Persistence

Persistence: according to Webster persistence is defined as: "the action of existing for a long or longer than usual time or continuously." Now, what does this have to do with Crossfit? Or even more importantly, your diet? It has everything to do with it.

As people we are constantly bombarded with advertisements for McDonald's, ice cream, bread, sugar; all of the things that we as followers of a Zone/Paleo diet need to keep out of our life. How do we do this on a long term basis? We need to be persistent. This means a couple of things to me. First off it means that if I fall off the wagon or eat an entire pizza in one sitting, I don't beat myself up over it. The second thing it means is that when that happens (and it will happen, its inevitable) the very next day or meal, I am right back to hitting my diet on target. Whether you Zone, eat Paleo or Primal, or even are on the Natural Hormonal Enhancement diet, you need to be able to jump right back in to good food choices.

I personally find it extremely difficult to adhere to a diet 365 days a year 24 hours a day. In fact I find it difficult to make it through a week sometimes. However, I have been very successful at losing weight and gaining muscle (45 pounds of weight lost and 15 pounds of muscle put on). This entirely has to do with the fact that I have been extremely persistent in my dietary habits over the last year. There are a couple of ways that we can increase our ability to stay persistent in our food habits:

• Eliminate all cheat foods from the house. This includes bread, pasta, vegetable oils, cake, cookies, basically anything that would allow you to have a breakdown.
  
• Eat at home. This is an extremely simple thing to do for some, and incredibly difficult for others. Prior to my shift to a zone/paleo diet a year ago, I had never cooked. Now I probably cook 15 meals a week at a minimum.
  
• Get your friends to buy in. Ok this is definitely the most difficult, but I am a big believer in telling people what you are doing. Some are going to tell you its stupid, others are going to be totally on board. In my opinion, letting people know forces you to stick with it because you know that they know what you are doing.
  
• Adapt your favorite foods. I love potatoes, specifically I love hashbrowns and french fries. Unfortunately neither food is really considered healthy in anyway whatsoever. I will on occasion make sweet potato french fries or hash browns. This is a great alternative that is significantly healthier than any regular potato dish you make. Plus this limits the cravings for regular fries.
• Go to the gym! This one is simple, if you are working out, you tend to feel like you need to eat better to match up with all the hard work you are doing on the elliptical (whoops! Wrong crowd. I meant on the rower!).
  

Now we come back to the question of how do we limit the damage if we do fall off the dietary wagon. One of the key things is knowing what you are doing and what you are going to do in the future to keep going strong on your diet. For example, lets say you are a zoner that is going out drinking with your friends on a Friday night. You are probably going to have some beer and hard alcohol, possibly even too much. One of the things that I would do in this case is to limit my carb intake for the day. I know I am going out drinking and I know that each beer is maybe 1.5 carb blocks, I just eliminate as many carbs as I can throughout the course of the day to make sure I am not overdoing it too much. You could also do this by limiting your carbs the following day.

Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint. We have changed our lifestyles so that we can live a longer and healthier life. Not a life devoid of pleasure. If you have a piece of chocolate cake just remember that when you have breakfast the next morning it is going to be your perfectly healthy meal of some eggs, coffee, and a couple of pieces of fruit. We should strive to be hitting our dietary eating goals (i.e. what we put in our mouths) about 5-6 days a week. Some can do better, most cannot. This is something that is difficult for everyone. Just remember if you aren't perfect one day, get right back to it the next.

What are your ways to stay persistent in your diet? Also, what helps you to be persistent in every part of your life? Please post to comments.