My Sunday food prep routine usually includes making myself six days of oats with nuts and fruit, like these.
And sometimes, as the week goes along, I don’t want oatmeal for breakfast. I’m ready for some novelty, to switch it up and make it all a bit more pleasurable and a bit less practical. Not that I don’t enjoy my oatmeal, because I do. But rather because while I can enjoy the same foods on repeat for a long time, eventually, I’m ready for some variation.
One. Begin with some oatmeal. Uncooked overnight oats would be very similar to what I had this morning. This bowl contains:
1/2 cup uncooked oats
1 cup water
1 small apple, chopped
1/2 cup marionberries
1/2 Tbs. peanut butter
1 Tbs. flax meal
1 Tbs. walnuts, chopped
a dash of cinnamon
a tsp or two of brown sugar
Eating the same or similar foods on repeat can be a great way to put our habits on autopilot and reduce the mental load of making choices that are values and goals-aligned. The same could be said for training. Set up a system in advance and just follow along, doing whatever the day’s schedule has planned.
But these kinds of systems have a pretty major downside. Human lives are variable, and our needs vary, often in ways we can’t predict. Or maybe in ways we can predict, but we plan for our best days rather than our worst. Will you stick to your food plan when everything’s gone to shit? What about your training?
Two. Add an egg or two. I also added a scoop of plain yogurt, because my pancake mix has baking soda in it. Whisk together thoroughly.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are folks with no plan, who maybe make poorly considered commitments without a sense of the actual how-to to make them happen. Maybe they commit to the outcome but not to the process necessary to get there. Or maybe they make no commitments at all, and each day brings whatever it may, depending on their whims and energies of the moment.
Three. Stir in enough pancake mix to make the batter the texture of heavy cream. For me, it was about half a cup of my buckwheat-oat pancake mix.
There’s nothing wrong with this latter tendency, unless it prevents the person from living in a values and goals-aligned way. For me, left to my own devices with no plan at all, I’d find myself eating in ways that didn’t ultimately feel like self-care because it would be convenient rather than well-rounded. And there’s something about scheduling my lifting and other movement in advance that helps me mentally prepare for the effort each day.
Four. Heat a nonstick griddle or pan on medium. Melt a little butter, and cook according to your pancake mix instructions.
So, some kind of structure is beneficial, but being too rigid creates a new set of problems. May I introduce flexible structure. This is not my idea, and it’s not a new one, but it’s not something I rarely hear discussed much if at all in the fitness and nutrition space. Closest I’ve seen is when Helms wrote about his default diet four years ago on 3DMJ.
The structure part means you have your go-to’s. The usual plan, as you can, when you can. The flexible part means you can vary it to meet the needs of the moment and give yourself leeway when you need it.
Five. This yielded 3 large pancakes for me. I wish I’d made them a bit smaller, as I ended up throwing about 1/4 of my pancake away. The two remaining will be wrapped and frozen, once they’re thoroughly cooled.
What I love about flexible structure is that it gives me both the structure I need to mostly set myself up for success each week, and the flexibility to compassionately respond to situations when they change. Say it’s squat day, but insomnia is kicking my butt, and I’ve only gotten four hours of sleep the last few nights. Flexible structure gives me alternatives–maybe I squat, but I do less weight or fewer reps. Maybe I switch it out for another exercise entirely. Or maybe I focus on resting today, and reschedule the session for tomorrow.
Part of setting myself up for success each day is having a nutrient-dense, satisfying breakfast. But I didn’t want my usual oatmeal this morning. I can turn it into a healthy alternative. I don’t have to waste the oatmeal, which goes against my value of economy, and I don’t have to throw my hands up in the air and give up on nutritious eating entirely.
It’s one of the big lies of diet culture that we have to do everything perfectly, or exactly the same way, or with 100% consistency for it to count, to get results, or to make it worth it. I reject that narrative. I accept that I can do something, that it all counts and helps me live the life I want to live. That life includes having the flexibility to sometimes make pancakes out of my oatmeal.
Progressive Strength 