I was talking with a friend recently who said he had hit a bit of a plateau.
Weโve all been there โ that uncomfortable place where the scale stops moving, or the strength gainz slow down.
Heck, Iโve even written a whole article about โbusting through a plateauโ.
As Iโve been revisiting the last 15 years of Nerd Fitness, I stumbled across an absolute doozy of an old video of me.
Itโs baby Steve, from 11 years ago, sitting on a poop-brown couch (Why did I think this was the right color couch to buy?), with helmet hair.
I laughed as I watched this video, but Iโm also proud of Past Me for putting this out in the world!
The โNever Two in a Rowโ Rule
The โNever 2 in a Rowโ Rule is simple:
- Follow up any โunhealthyโ meal with a healthy one.
- If you miss a workout, do it THE NEXT DAY.
In other words, who cares if you โmess upโ once? Just donโt โmess upโ twice in a row. Because missing two in a row quickly becomes 3 or 5 or 10 or a lost year. But missing once? Fine! Just get right back on track.
Think of it this way: if you followed up every unhealthy meal with a healthy one, then at least 50% of your meals would be healthy! Thatโs a pretty dang good percent.
It can also help us avoid an โall-or-nothingโ mindset.
Now, I wanted to update my philosophy around plateaus and this rule, so letโs get weird.
A plateau doesnโt have to be a bad thing.
A plateau is often frustrating, because we humans love progress.
Hereโs the thing: when the alternative is โmoving in the wrong direction,โ a plateau IS progress, especially if youโre used to losing weight and then backsliding.
If weโre not losing weight, and weโre not gaining weight, then weโre eating roughly the same number of calories that our body burns daily. Thatโs it. This is neither good nor bad, itโs just math.
In other words, a plateau can be a really really good thing. It can mean youโve chosen to just tread water for a bit, or youโre taking a strategic pause.
If youโre not getting stronger in the gym, thereโs still a benefit to keeping your muscles warmed-up with a basic workout, even if itโs not an improvement over the past workout.
When life is a dumpster fire, a โplateauโ can be a HUGE win.
Next, letโs talk about โNever two in a row,โ and how I would update my language these days.
Healthy vs Unhealthy
In my video above, I say, โfollow up an unhealthy meal with a healthy one.โ
15 years later, I donโt love using the word โhealthyโ vs. โunhealthy,โ because it assigns some morality to the foods we eat.
(I realize most of us know roughly what we mean by healthy, so I donโt eliminate the word completely from my vocab!)
Instead, letโs talk about a reframing of โhealthy vs unhealthyโ:
Sometimes, we eat fast food because our kids want to eat it (or because weโre traveling and itโs the only option at the airport). We donโt have to always optimize for weight loss or calories. Sometimes we optimize for convenience, or family, or sustenance.
This is neither morally good nor bad. Itโs simply a meal we chose to eat.
If we have a goal that requires a calorie deficit, great! We can follow up a high-calorie meal with a lower-calorie meal. No morality or shame or judgment required. Just math and progress.
Because a โcalorieโ is just a unit of measure, not an indication of its quality!
This is how a professor famously lost weight on โthe โTwinkie Diet,โโ specifically to show the math of weight loss does come down to calories:
On his โconvenience store diet,โ he shed 27 pounds in two months.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haubโs pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.
His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal.
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
As I talked about in my โ5 Beliefs Iโve Changed My Mind Onโ, Iโve cut way back on my fear mongering around certain foods โ we beat ourselves up enough, and our weight is unbelievably complicated and nuanced.
So where does that leave us?
We are adults and we can make our own choices. We can choose to follow up a high calorie meal with a more nutrient dense, low calorie meal. We can mix and match.
Itโs NOT all or nothing, and itโs not immoral to eat chips or ice cream. It is what it is!
In our โโGuide to healthy eating,โโ we point out which foods are nutritionally-light and higher-calorie (processed foods, snack foods, candy, soda, etc.), and which foods are nutritionally-dense and lower-calorie (fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains).
You can decide what โhealthyโ means to you, and what โunhealthyโ means. You can also decide to switch your language to โhigher calorie vs. lower calorie.โ
And then apply the Never 2 in a Row Rule!
Missing a workout
Sometimes, we miss a workout.
This also doesnโt need to be a source of shame or guilt.
Nor does it mean โI suck and Iโll try again next year.โ
Itโs just a thing that happened.
Instead of saying โI didnโt have time to work out today,โ which brings up feelings of guilt and shame and sadnessโฆ.
Instead we can say, โWorking out today was not a priority.โ Strategic! Sure, we might need to do some compassionate inner work on why it wasnโt a priority, but sometimes itโs just because life was an absolute dumpster fire that day!
This past week, my workout schedule was thrown off, and I didnโt work out on my regular workout days.
It wasnโt because I didnโt have time to work outโฆbut because working out wasnโt a priority for meโฆI had other things going on that were more important to me.
At the same time, I knew my mental health would benefit from me doing something, so I did my two half-assed workouts, went for a quick walk on the other days, and thatโs it.
Never Two in a Row
To recap: If you miss a workout, who cares! Just do whatever you can to not miss two workouts in a row. This can help us from losing too much momentum.
If you eat a high-calorie meal, great! I hope it was delicious. Follow it up with a lower-calorie meal, hopefully one thatโs satiating and nutritionally full.
All-or-nothing doesnโt work. And we donโt have to be perfect.
And if we overeat at one meal, adjust the next one.
If we miss a workout, get the next one.
Just, donโt miss two in a row, and youโll be surprised how much progress you can make!
Even if that progress is a plateauโฆitโs better than going in the wrong direction.
-Steve