Our Lows Don’t Lie

If you want to be successful with your fitness and nutrition goals, you have to focus less on what you do on your best days, and more on what you do on your worst days.

For example, last week was my wife’s birthday, and I had what I would consider to be one of my “worst” days of eating. I had donuts, pizza, margaritas, and cake. But, I still hit my protein and fiber goals, got 10,000 steps, drank a lot of water and made intentional decisions about what I would indulge in.

For the version of me from 8 years ago, that would have been the “best” I could have done.

At times we get frustrated with ourselves because we miss certain goals in a week. We skip a workout or don’t get all of our steps one day. But, within that week, we still got all our other workouts in, all of our steps on the other days, we were on point with our nutrition and planned ahead.

Overall, we had a great week with a lot of really positive outcomes, but we are focusing too much on what we didn’t do. Would the you from 6 months ago feel the same way?

What you consider today as a “bad week” was likely the best week you could have 6 months ago. And, maybe it wouldn’t even have seemed possible 6 months before that. The floor is significantly higher that it was before, and that’s how we know it’s going to stick. Anybody can be on point for a day or even a week or two. The mark of success is how good your worst is, not how good your best it.

So instead of focusing on “what’s the best I can do” try focus on “what’s the worst I can do” and raise your floor. Take small actions everyday so that even on your worst day, you’re still doing well. It can be hard to get motivated by the little things, but we have to celebrate our wins no matter how small they feel.

Because even if we see a lower number on the scale one day and it spikes back up the next, or we hit a PR at the gym but can’t hit it again the next week, those numbers are real wins. Our lows don’t lie to us. Our personal bests don’t lie to us. We don’t need to get them every single day for them to be true.

Think about it this way:

Imagine a big river - like the Hudson or the Mississippi. From standing on the banks, the water seems to flow at the same level. But in reality, under the surface, the river bed is dropping (because we know rivers flow downhill). It isn’t until the river meets a dam that we see what’s been happening below the surface all along.

The same is true with our weight. Weighing yourself on the scale every day can seem like the number isn’t getting any smaller. Under the surface our weight is trending down over time, but factors like stress and water weight make it seem like it’s not moving. It isn’t until we reach a dam - or as we say in the fitness industry a “woosh” - that all of the factors line up and we see the number on the scale drop.

I go into more detail on this idea plus how to raise your floor and celebrate your wins in this week’s podcast episode.

Check out this video if you want to see more of an explanation on the river analogy in more detail.