by Sophie Pelham-Burn NMEDSCI, ANUTR TOP FIVE LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM OLYMPIC ATHLETES
But don’t worry, I am currently working on a little something that will help you out with that (and loads of other nutrition questions) so hold tight and I’ll give you more details in next month’s column! #3 Don't Be Afraid To Break The Plan This next one is crucial. Don’t be afraid to break the plan! All of the planning for my athletes had to be pretty flexible as we didn’t know what food options they would have once they got to China, and we had no idea how they would manage the dining in/out options in the athlete village given the covid situation. That didn’t stop some of them from panicking about it though, and given that they were already stepping into one of the most stressful and pressured situations of their professional careers to date, that added layer of stress was not helpful. And as much as it wasn’t helpful for the athletes at that moment, that kind of stress isn’t at all helpful for the rest of us either. So if your plan means you technically shouldn’t go out for that nice decadent dinner with the girls or is preventing you from doing something you enjoy, screw the plan. You can always pick it up again the next day. But missing out on social events because you’re worried the food won’t fit your plan or stressing because the supermarket doesn’t have the right brand of some special food isn’t going to help you in the long term. So while you do need to have a plan to see results in the long term, every plan needs to allow for some flexibility. #4 It Takes Time Any nutrition intervention will always take time to show results which is why, when I start working with a new client, we put process goals in place to help maintain focus and give a sense of achievement to keep you motivated until the longer-term results start to make an appearance.
I’d go as far as to say that with any self-care intervention the main results take time, whether that’s to do with physical or mental health, but just because the results you want aren’t visible from the outside yet doesn’t mean you’re not making fundamental changes on the inside that are paving the way, and it’s so important to celebrate those along the journey. If you get disheartened every 2 weeks and change tack, you’re not allowing your body the time it needs to start making and consolidating those changes, so chances are it will take a lot longer to achieve your original, overarching goals. #5 Reassess Once you’ve defined your goals, figured out the best plan to achieve them (and allowed for enough flexibility that it fits in with your life), and consistently stuck to your process goals, what next? Next up, we need to reassess to make sure you are actually going in the direction you want to. This is the bit that a lot of people forget. We tend to get fairly entrenched in our nutritional beliefs and definitely our foodie habits, even when they’re not working for us anymore. Athletes are particularly susceptible to this, as they start to associate a specific behaviour with a good competition result, but the rest of us are definitely guilty of it too! Every 8-12 weeks, it’s important to take a step back and really take a look at what is working for you, and what isn’t. Are you consistently hitting your process goals, but the needle isn’t moving towards your overall goal? If it is, great! Give yourself a pat on the back and carry on. If not, think about what could need tweaking to help you get there. It’s very rare that non-athletes have goals that are as time-bound as those of professional athletes but it still helps to have action plans in place to help us achieve our goals, whatever they may be. By having confidence in what you’re doing, thinking it through, and reassessing periodically we can all reap the rewards of good nutrition!
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