April 9, 2025 • 32 mins
Get your free 2-week trial of Physique University where I teach a complete system for transforming your body using evidence-based strategies and engineering principles. Go to witsandweights.com/physique
--
You've tried following your calories and macros perfectly, the "perfect" fat loss plan, a meal plan, or a diet where you have to eat specific foods or eat at certain times (like keto, carnivore, or intermittent fasting)...
But then life happens and you fall short. Why do these approaches consistently fail? And what should you do instead?
Today I introduce the powerful engineering concept of Black Line vs Blue Line thinking that completely transforms how we approach nutrition plans.
You'll discover why perfection isn't just unnecessary... it's actually working against you.
This episode provides a framework that aligns with both human psychology and the realities of daily life. You'll learn to build intelligent flexibility into your nutrition plan, navigate challenging scenarios like social events and travel, and transform your relationship with food!
Main Takeaways:
- The Black Line represents the "perfect plan" while the Blue Line represents what actually happens in real-world execution
- Success comes from skillfully navigating deviations, not eliminating them
- Rigid plans create all-or-nothing thinking that leads to the "diet spiral"
- Building adaptation skills is more valuable than strict adherence
- Strategic flexibility accelerates results rather than slowing them down
Timestamps:
0:01 - The problem with plans
3:57 - The Black Line vs. Blue Line concept
7:19 - Why rigid nutrition plans typically fail
14:11 - Design with flexibility from the start
15:46 - "If/then" frameworks for common scenarios
17:49 - Your hierarchy of nutrition priorities
19:41 - The 80/20 principle
21:05 - Pre-planned contingencies
22:31 - Mindful deviation
23:42 - Momentum vs. perfection
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
Maybe you've tried all the diets, you've tried all
the plans, you've joinedmultiple programs for fat loss
and you've stuck to the rules.
You've stuck to the targets.
Even if you have calories andmacros and you follow them
perfectly, somehow the resultsdon't always match the promise.
Is it a lack of discipline?
Is it your genetics?
Is it your hormones?
Or could the entire approach beflawed from the start?
(00:22):
Today, I'm revealing anengineering concept called black
line versus blue line thinkingthat will probably change how
you think about your plan in thecontext of the real world.
This episode is going to giveyou a more counterintuitive
approach that I think will leadto better, faster results than
the perfect plan ever could.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:56):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we are examining a
concept that I learned recentlyfrom the engineering and
manufacturing world that willrevolutionize your approach to
nutrition and help you breakfree from the rigid
all-or-nothing mindset thatsabotages so many people.
(01:17):
You might have heard peopletalk about all-or-nothing before
, but this is going to be adifferent look at that, because,
whether you've tracked macrosfor years or you're just
starting your nutrition journey,understanding the difference
between the black line ofperfect planning and the blue
line of real world execution aregoing to change your approach
(01:39):
to dieting and eating food ingeneral for the rest of your
life.
It is a paradigm shift.
It's been a game changer for myclients and now I have a
framework to better explain itby.
It's going to give you bothbetter physical results, but
also better psychologicalrelationship with food.
So today you're going to learnwhy pursuing nutritional
(01:59):
perfection actually worksagainst you, how strategically
deviating from your plan canaccelerate your progress, and
then a framework to buildintelligent flexibility into
your nutrition plan.
I'm going to be specific today,as always, I'm going to give
you tactics to navigate realchallenges, like social events,
(02:19):
like travel, those inevitabledays when cravings feel
overwhelming, and if you aretired of feeling like you're
constantly falling short of yourgoals and trying to start again
over and over.
I think this episode is adifferent perspective that
aligns with both humanpsychology and the realities of
daily life.
(02:40):
Now, before we get into it, ifyou are enjoying this
engineering approach to fitnessand nutrition, I think you're
going to get tons of value fromthe Physique University, where I
teach a complete system fortransforming your body using
evidence-based sciencestrategies, engineering
principles just like we arediscussing today, in a very
(03:00):
accessible way.
Students in Physique Universitylearn to implement this kind of
flexible approach to nutrition,to training, really to
everything in life, while stillachieving remarkable results.
