As a kid, I was always bad at Monopoly. I was usually always one of the first people to lose. As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realize exactly why I never stood a chance. I wouldn’t invest in hotels for my properties.
Part of me didn’t understand their purpose.
Part of me put an inappropriate amount of focus on accumulating a large number of properties. I thought it was better to have more properties to increase the chances of someone landing on them.
Sure, I might have owned half (or even more) of the properties on the board, but without houses and hotels, I only made a marginal amount on rent from the unlucky players who landed on them. On the other hand, my brothers may have only had a few properties with hotels, and landing on even one of these would empty my bank in a hurry. Game over.
I could clearly see that having these hotels would increase the rent, but I didn’t quite understand how it worked so I avoided it. This was my fatal mistake: I was afraid to grow. I was stuck playing for small-time pocket change while my brothers were soaring to mogul-level stacks of cash.
This speaks to an important fundamental truth: growth requires learning, and learning can be hard work.
Instead of taking the time to learn about the hotels, I opted to ignore the evidence in front of me. If I ever hoped to win, I needed to learn this aspect of the game.
Fitness is a new game for many people. Like Monopoly, it requires a long-term strategy and always takes longer than we want. Many people get stuck trying to lose the same 10-20lbs because they fail to learn how to advance to the next phase of the game.
I always start new clients with a food log. It’s on rare occasions that I work with someone who doesn’t complain about having to complete a food log. (At least in the beginning.) Downloading the app, trying to figure out how to use it, and remembering to record all of the food you consume is a lot of work when you’ve never had to do that before. I get it.
Whether you’re keeping a food journal, tracking your macros, prepping your meals in advance, or some other nutrition strategy, paying attention to what you’re eating is necessary to see changes in your body composition.
Learning these skills is tough, but knowing how to apply them is paramount. Failing to recognize this will put you in the same position I was in when playing Monopoly as a child—you’ll lose every time. And yet, the funny thing about skills is that once you learn them they’re exponentially easier to do. Tracking your nutrition is no different.
Buckle in, take a deep breath, and start learning the process. When you’re ready, I suggest clicking the link below to get access to my 8-module, MyFitnessPal Food Log Tutorial Course.
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