Don’t Be a “Nutrition-Hopper”

Quite often in this fitness industry, us trainers get frustrated when we hear about people “program-hopping.”  You know, one week a person is performing a workout from Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.  Then next week they want to give P90X a try.

When they realize that wasn’t for them, they say, “screw this, I’m just gonna start working on my bench press because I want hyooge pecs!”

Dumb.

This guy (or girl) never gives a program enough time to play-out, so to speak.  When you’re executing a program properly, you should be working to progress from week to week, on said program.  If you just hop all over the damn place, you have no idea what’s working, and what isn’t.  And you definitely aren’t working TOWARDS anything (a better butt; leaner arms; a stronger deadlift; a faster 40 time, etc etc).

If you program hop, you’re essentially throwing a dart with your eyes closed and just hoping that it hits the bullseye.  Not likely.

Anyway, I’ve touched on this before, so I’ll say no more in regards to program hopping.  But I do want to talk about…

Nutrition-Hopping.

This is not talked about quite as much as program-hopping, but it can be just as problematic.  I see people hopping from one nutrition plan to the next all the time.  Sometimes daily.  ”I was going low-carb but then I saw blah, blah, blah on Dr. Oz.  Now I’m cleansing, and then I’ll start up with the Zone Diet next Monday.”  A couple days later… “I was reading in Shape Magazine that I should blah, blah, blah, so after this weekend’s cheat meals, I’m gonna start X,Y, and Z on Monday.”

This continues for-e-ver.  For-e-ver.  For-e-ver.

Bottom line: give your plan (training and nutrition) time to fully develop.  See that plan through, and then make adjustments where necessary.  By doing so, you’ll increase your chance for success, and learn something along the way.

Keep it simple, and stay consistent…