And if you wanna join us thereto take advantage of that, get
your free two-week trial, getyour free first challenge, get a
(03:21):
custom nutrition plan andeverything else that comes in
there.
Go to witsandweightscom slashphysique or click the link in
the show notes Againwitsandweightscom slash physique
or click the link in the shownotes.
So let's talk about thisengineering concept called the
black line versus the blue line.
It's something I actually justcame across recently, but it
(03:41):
explains this so well.
It comes from systems thinkingand from human factors
engineering.
I saw it in a number of places.
One place was an article by anengineer in LinkedIn.
His name is Jason Daring, Ithink is how you say it.
But the actual concept goes backto safety science and
organizational psychology, whereresearchers like Sidney Decker,
(04:04):
eric Hallnagel, pioneered thestudy of how work is actually
performed versus how it'sprescribed.
So listen up, because thisactually applies to your job as
well, not just nutrition.
So the fundamental concept isthat the black line represents
work as imagined, planned ordesigned.
(04:26):
So that is your idealized path,that is the perfect procedure,
the flawless execution.
So in the engineering world itshows up as detailed procedures,
steps, checklists, processdocuments right, so stick with
me, because we're going to applythis to nutrition.
The blue line, however,represents the work as actually
(04:48):
performed in the real world.
It's what happens when humansexecute the plan in variable,
complex environments where theconditions are constantly
changing, and the blue line,naturally, of course, is going
to deviate from the black lineas people adapt to all the
things going on, all the thingsthat are changing, all the
unexpected variables.
(05:08):
So this concept is central towhat safety scientists call
safety two thinking Okay, safetytwo, like not one, but two.
And that focuses onunderstanding why things go
right most of the time, ratherthan just analyzing the failures
.
Pretty cool, right?
Why do things actually do goright most of the time, rather
than just analyzing the failures?
Pretty cool, right?
Why do things actually do goright most of the time?
And the insight that they foundis that success doesn't come
(05:31):
from perfectly following theblack line, the plan.
Success comes from skillfullynavigating the blue line, making
smart adaptations, havingflexibility, maintaining
resilience when the deviationsoccur.
In fact, research in this areashows that things go right most
of the time, not because peopleoriginally follow the plan and
(05:52):
the procedure, but because theysuccessfully adapt to the
changing circumstances, whichare inevitable.
And when things go wrong, it'srarely because people deviated
from the plan.
Right, we don't blame theperson.
When things go wrong, it'susually because of an outside
force they encountered a novelsituation beyond their
experience or their adaptability.
So now let's translate thisdirectly to nutrition.
(06:14):
Right, we talked about theblack line versus blue line
generally.
Now we're gonna talk about why,normally rigid plans usually
fail with nutrition.
So the black line in nutritionis your perfect meal plan, right
?
Your perfect nutrition plan,it's the calories and macros,
tracking to those exactly theprecisely measuring and weighing
(06:36):
your food.
You know, having your mealswith the right timing, the
absence of, maybe, things you'retrying to avoid.
It might even be the absence ofcomplete food groups.
If you're trying to avoid.
It might even be the absence ofcomplete food groups if you're
trying to follow a rigid diet.
It's basically the plan thatyou design on Sunday night, that
you say I'm going to start onMonday with the best of
intentions, and this could applyto even when we do this right a
(06:57):
proper fat loss plan where youdo have some calorie macro
targets and you know exactlywhat you're trying to do and you
have a lot of flexibility inyour food choices.
This could still be the blackline.
You're assuming you're going tobe able to hit those targets
and your protein, fats, carbs,your meal timing every day right
, you're going to assume thatthat's the perfect plan.
That's the black line.
(07:19):
The blue line is what actuallyhappens in life.
Okay, you execute that plan and, starting on day two, things
start to go wrong.
Your meeting runs late andyou're starving right, it's what
happens when your friendinvites you to an impromptu
dinner.
It's what happens when you'retraveling and your options are
limited.
It's what happens when stress,when emotions, when just the
human cravings we all have startto influence your choices.
(07:41):
Okay, and most people approachnutrition with the first
mentality, the black linementality.
I can even accuse myself, when Ihave a brand new client, of
having that to an extent,because I give you a plan, I
give you an idealistic scenarioof all the things that if we do
them, we're going to get from Ato B.
