks obtainable? Did you encounter any obstacles? How did you overcome them?

Were you able to complete them *most* of the time? If not, what stopped you?

If everything went well, then take the task and increase or add a step (ie. add protein to your breakfast if you were successful at implementing it into your day).

You can see that creating sustainable nutrition strategies is more than *just* cutting out (insert food group) or eating less. It’s not quick and flashy, and it will make you face your unhealthy behaviours head-on. 

I coach women online from Kemptville to Carp to Waterloo-Kitchener and beyond.

My goal is to help women get strong(er), build confidence, get rid of habits that are no longer serving them and of course feel better in their clothes. 

If you’re interested in joining my online group program Lean Lifestyle Academy and learning my methods – reach out to me through email or by calling me at the contact details below!

Sincerely, in love and carbs

Catherine xox