Flexibility Not Perfection With Kate Lyman

Description

Key Takeaways

Popular diets and images from social media promote the idea that you need to be perfect to achieve your nutrition and lifestyle goals. Don’t be fooled. Nothing and no one is perfect. Being smart, intelligent, and flexible in your choices is the key.

Being flexible in how and what you eat will better help you reach your goals than a strict diet. Depending on your goals, there will be times when you want different macronutrients. However, allowing yourself the flexibility to still eat what brings you joy will lead to long-term sustainability.

Many women are given the wrong message when it comes to their bodies. Yo-yo diets and other unhealthy eating habits are the norm yet they leave us feeling terrible in many ways. Diet culture will take its toll on you. Today’s guest strives to reverse this by setting her patients on the right track.

About Kate Lyman

Kate is a nutrition coach and the owner of Kate Lyman Nutrition. With nearly a decade in the fitness industry, Kate understands how to successfully run a nutrition business. Along with her growing team, she has helped hundreds of people change their bodies and eating habits as she breaks myths about dieting and healthy lifestyles.

Kate has a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, a Master's degree in Public Health, and is a Certified Health Education Specialist. Her priority is supporting her clients, but she also manages a team of other qualified coaches and loves to share nutrition education through social media.

The Myths of Perfectionism

With many women getting caught up in the pursuit of perfection with their diets and their bodies, Kate has some solid advice. First off, no single diet will lead to perfection. In fact, relying on one will only lead to disappointment and negativity as they are nearly impossible to maintain over the long-run. Coupled with images of “perfect bodies” on social media, it’s no wonder so many women feel inadequate. The truth is, perfection is not the route to your goal.

Being Flexible to Meet Your Goals

Rather than relying on any single solution, Kate urges us to practice what she calls flexible nutrition. By tracking your macronutrients to ensure that you're eating right to meet your specific goals, you’ll be able to create the diet that’s right for you. You’ll still be able to eat many of the foods you enjoy, which is an important part of maintaining long-term sustainability.

The goals you set are also an important part of long-term health and nutrition. Kate recommends shifting your focus from big lofty goals to more boring-sounding ones. If your goal is simply to feel good and have energy, then you will lay the foundation needed to reach a big goal later on.

Has the pursuit of perfectionism led you astray? Tell me about it in the comments on the episode page!

Got a question you’d love to hear me answer on the show? Leave me a voice message here!

In This Episode

How Kate’s own health and wellness journey has impacted her philosophy [3:50]
Avoiding the pitfalls of fad-diets and social-media [8:15]
Using flexible nutrition to reach your goals [12:40]
The value of having a boring goal [17:55]
Earning the right to workout (not your food) [21:45]
How 2020 has impacted people’s goals in different ways [26:30]
Building habits to take care of yourself without overdoing it [32:10]
Overcoming imposter syndrome as a business-owner [40:50]

Quotes

“The idea that we can stick to a diet and do it forever because it’s the ‘right thing’ sets us up for failure from the get-go.” [9:54]

“We can have flexibility in our food choices so that we are following a practice that is sustainable for us. But we can also have flexibility in our approach and our strategy in how we handle our nutrition.”[14:30]

“It’s really important to set yourself up in a way where your goals are actually realistic to you and your lifestyle because when there’s no alignment between the two, we’re going to get frustrated.” [30:48]

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