Right, that is a black line,where you believe that success
(08:02):
means following the planperfectly and any deviation
represents failure.
And this perspective fromengineering shows us why this
fails.
And it's simple.
Think about it this way In acomplex environment and guess
what?
Daily life is right, complex,unpredictable.
There are simply too manyvariables to account for.
(08:22):
You just cannot account foreverything that's going to
happen.
Just like if you made a map andgave yourself directions from
here to the store, you don'tknow if there's going to be a
squirrel crossing the roadconstruction along the way.
Just you don't know what'sgoing to happen.
Somebody's going to sideswipeyou, right?
Just as no procedure cananticipate every possible
scenario, your plan, yournutrition plan cannot possibly,
(08:45):
nor should it account for everysituation you're going to
encounter.
Um and and I think the drivingexample is apropos, right,
because if you try to do that,if you try to tell somebody when
they have to break, accelerate,change lanes et cetera, you're
not, you're not going to accountfor what's what's happening,
you're not gonna know when toput in those instructions.
You can try, and then, when youactually drive, you see how
(09:08):
closely you follow yourprocedure.
In reality, you don't right itit.
So your procedure only capturedthe most basic aspects of that
driving trip right, turn here,stop there, et cetera.
But then every trip you areactually successful and you get
to the store.
You adapted and adjusted totons of things that were not in
your plan right, and so youdidn't succeed because you
(09:28):
followed your plan perfectly,but instead you skillfully
navigated the variables andunexpected events.
So when we think of nutritionplans and why they fail, there's
a few obvious reasons.
The first one they ignore thecomplexity of real life.
So, again, going back to theplan that I provide to clients,
we go in already discussing fromday one that this is an
adaptable plan and that we'renot.
(09:49):
We're probably not going to,it's probably not going to be
working like you think by daytwo or three, because
something's going to happen inyour life and that's when we're
going to have to have aconversation, coach and client
um, to help you get through that.
So plans ignore the complexityof life.
They assume a level of controland predictability that does not
exist, and so when you design ameal plan, for example, this is
(10:10):
a good example of something toorigid.
A meal plan doesn't account forall the variables that affect
your eating behaviors, from youremotional state at the moment,
to your work schedule, to yoursocial obligations.
Second is that rigid plans docreate an all or nothing mindset
.
The more rigid, the more ofthat mindset you're going to
have, because when hitting thattarget exactly is the only
(10:33):
acceptable outcome.
Any deviation is going to makeyou feel like a complete failure
and that's what leads to what Icall the diet spiral.
This is where a small deviationtriggers that feeling of
failure, like you let yourselfdown.
It leads to you giving upentirely the effort mentality
and that leads to even moreextreme behaviors in both
directions.
(10:55):
The third thing is that rigidplans don't build the adaptation
skills right.
So when I give my clients aplan, it's understood that this
is just one little piece of anoverall strategy.
But when your strategy is juststick to the plan perfectly,
you're not going to develop thedecision-making abilities, the
skill needed to navigate thechallenges that come up.
(11:16):
And this is a skill.
If you want quick weight loss,you can crash, diet on really
low calories, you can cut outcarbs, lose a bunch of weight.
You won't even know how you gotthere and if you try to do it
again, it's not going to work.
And then what do you doafterward?
Right, you didn't develop anyskills, and then you're
extremely vulnerable to anysituation that disrupts your
routine in the future.
(11:37):
The last thing about rigid plansis they create psychological
stress, and it's unnecessary.
It's just not necessary.
It's this constant pressure tobe perfect.
It's the guilt when youinevitably deviate.
It's the anxiety about socialsituations.
Tell me if this doesn't soundfamiliar, right?
All of this decreases yourquality of life.
(11:59):
It just makes life suck andthen, ironically, guess what
happens.
It makes the adherence to theplan harder and harder and
harder, and so it's something Isee with clients all the time
who've come to me in the pasthaving tried all these different
approaches.
Usually it's specific dietsketo, carnivore, whatever and
they're rigid, right, it's likeyou have to cut out these food
(12:19):
groups or you have to stick tothis specific meal plan, and
they always start withenthusiasm, they stick to it for
a while, they get some quoteunquote progress, and sometimes
I'll even ask, hey, what'sworked for you in the past?
