You’ve got your nutrition in check
You follow your training program
You're organised with your meals
You're motivation to achieve your goal
So with all of this working in your favor, why have you stopped progressing? Why are you struggling?
This is where those one-percenter’s come in.
What I’m talking about here is those tiny little details that you skip over because they are so small that surely they couldn’t make that much of a difference, right?
What if you have 20 one-percenter’s that you ignore? That’s 20% worth of changes you haven’t made. Seems a lot bigger when you look at it like that.
One-percenter's might look something like this:
Microwaves
Aluminum deodorants
Excessive fragrances
Caking on make up
Plastics
Body lotions
Grain fed proteins
Farmed seafood
Contaminated fruits and veggies
Sleep
Here’s an example for the average person:
You prep your food that you bought from your local supermarket on a Sunday and place the hot meals in a plastic container, then pop them in the freezer/fridge for later = 3%
Every morning you jump in the shower and lather yourself with Dove soap, wash your hair with Tresemme shampoo and conditioner, you get out and lather on some body lotion, put on your Napoleon Perdis make up for the day, pop on some deodorant and then spray yourself with the latest Gucci perfume = 5%
You heat up your pre-prepared meal in the plastic container using the microwave = 2%
You give the house a quick spray with some Glen 20 to keep if fresh for the day = 1%
You head to bed at 11pm because you stayed up to watch a movie then wake up around 6am and do it all again – 2%
That’s an average of 10% worth of one-percenter’s during the week with another 3% added in on a Sunday.
Alone, they may not seem like such an issue, but together, they add up to a lot of extra bits that could be contributing to your stalled progress.
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t lather on your lotions or spray your Glen 20 – you just have to be smart about it.
Here’s the same example, with the one-percenters addressed:
You go to your butcher and green grocer and purchase your food for the week, cook it all up and place it in glass containers and store for later.
You jump in the shower and lather yourself with goats-milk soap without a fragrance, you wash your hair with Organicare shampoo and conditioner, you get out and rub some coconut oil on your skin, apply your Body Shop make up for the day, then you place a few drops of your favorite essential oil on your wrists and neck, then spray on some aluminum free deodorant (you can use ewg.org/skindeep to find all of your personal care products that rate them from good to bad).
You heat up your pre-prepared meal in a pan or in the oven.
You place a few drops of essential oils in your air diffuser to keep the house fresh for the day.
You head to bed at your bed time and wake up at your normal wake time 7-9 hours later.
All of this may seem extreme, but when your training program is working for you and you’re keeping to you nutrition plan but nothing is changing then these one-percenter’s seem much more important then they once were!
This is also why the caloric model may not work for everyone, or may work for some time and then all of a sudden, it stops. You could eat the same calories/macros and address the one-percenter's and start to see some progress again.
Start with the one-percenter's that you find easy, maybe you're not ready to change your whole lifestyle so just pick the biggest bang for your buck and go from there!