NUTRITION LESSONS FROM MY HOUSEPLANTS
Recently, as I was doing a major plant care day, I thought of one of those unattributed inspirational quotes you see online that says something like “nothing in nature blooms all year long; be patient with yourself.” I love a good metaphor, so of course that got me thinking about all of the other lessons my plants have taught me, and (because I’m a nutrition coach) how those lessons apply to nutrition-related goals.
Doing too much at once is rarely a good strategy
I had about four houseplants when I started working from home. After staring at a boring wall of storage shelves behind me during every virtual meeting, I got the idea to buy a few more and started building out an Instagram-worthy plant wall. I’m not quite sure what they all were, but I’m pretty sure I still only have one or two of that initial big plant haul. Because they all had different light and water requirements, I wasn’t ready to take on all of those types of plants at the same time.
At this point, I have way more houseplants than I’m willing to count. I’m only able to manage them all because I no longer bring new things home unless everything I own is already well tended.
Goals are a lot like this: trying to pursue several things at once (even if they seem related!) often results in not being successful with any of it. Instead of deciding to track your macros perfectly and start training for a marathon and begin a daily mindfulness practice and meal prepping all at once, get started with one and wait until you feel like you’re in the groove to add another.
HOW IT STARTED & HOW IT’S GOING
Pruning can be painful – but it results in better growth
The first time someone told me to chop off a bunch of damaged leaves from a plant I had neglected, I was a little horrified. It seemed like I should be able to save most of them.
But damaged leaves don’t repair themselves, and they still require the same nutrition as undamaged leaves.
I think about this a lot in terms of effort. Especially mental effort. Maybe there are old ideas or habits that don’t serve you anymore. Maybe you don’t feel like you can make progress without being a great cook – but you hate cooking. Maybe your whole family keeps telling you that you can’t lose weight if you’re eating carbs. Maybe you still classify foods as being “good” or “bad” and let them carry a lot of emotional weight. Maybe you don’t engage in more movement because going for a walk doesn’t seem like it’s “enough”, but going to the gym is miserable and never happens. Trying to shake those beliefs can feel like a step backward, but it will help you move forward and open you up to more growth.
Environment is everything
I can’t make my plants grow. But what I can do is make sure they have the right light, soil, fertilizer, humidity, and water to accommodate their growth. When the conditions are right, growth happens. The same is true of nutrition-related goals.
There’s a lot that you can’t directly control: the weight on the scale, the size of your jeans, how much weight you can lift. What you control are your “growth” conditions.
Eating at a calorie deficit, staying physically active, prioritizing sleep, and managing stress are important for helping create the right conditions for fat loss to occur. Training regularly, recovering properly, and eating enough to facilitate performance are all behaviors you can control if you want to improve strength.
No, really. Environment is everything.
There are some plants that just are not compatible with my environment. I don’t have enough humidity for a lot of beautiful tropicals. I don’t have enough light for cacti and some succulents. Sure, if I wanted to, I could build a humidity case or set up artificial lights for those plants. But that’s not something I’m ready to do, and that’s okay,
Similarly: if your life is so busy that you can’t get 20 minutes for a lunch break, it’s probably not the right time for you to start training for a competition. If you hate leftovers and absolutely won’t eat them, meal prep probably isn’t going to be effective for you. If you’ve been undereating for years, this probably isn’t the right time to be worrying about fat loss. Not every environment is right for every goal. And that’s okay.
Mistakes are inevitable – learn from them
Whenever someone tells me that they wish they loved houseplants but they’ve never had a plant survive in their care, I tell them that I’ve likely killed way more plants than they have. The only difference is that I have kept trying and using those mistakes as learning experiences.
Whether your goals are nutrition-related or not, there will always be setbacks. And curveballs. And probably some despair (I’ve fully lost a plant or two that I’m still sad about – and that’s not even to mention the ones that just don’t look very good right now). But if you use those moments as learning experiences, what you learn will eventually become part of your expertise.
Nothing happens instantly
Over time, learning all of these lessons has resulted in me getting that Instagram-worthy plant wall. They’re the same lessons I learned during my own weight loss process, and I keep seeing them repeated as a coach. Create the right conditions for your growth, be patient and persistent, and beautiful things happen.
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