And I say, well, keto workedfor me for three months, but
then it stopped, right, likeyou're not still doing it for a
reason.
You feel like a failure.
You then abandon the plan.
You think all plans are likethat, and even when you start a
(12:42):
new cycle again, you have moreand more skepticism for each one
.
And then they come to me andthey're like super skeptical,
not even thinking they shouldhire a coach, because every
other coach or plan they'vetried hasn't worked.
And it's not a personal failure, um, it's a predictable outcome
.
This is, those are.
Those are flawed approaches,because you're trying to follow
the black line perfectly.
It's, it's.
It's not just difficult, thisis not, guys.
(13:03):
This is not a matter of gettingover the hump and doing it.
It is fundamentally misalignedwith how humans operate in
complex environments, and that'swhy I thought the black line
versus blue line was really areally great concept, right.
And so if, if, rigid adherenceto this straight black line,
this perfect plan, is not theanswer, how do we embrace this
(13:25):
more curved, meandering blueline and still make progress?
Because, at the end of the day,you want to end up close to the
black line anyway, don't you,right?
And so the key here listen up.
The key is to shift from aperfection-oriented approach to
a resilience-oriented approach.
Go from perfection-oriented,where you're trying to stick to
(13:47):
your plan, stay on track, stayon the rail, to a
resilience-oriented approach, avery flexible, adaptable
approach and instead of tryingto eliminate the deviations
right, which is just as good astrying to eliminate all the
things that stress you out inlife, you can't, you're not
gonna eliminate them we need toget better at navigating them.
(14:09):
So here's how to do it.
Here we go.
All right, first, I want you todesign a plan with flexibility
built in from the start, andthat means guidelines instead of
rules, ranges instead oftargets, identifying your
non-negotiables, but beingflexible everywhere else.
That is the kind of plan that Iput together for you when you
(14:31):
join Physique University or youwork with me as a client, in
that we give you yeah, we giveyou some protein and protein, or
we give you some macro andcalorie targets, but actually I
don't even give you targetstechnically, we have you use an
app that will determine theright targets for you flexibly
based on your metabolism as itchanges.
So already we're getting moreflexible.
I also don't want you to hitthe numbers.
I want you to get a minimumprotein, but then stay within a
(14:52):
wide range for your fats andcarbs and a range for your
calories, right.
I also want to allow you to eatall the things that you love to
eat whenever you want to eatthem, as long as you're sticking
within the overall guidelinesfor your overall diet, that is
flexibility.
That is flexibility.
That means you can eat whateverfoods you want and as long as
you're eating largely whole,nutritious foods with plenty of
protein and fiber.
(15:13):
Right, hitting those minimums,getting into those ranges, but
not hitting the exact targets,you're going to be good.
So instead of saying I have toeat 2000 calories every day
because that's my target, you'regoing to say well, first of all
, let's look at it across a week.
If I'm aiming for, say, 14,000calories for the week, I just
want to get close to that forthe week.
So I can go, you know, 1700 oneday, 2300 the next, no big deal
(15:34):
.
I've got some up and downflexibility and then at the end
of the week if I found that Iwas too far off one direction or
the other.
That's just data that I know Ican adjust from and it
acknowledges the reality of theblue line right from the
beginning.
The second thing you're going todo is have decision-making
frameworks for common scenariosfor you, things that all you
know are going to happen.
(15:54):
Right, the goal is not toeliminate those, it's to
intelligently foresee them andnavigate around them or through
them.
For example, you could developyour strategy for eating at
restaurants.
Super common, everyone goes torestaurants, like 99% of people
do, right?
So what are you going to do?
Are you going to download themenu ahead of time and pick what
(16:15):
you want and pre-log it?
Are you going to look at thecalories and macros if it's like
a chain restaurant or getsomething similar to that?
Are you going to look at thecalories and macros if it's like
a chain restaurant or getsomething similar to that?
Are you going to have just asimple plan of I'm going to
start from my vegetables, thenlean protein, then carbs, I'm
going to have two drinks, nomore.
