You know how some weeks you seem to be living under a black cloud? There is no joy in Mudville. A button falls off your shirt when you’re already running late. You lock your keys in the car. There goes the coffee all over your desk.

It’s not been that kind of week. Insurance companies have parted like the Red Sea to allow my patients their recommended testing. Michael and I had an outstanding dance night. Someone sent a really nice email. I got to send some really nice emails :).

And you know what I don’t think about at all during these kinds of weeks?

Food.

I eat to keep fueling the body, but it’s almost hard to remember to do that. Even the world-famous homemade cinnamon rolls in the office break area aren’t enticing. “Flow” takes over and we aren’t trying to escape from life with a few seconds of pleasure that turn into regret.

I know life can’t be all sunshine and roses, so let’s consider now our go-to happy place for when life is treating you like a baby treats a diaper. Confession? I loves me some Glee videos on youtube. Don’t judge. If you can’t find yours, let’s talk :).

When we can see the joy in little parts of life, there’s less of a desire to look for that artificial high or pick-me-up from sugar. Whether that sugar is in the form of candy or alcohol, it’s all just a super-short jolt of faux joy.

A cooling-off period may be just the thing to regain self-control in a challenging situation so we don’t resort to unhelpful food-based coping mechanisms. MOST of us return to the scene of the cheat crime over and over - throwing a block in the execution of that cue-routine-reward pattern can start us on the road to NEW habits.

All the best,

Marcey

Coach Marcey Tidwell started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program! She agrees with Abe Lincoln: “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

One of the most interesting challenges I’ve taken on in recent weeks is making coaching assignments for the food portion of individual Meltdown programs and boot camps. There are many competing interests to weigh - personalities, goals, relatability - is the coach someone the client thinks has “been there and done that” and can be a role model for their plan? A shared perspective is the goal, and the coach needs empathy, while still being able to give nudges, gentle guidance, and even a little tough love.

A favorite reading topic in recent years has been how the medical mind thinks, and how to get the best out of your health care by understanding that. Knowing anyone’s thought processes is a benefit no matter the venue where you interact. Knowing the coach’s perspective can go a long way toward maximizing the benefit you get from your program.

It’s important to know that each coach is first and foremost a client who does this because they have received much from the program, and believe strongly in helping the next person along. This pretty much means we’re the same as all clients - not a class goes by that I don’t see _someone_ who has been around for a while helping a newer participant.

One potential pitfall is that much of our communication is in writing. While we do our best to meet all clients face-to-face, the email medium can be a challenge to get all the nuance we hope for, ESPECIALLY in a sensitive area like food and weight. We lose the non-verbal cues that are so critical when we’re trying to impart AND receive information.

And sometimes clients may not want to disappoint their coach if a log is off-target, especially if there’s an unplanned cheat. It has been my experience that (not always but) oftentimes logs we have to chase after contain things that clients may prefer not to recall. This is the stuff we REALLY need to know :). We’ve ALL been there and you’re not likely to say or do something we haven’t done or seen before. After 15 bootcamps’ worth of clients, I still have a full head of (mostly) not-gray hair ;).

How can we work through the most common obstacles?

Above all, communication is a two-way street - if we don’t hear from you, we’re not sure if you’re insanely busy or in a ditch somewhere. You might be following the plan perfectly or drowning in a Slushee sea - no way to know (ok - we may know in a couple of weeks at the scale, but that’s lost time when we could be helping :). Reporting daily is correlated with better results, period. The logs you submit will be more accurate and feedback more timely and helpful. An unspoken cheat doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and we are ready to help you through all kinds of challenges.

Second, check our imaginations at the door. As a woman, I’m the first to admit we may read more than what’s on the page and insert inflections and emphases unintended by the writer. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years searching for synonyms making sure the nuance I intend is there. And sometimes what I think makes perfect sense when I’m emailing it may be missing information (I have been known to accidentally transmit some information psychically that I thought I said or wrote ;). And sometimes autocorrect does some seriously wild stuff!

Also, all your coaches have an extremely overdeveloped work ethic/hoarding disorder and feel like a kid missing a critical Pokemon card when they don’t have a complete set of food logs :).

