a year with my nutrition coach

I've been on a roll with my nutrition. By no means have I been perfect. I don't hit my protein goals as often as I'm supposed to. But I've nailed my calorie goals almost every day for close to 2 months. I've been working with my nutrition coach for a year now. Most of that time I was either struggling or had given up entirely. I'm finally getting some traction and consistency. But looking back I realize I learned more from the times I was failing than I did from the times I was doing great. But regardless of how I've been doing, the one consistent was that Barry, my nutrition coach has been there. He's been an unwavering force in my fight to become healthier, a better weightlifter, and get down to the 105k weight class. Since working with Barry I've learned a lot about nutrition for athletics and I've learned even more about myself. I've always known I struggle with food. & that I use eating as a stress relief. Working with Barry has helped me find other ways to deal with stress (still learning, still in the process). But what's helped the most was learning how to find out what's important to me and how to accomplish those things that are really important to me. He sent me an email awhile back. It was after my 4th time falling off the diet wago. It helped me peel back many of the layers of who I am, what's important to me, and why. Some of the revelations were surprising. Some of my reasons were much more dark and selfish than I ever thought I could be. The email said:

"Find your "Why"?

A very important, but sometimes overlooked factor in success or struggle with making changes is WHY you are making the changes.  Finding a good "why" or not can sometimes make or break your ability to change.  If you are trying to make a change because a magazine says you should or because you think it might be a good idea, you may not truly be motivated to make the changes over the long term.

If you can find a reason to make changes that legitimately motivates you, drives you and is genuinely important to you, the chances of sticking to the changes are increased significantly.  

"Why's" are extremely personal, too.  What motivates one person, may not carry any significance to another.  This is why it is important for you to take a look into your own, personal motivations.  Your "why" for working on your nutrition may be to improve your health, to improve your performance, to fit into your favorite pair of jeans, to look good in a bathing suit or to set a positive example for you children.  As long as it is really important to you, it's a good "why", regardless of what anyone else may think.

A good exercise for digging deeper into your "why" is to go through an exercise called "The 5 Whys".  If you are in the ProCoach program, you've probably already completed this.  If not, what you do is start by asking yourself "Why am I doing....?"  Once you have that answer, you ask yourself "Why is that important?" and continue to ask yourself "Why is that important?" until you've asked yourself "why" a total of 5 times.  By the 5th answer, you should be getting a pretty deep look into what is truly important to you.  For example:

Why am I working with a nutrition coach? Because I want to lose 20# and compete at the highest level possible at my sport.

Why is that important? Because I want to push myself to be the best that I can be and see what I am capable of, all while living a healthy lifestyle.

Why is that important? Because I want to set a good example for my children so they know that if they work hard they can accomplish great things and so that they grow up with healthy eating habits.

Why is that important? Because my biggest responsibility in life is to raise my kids to be the best they can be.

Why is that important? Because they are the future, and I want them to have the skills in life to do whatever they want.

Find your "Why" and find your motivation."

I sent my weekly report to my nutrition coach on Sunday. He sent me back an awesome email. It said:

"I have to tell you, I'm really impressed this time around!  You're doing an awesome job, and each week you're sending me something that you did during the week that is a really big step in the right direction, like eating within your calories even while hitting a Chinese food buffet.  That's seriously awesome.  Numbers were really good again this week.

That said, this is going to be a little bit of a tough week, because we're going to take your calories down a bit to get the scale moving again.  I think there's going to be an adjustment period this week, so do the best you can and think about the goals when things get tough.  Really focus on getting the protein in, because that will help you feel full.  Drink lots of water, eat lots of veggies, because those things also make you feel full and veggies have minimal calories."

See, my nutrition coach is awesome. It looks like this week will be tough. Wish me luck. I'll keep you updated periodically as to my progress!