Or I'm going to havenon-alcoholic beer right, you
just have a strategy because youknow you're going to the
(16:36):
restaurant.
So I don't want you to go therewith no strategy and then the
next day say I went to arestaurant, couldn't help myself
.
Or the reason I went over mycalories and macros is because I
went to a restaurant.
Well, you didn't have a strategy, right?
Same thing goes for any socialevent, a party.
We just had my wife's birthdayand I knew for a fact I'd be
eating cake and I'd be eatingleftover cake for the next few
(16:57):
days.
So, guess what?
That cake goes into my planahead of time and now I know
what's left for the rest of theday, right, you know when you're
going to have periods of highstress, the things for your kids
you know play or sporting eventor when you're going on
vacation.
You know that 90% of thesethings you know.
And for the things you don't,you probably are 90% confident
that they're going to happen atsome point.
(17:18):
Like you know, your friend'sgoing to ask you out on some
given day.
So have a strategy, right?
And when I work with clients,we like practice these scenarios
, we try to role play.
Or I will ask them what wouldyou do when this happens?
And let's talk about yourvacation in a month rather than,
you know, tomorrow, thevacation starting tomorrow.
Let's give it some time andbuild confidence and competence
(17:39):
about those scenarios.
So with that, let me share somepractical strategies, of course
, for implementing the blue lineapproach, because that's what
we're all about.
So strategy number one is havinga clear hierarchy of your
priorities.
So what this means is list outon a piece of paper or in a note
app the order of things as theyare in terms of importance to
(18:02):
you.
So what is the most importantthing?
Is it your strength training?
Yes, that is part of yournutrition, believe it or not?
Threw you for a loop there, Iknow, or did I.
Is it your protein intake?
Is it your overall energybalance?
You know your calories and thedeficit or surplus you're trying
to be in.
Is it the whole foodconsumption?
Like, maybe you are eating alot of processed foods or going
(18:25):
out a lot and your goal is toshift more toward the whole
foods for the nutrients and forthe satiety right.
Any one of those might deservemore of your attention than just
trying to hit exact numbers.
In fact, they always will.
So create a hierarchy of yourpriorities.
I don't talk about this a lotbecause sometimes we think of
(18:45):
these as pillars, that we haveto do all of them, but in
reality we should do one at atime to start, unless you're
working with a coach or asupport system where you can
really fall back on that as youslip along the way, which is
going to happen at first.
I would just do one at a timeand then you can make better
real-time decisions when thedeviations occur, because you'll
(19:06):
know which aspect of the planyou're going to protect most
fiercely, like if training's atthe top.
You know that that's going toaffect all the other decisions
around it in terms of yourschedule and what you're doing
for your training.
So that gives you theflexibility elsewhere in all the
rest of your schedule or allthe rest of your plan, because
(19:27):
you're protecting the one thingthat is most important right now
, and for food-wise, fornutrition-wise, this could be
definitely protein intake.
Right, that might be the thingthat you're going to fiercely
protect, no matter what.
That's number one Strategy.
Number two is I alluded to thiswith Whole Foods, but it's the
80-20 principle.
We come back to this a lot, butit's because it's super simple
(19:48):
and powerful and it's the ruleof thumb that if you aim for 80%
adherence to whatever it isyour core principles, then you
have 20% flexibility your coreprinciples, then you have 20%
flexibility.
Yes, this applies to the wholefoods versus anything else, but
it also applies to 80%consistency to your protein, 80%
(20:10):
consistency to the calories,and it'd be when, when we say
consistency, we don't mean, um,like 80% of the week, you try to
hit your calories and then theother 20% you go hog wild with,
like cheat meals.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
We're just saying you knowyou're going to try to adhere
but in reality it's not going tobe perfect.
(20:30):
So give yourself an 80% goal ismy point, and however you want
to define that 80%.
So, for example, if you eatfour meals a day across seven
days that's 28 meals in the weekthen that means 22 or three of
those meals are going to alignwith your plan.
If you have 80% and five to sixof them may not right Again,
(20:52):
it's not cheat meals, it's justbuilding in adaptability.
And you notice it's not a lot,it's five to six, but it's not
zero either.
