“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
“We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.”
-Aristotle
As we enter an extremely busy time of year, I am revisiting some advice I provided a proactive officer (over a year ago now) who was struggling to maintain decent nutritional habits while on the job. This hero was truly trying his best and was feeling overwhelmed due the stress of the job, the insane hours, and what was available to him while he was on shift. He also often only had a few minutes to eat, which led to him skipping meals, and making poor choices later.
Here was my practical advice for him, which I’ve updated with some phenomenal products from We Go Home:
What is challenging for you, is the timing of everything. If you don't have time to eat a real meal, but if you can throw a cooler in your trunk here are some options:
1) Wheat Bread, Turkey (Phenomenal post Thanksgiving), Avocado, something green on the sandwich. You could also do a wrap. Maybe a small amount of dried fruit like blue berries or strawberries?
2) Greek Yogurt, almond butter, blueberries, some kind of veggie (could drink a veggie powder, again if due to time constraints)
3) Archers brand Beef Jerky or something similar, handful of almonds, veggie powder
4) Super Fast Meal, and can make before shift but needs to stay cold: Protein Powder, veggie powder, Kefir (it's like yogurt, think good gut health via probiotics), Spoon of almond butter or natural peanut butter
5) Tuna Packets, Almonds, Canned Veggies- This reads like prepper food but could still work. Not ideal, but better than eating 99% of fast food.
Are these perfect options? Of course not. They’re just better than others. Ideally yes, this man would have his own garden behind his house and his own grass fed cows that he butchers on the weekends…but until he gets his farm we are going to have to do what is practical.
This is the kind of advice well meaning people miss because we often over complicate healthy habits. I’ve also had people tell me if they can’t do the “healthy” thing at 100%, they just don’t care and won’t do anything. Do not do that. Do what you can.
If 80-90% of the time you are making better choices I’d argue most people will reach their goals. Maybe not as fast, but they’d probably achieve general health and fitness in a sustainable fashion. This is not medical advice, just anecdotal observations from a knuckle-dragger.
Practical, repeatable, and feasible habits are where people need to live. This is how you survive a 20+ year career in this profession and why I wrote a book about it.
Almost anyone can sneak in a healthy meal here and there. Where you make your money is what you do day in and day out. It is the reason why in 6 months one morning you either wake up in shape or wake up overweight.
