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We meet a lot of people who say they have an ‘all or nothing’ mindset. Now sometimes this can mean that if that person is ‘on it’ then they indeed will get great results. However, for long term success, we see time and time again this all or nothing mindset leads to unsustainable habits with both their nutrition or training. This ultimately sets people up to fail and it means they end up ‘falling off the wagon’ and ending up back where they started.

In reality, nobody needs to be perfect to get great results. We say that you can get these amazing results if you stay on track for roughly 80% of the time. This means that we can plan to go ‘off track’, for the remaining 20% without any feelings of guilt, knowing full well that this is all part of the plan for long term, sustainable results. This holds true for both nutrition and training.

The truth is that our body doesn’t care about what we have in a specific meal, it is more concerned with what we have ‘on average’, so as long as we improve our training and nutrition on ‘average’, we will make progress.

With regard to training, this simply means that maybe you can get away with scaling the intensity back a bit every now and then, or missing the odd session.

Regarding nutrition, a more flexible way of eating we encourage is often referred to as ‘flexible dieting’; this approach effectively states that there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods in isolation, only ‘good’ or ‘bad’ diets as whole.

Its main benefit is that it allows us to include foods that we enjoy, remain more flexible and allow us to stay more consistent in our approach to eating. This therefore leads to far greater success in the long term, rather than being rigid, having too many rules and making your approach unsustainable in the long run.

Whilst strict rules and rigidity may be great for kickstarting a diet, we find that this is a terrible recipe for long term success and that as soon as we start saying that certain foods are 'off-limits', 'banned', 'bad' or 'I can't have that'... our brains will almost immediately make us want them more than ever!

This is especially true when these 'banned' foods are the foods that you enjoy!

It’s always worth stating that whether you goal is to lose fat, gain muscle or maintain your weight and focus on health and performance, the most important factors are that you are eating the correct number of calories, you are eating adequate protein, you're getting plenty of fruits and vegetables and that your activity and exercise are geared towards your goals... Everything else is down to personal preference.

When I say “everything else”, this is largely referring to the rest of the food that you're consuming, outside of the protein / fruit / veg. All foods are allowed, no foods are banned... we just need to think of them in relation to our start point and how suitable they may be in relation to our goals.

Therefore, I strongly urge you to move away from labelling foods as 'good' and 'bad', 'foods that you can and can't have' and even 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' foods. Rather, you should think of foods in relation to their calorie density and their nutrient density, with typically thought of 'healthy food' tending to be lower in calories and higher in nutrients... whereas typically referred to 'unhealthy food' is often higher in calories and lower in nutrients (and often sweeter). Then you simply have to get the balance right - i.e. the correct portion sizes depending on your goals.

 

BENEFITS OF FLEXIBLE DIETING

1. It's flexible.

   You're not restricting yourself to eating only certain foods or making food choices based on their nutritional value alone. Instead, you're focusing on getting the right amount of calories and nutrients in your body so that you can feel satisfied and energised throughout the day without feeling hungry between meals or snacking too much at night.

2. It's sustainable.

   Flexible dieting allows you to enjoy treats occasionally without feeling guilty for consuming them because they're ‘off-limits’ from your diet — which is often what happens when people try to restrict entire food groups from their diets for an extended period of time.

3. It helps prevent overeating

   This is due to restricting certain food groups altogether! When you have more freedom with what you can eat, you can include these things little and often and there's less chance of overindulgence.

4. Develops a much healthier relationship with food!

   Flexible dieting helps to make informed decisions without stressing over granular details. Over time this will help you to feel like you aren’t on a diet or tracking every little detail which can often lead to mental fatigue and boredom.
   
   

HOW TO APPLY FLEXIBLE DIETING?

For someone looking to lose weight, the majority of the food they eat would probably be best coming from the lower-calories/higher-nutrient category, whilst reducing the higher-calorie/lower-nutrient category... as the former tend to give us more sustained energy and have a higher food volume relative to their calories… in other words, it feels like we’re eating a lot, when we aren’t actually consuming that many calories.

However, someone looking to maintain or even gain weight may be able to include more of the foods typically found in the higher-calorie/lower-nutrient category.

Whatever someone's current start point and their goals, there is often more than enough room to occasionally enjoy foods from the higher calorie/lower nutrient end of the spectrum, as long as these fit within our calorie goals, as well as getting sufficient protein and plenty of fruits and vegetables.

To conclude, it is possible and sometimes actively encouraged to eat these 'unhealthy' foods as part of your healthy diet, as this flexibility is what can keep people on track long term and thus people are more likely to achieve their goals and keep hold of their hard earned results.