You're not giving yourself acompletely rigid approach.
So that's strategy number twois apply 80, 20, wherever it
makes sense.
Strategy number three this is if, then contingencies,
pre-planned contingencies forcommon scenarios.
(21:13):
Like you know that Christmas isgoing to come on December 25th,
so why haven't you budgeted andsaved up for the gifts instead
of spending it on your creditcard?
Right, that would be what afinancial person would chide you
for.
I'm the nutrition guy, but Iknow a little bit about finance.
What I'm going to suggest isthink about the situations that
are most often derail yournutrition efforts, but are going
(21:34):
to happen one way or the other.
They either happen on aconsistent basis or they happen
randomly, but they happen andthen come up with strategies for
handling them.
So, if work dinners right, ifyou you know work maybe you're
an executive, maybe you're alawyer or something and you have
to go treat customers orsuppliers, take you out for
dinner all the time or whateverand that's a challenge then you
(21:55):
might have a standard approachdeveloped ahead of time.
You review the menu in advance,you decide on your meal before
arriving, you pre-log it.
You have a protein shakebeforehand or some other lean
protein earlier in the day.
If you're concerned aboutportions etc.
Having some sort of plan, youcan come up with that plan.
Right.
That's flexibility too.
You can come up with thatwhatever makes sense.
(22:16):
If I'm your coach, I'm going tohelp you come up with that, but
ultimately it's on what worksfor you, and that means you can
navigate any deviation withconfidence.
Maybe not 100% of them, somethings are going to surprise you
, no matter what, but the vastmajority of them you can foresee
All right.
Strategy number four is what Icall mindful deviation.
So when you deviate from yourplan.
(22:37):
You will.
You always will.
You will many times.
Except that I want you todeviate mindfully rather than
reactively.
Somebody else called this aplanned reaction.
I think, or a what do they callthis?
A proactive reaction.
It's a mindful deviation.
It's a conscious choice.
(22:58):
It's made with awareness asopposed to impulsively reacting
to your circumstances.
This could be anything frompattern interrupts to Having
your priorities in your headthat we talked about earlier and
then acting on those, to takinga pause and thinking about the
emotions going through your head.
There's a lot of reasons, soI'll give you a specific example
(23:19):
.
Choosing to enjoy yourgrandmother's special brownies
at a family gathering is verydifferent from mindlessly eating
cookies because they're in thebreak room at work, right?
The former is a blue lineadaptation.
The latter is you're justgetting knocked off course,
you're just letting it happen.
So even with deviations, theycan be mindful, important
(23:41):
distinction, all right.
And then strategy five is I wantyou to focus on the momentum
rather than the adherence or theperfection, because if you
think of the blue line approach,where we have a black line,
that's a straight perfect line,and then we have this meandering
blue line, that's reality.
Remember that success is notdefined by adhering to the black
line.
It's defined by your ability tomaintain momentum right, even
(24:04):
though it zigzags, even thoughyou have inevitable deviations
from the black line.
You're going to end up near theblack line, but you're going to
deviate constantly.
It's your ability to keep theline being drawn forward right.
And so that means, for example,celebrate when you get through
a challenging situationreasonably well, instead of
(24:25):
beating yourself up for nothandling it perfectly.
Celebrate yourself for gettingthrough it reasonably well.
Celebrate yourself for gettingthrough it reasonably well.
It means quickly returning toyour baseline after a deviation,
right, getting up near thatblack line, but not necessarily
on it, but close to it, ratherthan allowing one off-plan meal
(24:45):
that you feel guilty about turninto an off-plan week.
So think about it visually thatblue line it starts to deviate
away from the black line.
That's your off-plan meal.
Well, all you have to do isdeviate back to the black line
the next day, instead ofcontinuing to go farther and
farther away from the black lineand going off the page.
And then kind of putting thisall together is using data to
(25:08):
refine your approach to all ofthese things over time.
Right, you knew it would comeback to data with me, didn't you
?
I mean, one of the mostpowerful aspects of this concept
, this blue line concept, is itcreates a feedback loop, because
you are tracking both your plan, which is the black line, and
you're tracking what happens,which is the blue line.
Pretty cool, right?
