A fit and healthy lifestyle is not only about how you look and perform, but also how and what you think, how you respond to various stimuli, how you solve problems, and how you deal with the world you are living in. Precision Nutrition calls this Deep Health and the six domains involved are all equally important. This week, you will be focusing on your environment and how this domain affects everything on your journey and in your life.

How does your environment affect what you eat, how consistently you workout, how much willpower you have?

Simply put, your environment is the difference between achieving your goals for good or never realizing them.

Factors such as: Where you live, who you live with, where or whether you keep certain foods in your house and even the weather are all currently helping you get closer to your goals or pushing you further away from them. There are many more, these just skim the surface.

What about willpower and motivation?

We could fill a pool if we had a drop of water for every time someone has said, “I just need to get motivated” or “I need to exercise more willpower”

These are two of the biggest fallacies in the fitness world.

In fact, talk to anyone who has sustained a high level of fitness or has kept weight off for a long time and they will tell you willpower and motivation have very little to do with it.

People who are able to stay lean and healthy for their lifetimes are people who have built environments that support lean and healthy lifestyles.

Willpower is a very finite resource that empties pretty quickly if it is called into use all day long.

Motivation is a temporary emotion. Like feeling sad, elated or angry, it passes with time.

Your habits are what power your fitness journey and your environment is what will sustain those habits. It is best to think of willpower and motivation as your backup generator - for those times when habits fail, these can be used to sustain you for a short time, but you would never use a backup generator as your main power source.

How does your environment affect your workout regimen or nutrition plan?

“Control your environment, otherwise it will control you,” says Mike Ferry, a well-known business coach.

Let’s consider what is within your control and what is out of your control regarding your environment.

Things that are outside of your control include:

The weather, your neighbors, what stores are close by, and how the people you live with may eat or prioritize exercise.

The things within your control are the ones to focus on, including:

What foods you buy and keep in the house, how and when you prepare your meals, and how organized you keep your house.

So how can you take control of the controllables in your environment?

Start with the lowest hanging fruit and work your way up.

Take a look at this list of tips and pick one or two that seem simple and easy for you to complete this week.

-Clean up your kitchen and counters to make a welcoming space to meal prep in.

-Clean out your cupboards of foods that aren't helping you reach your goals (ie. processed foods with low nutrient value including high sugar snacks, chips, candy).

-Dedicate a cupboard in the kitchen for your children's snacks with a reminder on a note of your goals in case you find yourself unable to control your intake of these foods.

-Organize your refrigerator to make room for your meal prep and place the healthier options in the front.

-Organize a space dedicated to your workouts if you plan to workout from home.

-Put out all your workout clothes the night before for easy access if you workout at a gym.

-Keep the red light foods (these are foods that are hard to only eat 1 serving size) in the basement or garage or even the trunk of your car.

-Keep red light foods out of the house altogether. In this scenario, if you decide you are going to have them on any particular day, you'll need to drive to the store, giving your rational brain time to consider if you truly want the food and why.

-Choose 1 evening each week that you will eat at the kitchen table without any distractions (ie. no TV on, no phone use, no loud music, etc.) to give your full attention to the meal.

-Choose 1 day per week you will eat your lunch away from your computer to eliminate distractions to give your full attention to the meal.

-Choose a different route to or from work if you are in the habit of impulsively stopping at a particular store, fast food joint or coffee shop to get something outside of your plan.

-Choose 1 night per week that you will eat out in order to decrease your flex meal intake and stay on course with your meal plan.

Again, this is only a starting list and some of these tips may not be necessary for you. Most likely, one of the options listed above is right up your alley and can help you in a small way.

Taking control of your environment doesn't have to mean taking huge leaps beyond your capabilities. Choose one change to make this week, and stay consistent with it. This new change may take you a few weeks or months before it feels habitual, but with patience, consistency and effort, it will become automatic for you.

This week marks six weeks into your nutrition program. The halfway mark is a great time to check in with yourself and your coaches to review your progress, decide what has helped, and what you need to continue to focus on.

Questions to ask yourself:

What small changes have I made since beginning this program?

What changes have I been consistent with?

What changes do I need to continue to work on and become more consistent with?

Regardless of how much progress you've made these last few weeks, you are doing incredible things for your health. The progress will come, and although you may be wishing it were coming faster, it's happening with every small change you make.

There are no failures, only learning opportunities.