Episode 131: Precision vs Consistency: Why 75% is Better Than 100%

It is a FACT that I would rather our members stick with their plan 75% of the time, not 100%. Here’s why. 

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Transcript

Becoming MindStrong: 131: Precision vs Consistency: Why 75% is Better Than 100%

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Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast. I love the title of this podcast. It actually came from our director of coaching at mind strong I put out to the team, Hey, what are some heavy hitter topics that you're seeing come up time and time again with our Ignite members and our wonderful director of coaching, Robin, we actually did an interview with her in a past podcast episode. Said, can you talk about precision versus consistency? And I was like, what a beautiful way of framing this. Because I had, behind the scenes, I had a topic on my list that I keep a future podcast episodes that said, why I would rather you do this 75% instead of 100% that is a terrible title, precision versus consistency. Yes, that is where the gold happens. So I'm going to loop them together, and in today's episode, we are talking about precision versus consistency. Why I would rather you do this 75% than 100% check it out. I want to start by telling you a very true and kind of funny story behind the scenes back in the day when mind strong was a one woman show, and I was the only coach. Every once in a while, I would get a member in Ignite, our 12 week program, who was like, type a perfectionist, does everything to a T. And I would get on my zooms with them when we would do our check ins, and they'd be like, Rachel, I have hit my macros perfectly every single day this week or every single day since I've started this program, I haven't missed a single day. I've been doing this program perfectly, and my answer to them, 100% of the time was That's incredible. Your homework this week is to take a day and not track your macros, and 100% of the time they would panic. Are you kidding me? I've been doing it perfectly. If I take a day off, what if I don't get back on what if I can't master the skill when I get back? And my answer was exactly this is why I am, quote, unquote, making you take a day off. Because, number one, we need to build trust with ourself in the course of your life. I hope, if you are living life, I hope there are days that you're not going to track your macros. Right? In the world of mind strong, we have a rule there's no tracking on vacation, because that's not the point, right? Our body responds to what we're doing consistently, not day to day. The point of vacation is not to meticulously track everything. That's never the point even not on vacation, but the point of vacation is to relax, unwind. We can make smart choices. We can be more conscious. We can focus on protein and water, but it is not to meticulously track. So I say all that because I hope that you will have days in the future where you do not track your macros, and to feel comfortable doing that, we have to build trust with ourselves, that I can take a day off here and there, I could take three days off here and there, and I know that I am driven enough, smart enough, intelligent enough, whatever the word is there, to get back on with my goals. And the only way we can do that, the only way is by giving our brain data that we've done it before. The other reason is this, if we want to truly create a sustainable lifestyle, it has to flow right. If we try to put our horse blinders on, and I am perfect and I never make mistakes and I hit my macros every single day of the week, great. You might have a lot more willpower than I do. So maybe you could keep that going for three months, six months. Heck, maybe you could do that for a year. But at some point, human nature states that we are pleasure seeking creatures. It's something we talk about endlessly here. At some point you are going to crash and burn. This is one of the things I hate most about diet culture, right? If we are so brainwashed, is the word I'm going to use there to think, all in, all out, I'm doing this perfectly. I messed up, and now I'll starting in Monday. So who cares? I'm already down the rabbit hole. Let me have six donuts instead of one. If you are putting your horse blinders on and trying to do this, quote, unquote perfectly, at some point, you are going to cave, you're going to binge, you're going to burn out, and you're not going to do it anymore. I'm going to interrupt this episode real quickly to ask a 32nd favor, if you are loving the podcast, if you can tap that Five Star Review button above, maybe even leave a few nice words. It is the biggest help to getting the podcast out there. As the time I'm recording this, we don't advertise the podcast, so we rely on our old friend, the algorithm, to help get it in the hands of other women. Leaving a review is the absolute number one way to help us do that. Thank you in advance. Thank you. Thank you. Now, let's get back to the episode. It is my truth of truths, in my soul of souls, that I would rather our members do this 75 to 80% rather than 100% because hashtag, bigger life statement, anything in life is sustainable around 75 to 80% 100% is not sustainable. Long term, that is human nature. Again, if you are a Navy Seal, you could blow me out of the water with your willpower. And science has proven that willpower is an exhaustible resource. It is not a matter of how mentally tough am I. It's a matter of, welcome to being a human if you have a pulse and a heartbeat, this applies to you. Now I want to take this one step further. Because, number one, when people come to me and they're shouting from the rooftops the fact that they've done this perfectly, I wouldn't say this to them in real time, because I'm not trying to deflate their efforts. And the reality is, you're not doing this perfectly. There's a stat, if you've listened to older episodes, I come back to this a lot because it's, it's kind of bananas. There is a stat that nutrition labels themselves are allowed legally. They are allowed to be up to 25% inaccurate. Every time I hear that, I think of a surgeon like, well, who's the wrong limb, but limb. But hey, I have a 25% margin of error. Like, 25% is a large margin of error, but that's actually fantastic news for us, because even if we think we are hitting our macros, quote, unquote, perfectly, you are not, and it still works. So I share that stat a lot, because especially when people are new to this journey, they come in and they're like, I'm so overwhelmed, because I'm trying to do this perfectly, and how do I hit my macros perfectly every day? And the first thing I tell them is, let's let's drop our shoulders and take a deep breath. Because number one, you cannot do this perfectly, even if you there's not the goal. Our goal is not to 000, meaning like zero carbs left zero fat, love zero part. That is not the ultimate goal, even if it was, and even if you did that, if you were super overachiever and you zeroed out your macros every day, you are still not doing it perfectly, because the margin of error, legally for nutrition labels, is up to 25% so knowing that we can take a deep breath and we can relax and know that if we're going to make this binary, if we're going To make this black or white Option A is the seafood diet I see food I eat it, the shame, the blame, the guilt, the regret kicks in. Option B is I do my best to get as close to my macros as often as possible. And I know that compared to Option A the old way, I am doing infinitely better, and my body is going to respond. So today's episode is kind of quick and dirty, because this is a reminder that we need time and time again. As the the founder and CEO of a nutrition based company, I will be the first to shout from the rooftops. And this is my truth. I have said it to every single member who's ever asked me inside the world of Ignite, and there have been over 3000 of them that gun to my head. I would rather every single woman that I work with, every single woman that I'll never work with, that I'll never meet. I would rather you do this 75 80% than 100% because 75 80% is sustainable. 100% is not. And at the end of the day, you are driving yourself bananas for something that you're not doing 100% anyway. So you've heard me talk about humans love rules for the sake of rules, right? We create these arbitrary rules that we have to stick with come hell or high water, even if we think we're abiding by the rules we've created. You're not doing it perfectly. You don't need to do it perfectly. The name of the game is to create a sustainable lifestyle. And to create a sustainable lifestyle, that means doing what's sustainable, which is 75 to 80% not 100

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