The Filler Method: Add, Don’t Subtract
If you’ve been hanging around this weekly wall of text long enough, you may be sick of hearing about complex carbs, lean proteins and healthy fats. Perhaps just SEEING those words makes you think:
UGH, I KNOW! I need to buy the whole freakin’ produce aisle and learn how to prep five new protein sources and sprout all my grains and plan my meals AND somehow find time to eat them! Life is exhausting ... I just want to eat Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a cookies 'n' cream milkshake and call it a day.
... No? Just me? Cool. Cool cool.
Well, on the off-chance that I’m not the only one who gets frustrated with healthy eating goals ... two things:
1. For the record, you could do a lot worse than Chick Fil A, or anything that makes you and your stomach happy. The Market Salad + grilled nuggets + frozen lemonade have been the cherry on top of many a summer evening Patapsco trail bike ride to calm my growling belly. As far as I'm concerned, milkshakes and their viscosity-inducing long chain polymers are good for your soul. ( I *wish* I was paid to say that.)
2. I have a strategy for you. It’s called: The Filler Method.
What's that?
The thing is, if your goal is to eat LESS sugar or fried foods or whatever, and MORE of all that healthy stuff, it can feel like a monumentally challenging feat to undertake. It’s much harder, behaviorally speaking, to take away than it is to include (this is why the best coaching cues reference novel actions instead of subtractions; e.g. ‘relax your arms’ instead of ‘don’t bend your elbows’). Hence the name of this method that I made up just now (the name, not the concept - I’m pretty sure the concept has been around since behavior change research was a thing. Resident psychologists of IA, feel free to @ me).
The Filler Method is when you prioritize your baseline needs - the most critical food groups and types that you *know* you lack or struggle with - and ADD these into your day before anything else. To make this happen: Visualize your current day of eating, and note any gaps. If you don’t even know where to start with that, log a few days of eating on Chronometer or My Fitness Pal to provide a baseline. This will help you see patterns in nutrient intake. Then, work backwards from an approximate gram or portion count.
For Example:
I typically have no problem getting carbs and fats into my day. I gravitate towards perfect bars, oats, breads, fruit + nut butters, salads, chocolate in all forms, and raw veggie sticks with pita + hummus. At the same time, I struggle with protein intake - which means that, if I'm not on top of my intake, somewhere between mid-day and late evening I’m struggling with sugar cravings (note: lack of sleep can also be a significant catalyst for cravings).
So, I’m going to start with ~120g of protein (which falls within the wide range of 1.4-2.2 g/kg/day for athletes), break it into chunks, and enter that as the very first part of my equation. From there, I can fill in the gaps from most to least struggle. I’m going to stock my fridge and pantry with food items that support these goals, and I’m going to have them ready to eat throughout the day. If, at the end of the day, I’ve ADDED all of these foods into my day and I still have room in my belly for a treat - well, then ... it’s time for some chocolate cupcakes! Think about it like filling a jar with large, solid rocks before pouring sand into the crevices, or creating a pyramid (hence the food pyramid model from way back when).
First Additions:
3 Eggs (19g) + 1 Cup Cottage Cheese (25 g) + Can of Tuna (20 g) + 2 Slices Deli Meat Turkey (11g) + 1 Cup Tofu (17g) + Scoop of Whey (25g) = 117 g Protein
When I add in the protein that I will be getting from, for instance, cheese on a bagel and a handful of almonds with an apple, this brings me closer to 130g, which is well over my ideal daily minimum of 100g!
Now that those are prepped, ready and easy to grab throughout my day, I can FILL IN carbs, fats and veggies. I’m going to add these in with less structure, not worrying about counting down to the gram, because I know that I can reliably trust that I will include these without trying so hard - just based on precedence and habit.
And there you have it! In a nutshell: Focus on the one aspect of nutrition that you historically struggle with, and make it your only goal. Focus on adding rather than subtracting and let everything else fall into place. Just remember to take these goals in bite-sized pieces - if you’re used to getting 70g of protein but want to get to 100g (for example), try adding in one 10-15g snack per day -e.g. a cup of cottage cheese, or a greek yogurt. Once you have that on lock for a few weeks, find another form of protein you like and try to make that one a habit, too.
That’s it for this week, folks. Next week we’ll head back into the Supplement Series and revisit the importance of Vitamin D!
In Food, Fun and Fitness,
Laura
