If you’re a person who sees the world in black and white, chances are good you are very familiar with the feeling of “all or nothing” mentality. My husband sees the world this way, and I have always laughed because I am ALL about the grey area!

While there are situations in life that call for being black and white, that is not the world of macros. You are going to want to embrace the grey if you are looking for long-term success with macros. 

Chances are high if you hang around the SFM community for more than two minutes, you’ll hear and see phrases like “consistency over perfection,” “every day is a new day,” “just do your best.”….this is because we have proven over and over again that doing the GOOD thing CONSISTENTLY will always trump being perfect for a short time. 

I love to tell my clients that CONSISTENCY trumps PERFECTION. Gimme a girl who is hitting her numbers 26/30 days of the month, and I’ll show you a girl who’s achieving her goals. Sometimes when we come into something new like macros, we are all fired up and excited, and really get into that 7/7 groove of hitting our macros (which is AWESOME!!!), but then after a few weeks we flame out and lose the vision. We start to estimate, slip in a few extra tastes and bites, and slide into what I call “sloppy” green days. From this point, it’s easy to slip even further and think, well, I’m not going to hit my numbers on the head today, so I’m just gonna forget it, eat what I want today and start again tomorrow.

The problem with this is that it’s a slippery slope. There will always be tomorrow to reset, yes, but if we are always telling ourselves that, then tomorrow never comes and we are stuck giving up which becomes a habit in itself. Macros is too much work to do a halfway job on! Who wants to put in the work of tracking their macros all day just to blow it at the end of the day? Nobody!!!!

Redirect those “all or nothing” expectations you put on yourself and macros, and instead work on achieving “good” consistently. A green day doesn’t even mean perfection, it simply means that you fueled your body in balance for its needs. It may have included fries and a candy bar- not ideal when we get down to micronutrients, but by hitting our numbers overall, we kept it between the guardrails and maintained that balance. If you feel yourself starting to lose your grip on the day, remember that damage control mode is better than setting fire to the wagon because you lost a wheel!! Salvage the day as best you can (aim for protein + calories as your back up plan, or simply your calorie goal as your back up to the back up plan!), and start fresh tomorrow. I promise that you can’t mess this up as long as you keep getting back on the horse and starting again!!! 

We want you to be successful at macros and make them work for YOU with your lifestyle, because if it works with how you live, it will be something you can sustain and continue to see progress and results months and years from now. Regardless of where you are in your macro journey, you are honing tools that will support your health and wellness for the rest of your life!