You're actually tracking whatyou intend to do and you're
(25:30):
tracking what you actually do,and that gives you an idea of
the gap and the insights so thatyou can keep improving.
And the gap isn't something tobeat yourself up over.
It's an acknowledgement ofreality and how you're able to
navigate and how you can betternavigate in the future.
So if you, for example, noticethat you consistently struggle
with late night snacking on workdays very common that is
(25:52):
valuable data.
So instead of saying I'm goingto try harder to resist, which
is willpower, you might adjustyour meal timing right To put a
snack toward the end of the dayto take care of your hunger.
Or you might change thecomposition of your meals to
have more fiber and vegetablesto make you fuller, more protein
in your dinner right.
(26:12):
Whatever it takes to bettermanage evening hunger, other
than dealing with emotionaltriggers and things like that as
well, it may just be a simplesolution like that that helps
you get back near the black line.
So I wanna talk about somethingcounterintuitive here, related
to this.
That is directly fromexperience with clients.
(26:34):
Okay, as a nutrition coach, oneof the most difficult things for
me and the challenge that Ifully embrace is getting clients
to adopt this blue lineapproach to nutrition.
Now, I haven't called it blueline before.
I might start doing that, butthere's this assumption that
embracing flexibility means I'mgoing to slow down my progress,
(26:55):
right?
Well, if I deviate constantly,aren't I going to get fat loss
slower?
Right?
Aren't my results going to bemediocre because I'm allowing
for constantly getting off track?
In reality, the oppositehappens, because when you shift
from a rigid, the black linementality to the flexible blue
line approach, your resultsusually accelerate, and the
(27:17):
reason why is you're no longercaught in the cycle of perfect
adherence followed by completeabandonment.
You maintain consistentprogress.
That's all it comes down to.
You don't do it perfectly, andthat's the point.
You do it consistently, though,and you keep doing it.
The small, deliberatedeviations that you allow
prevent the massive unplanneddeviations that derail your
(27:38):
progress completely.
I think even more importantly isthat the blue line approach
helps you build skills, what arecalled progressive adaptation
skills.
Right, just like with training.
Think about it.
Just like with training, whereprogressive overload increases
your strength and muscle overtime, progressive adaptation
with nutrition makes you moreresilient, makes you more
(27:59):
capable, makes you more skilled.
You're going to be able toteach this stuff, my friends.
If you work with me as a client, you are going to be able to
come out the other end teachingother people how to do this,
because you'll just know how todo it, and that's what I want
for you.
I want you to know how to dothis, because you'll just know
how to do it, and that's what Iwant for you.
I want you to know how to do it.
(28:19):
You can get some of that fromthis podcast, but you get a lot
of that doing it yourself.
And so what happens is somewonderful side effects.
Yes, you transform your bodyGreat, we all want to do that
but you also transform thisrelationship with food, because
a lot of that relationship istied up in the anxiety and those
situations that cause thedeviations.
You no longer fear socialsituations because you're
prepared, or going on a tripbecause you have the skills to
(28:40):
navigate them.
Food becomes a source ofnourishment and fuel and
enjoyment, yes, rather thananxiety and guilt.
And then, probably mostpowerful of all just to wrap
this up and then I'll shut up iswhen you do this, you stop
identifying progress withperfection and then you
understand that any path to anygoal not just nutrition,
(29:01):
anything in life it's not astraight black line, but it's a
winding blue one.
And not only is that okay, it'sexactly how it should be, isn't
that powerful?
I'm exciting myself as I talkabout this, because when I came
across the image of the blueversus black lines, that oh,
light bulb clicked, got to sharethis with my audience.
So if we bring this all together, the black line versus blue
(29:23):
line concept shows us that in acomplex environment AKA life
success is not from perfectlyfollowing an idealized plan, but
from navigating with skill thatyou develop over time, the
inevitable deviations, theinevitable adaptations that are
(29:45):
required, because it's the realworld.
So when we talk about adaptingto your goals, your lifestyles,
your preferences and all thatwhich sometimes sounds like
marketing speak, that's kind ofwhat we're talking about.
And when you apply it tonutrition, your approach changes
, your mindset changes.