It usually all comes down to keeping the lines of communication open - help us help YOU. The Meltdown program is built on three pieces - diet, exercise and accountability - don’t miss that critical third leg!

All the best,

Marcey

Coach Marcey Tidwell started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program! She believes that only when we hear the good, bad AND the ugly can we really understand the whole picture.

As I read Adam’s blog on the cheat-free year, I was thrilled to see one LAST chance to reference Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before. One of the accepted tenets of the Meltdown food plans is that “cheats” are built in. Surely no one can survive with letting their hair down a little? Aren’t we supposed to “practice moderation in all things?”

But there may be some people for whom taking even periodic and time-specific breaks from our usual way of eating may be the first step down a slippery slope. Perhaps those people need to consider more of an abstention mindset. And that may be more of us than we think.

If you are a person who experiences cheat bleeds, abstaining from your trigger foods entirely may be a better option than trying to put on the brakes once you’ve started. The intent of the Prime program is to work toward a situation where cheats truly are a special occasion or “in case of emergency break glass” option, as opposed to something we do every other weekend after weigh-in (or for two or three days after weigh-in.)

If you are a person who has a history of other addictive behaviors, you may want to consider that those receptors continue to exist in the brain even after the behavior ceases, just waiting for a new (potentially maladaptive) coping mechanism to take its place. There is a reason people often gain weight after smoking cessation.

If you are a person who is a stress eater (and I know you’re thinking - are there stress NON-eaters? - YES - I’ve coached many) then you should consider that the longer we abstain, the less the pull on us those sweets or fats or salty chips have. Any unexercised muscle or receptor will atrophy over time. It’s also possible to bore your taste buds and brain chemicals into submission. The appetite is naturally modulated through dietary monotony. Many clients have expressed that after a period of clean eating, formerly enticing foods hold no sway, sometimes even sickening them to smell.

The TL;DR? If you can’t stop (and have proven that to yourself time and again) maybe never starting is a good strategy to try.

All the best,

Marcey

Coach Marcey Tidwell started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program! She readily acknowledges her control issues ;).

As another bootcamp nears its start, I love watching the influx of brand new folks at NGPT. Goals. Dreams. A little fear but mixed with way more excitement. If weight has plagued you as an issue, this can be the turning point in your life.

Every year, my husband Michael picks someplace in the back side of beyond to take us on grueling hikes. This week I write you from Idaho, which many of you have heard me whine about this week ;). Much like bootcamp, I’m signed up, but I don’t know exactly what I’m getting into. I just know it’s going to be difficult, and I’ll be sore, but it’ll be really good for me, and if I don’t die, then at the end there will be really cool pictures to reflect on.

Above find the view from the Stanley, ID Lookout Mountain, 9940 elevation, and absolutely impossible to fully capture on camera. “You need to be in good physical condition to reach the top” cautioned/challenged our guidebook, and I was excited to see it actually gave us a count of the 15 “breath challenging switchbacks” (SERIOUSLY no lie there) that took us up, with a warning that a full half of the elevation change took place in the last mile. One of the best things when you’re doing something really hard is knowing where the finish line is. You can persevere for that long with a goal in mind. But there’s not REALLY a finish line. The next day, we get up, and go again. Hubby has multiple hikes of varying lengths and heights mapped out, and we will just keep hiking until we run out of time or our bodies cry no mas. And every time we reach a new summit, with the world laid out in front of us, all that hard work to get there just falls away.

None of this would have happened without NGPT (and as we treat pricker pokes and wait for our sore glutes to chill out one can question the good in that ;), but I choose to believe that I got a second chance at being the fit person I never grew up daring to hope to be. Boot camp is just the start for you, too. What is in your rear view mirror that you want to reclaim? What did you NEVER hope to achieve that you now dare to dream is possible? Hold onto that. Everyone at NGPT is excited to take that journey with you. We’ll see the new you soon!

All the best,

Marcey

Coach Marcey Tidwell started as a client with NGPT in January 2011. Joining the team as an accountability coach, she wears many hats in assisting the Meltdown Nation! Nurse Marcey by day, she brings a wealth of knowledge the program! After this week, she is also officially the world’s best wife. Ever.