You no longer try to be perfect, but instead you try to develop
the skills, the strategies, themindsets that allow you to
(30:06):
maintain progress right.
Maintain progress despite thecomplexities of real life, and
you're not lowering yourstandards by doing this.
You are not giving up on yourgoals.
It's approaching those goals ina way that aligns with reality,
rather than fighting against it, and building a sustainable
approach.
Boom, that's what it is.
(30:26):
That is what sustainability is.
So I'm going to encourage youright now to examine your own
approach to your nutrition.
Are you caught in the trap ofblack line thinking, where any
deviation feels like failure, orhave you or will you embrace
the blue line reality, whereskillful navigation and
adaptation lead to progress andlasting success?
(30:50):
All right, if you enjoyed thisconcept, if you found it helpful
.
I'm all about frameworks.
I'm all about systems andapplying engineering-type
principles to your nutrition andtraining, because they work.
They reflect some of the mostcomplex environments and
situations in real life, andimagine if you can deal with
your complex human body in thesame way, with simple frameworks
(31:13):
and systems that just finallyhelp you break through and make
it work.
If you want to do that, pleasejoin us in Physique University.
Link in the show notes.
You get a two-week free trial.
Tons of goodies in there.
We do masterclasses with guestexperts.
Now we do challenges everymonth.
You've got courses.
You've got a free customnutrition plan when you join,
(31:33):
put together by me.
And remember that plan is theblack line.
The blue line is what we teachyou Evidence-based.
They work in the real world,not just on paper.
You can get all the details.
You can learn more Zero risk.
Go to witsandweightscom.
Slash physique or click thelink in the show notes.
All right until next time.
This is Philip Pape remindingyou to use your wits, lift those
(31:55):
weights and remember that lifeis a meandering, flexible,
adaptable blue line and if youfollow it, you will get all of
the results you ever dreamed of.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights podcast
.
Maybe you've tried all the diets, you've tried all
the plans, you've joinedmultiple programs for fat loss
and you've stuck to the rules.
You've stuck to the targets.
Even if you have calories andmacros and you follow them
perfectly, somehow the resultsdon't always match the promise.
Is it a lack of discipline?
Is it your genetics?
Is it your hormones?
Or could the entire approach beflawed from the start?
(00:22):
Today, I'm revealing anengineering concept called black
line versus blue line thinkingthat will probably change how
you think about your plan in thecontext of the real world.
This episode is going to giveyou a more counterintuitive
approach that I think will leadto better, faster results than
the perfect plan ever could.
Welcome to Wits and Weights,the show that helps you build a
(00:56):
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host, philip Pape, andtoday we are examining a
concept that I learned recentlyfrom the engineering and
manufacturing world that willrevolutionize your approach to
nutrition and help you breakfree from the rigid
all-or-nothing mindset thatsabotages so many people.
(01:17):
You might have heard peopletalk about all-or-nothing before
, but this is going to be adifferent look at that, because,
whether you've tracked macrosfor years or you're just
starting your nutrition journey,understanding the difference
between the black line ofperfect planning and the blue
line of real world execution aregoing to change your approach
(01:39):
to dieting and eating food ingeneral for the rest of your
life.
It is a paradigm shift.
It's been a game changer for myclients and now I have a
framework to better explain itby.
It's going to give you bothbetter physical results, but
also better psychologicalrelationship with food.
So today you're going to learnwhy pursuing nutritional
(01:59):
perfection actually worksagainst you, how strategically
deviating from your plan canaccelerate your progress, and
then a framework to buildintelligent flexibility into
your nutrition plan.
I'm going to be specific today,as always, I'm going to give
you tactics to navigate realchallenges, like social events,
(02:19):
like travel, those inevitabledays when cravings feel
overwhelming, and if you aretired of feeling like you're
constantly falling short of yourgoals and trying to start again
over and over.
I think this episode is adifferent perspective that
aligns with both humanpsychology and the realities of
daily life.
(02:40):
Now, before we get into it, ifyou are enjoying this
engineering approach to fitnessand nutrition, I think you're
going to get tons of value fromthe Physique University, where I
teach a complete system fortransforming your body using
evidence-based sciencestrategies, engineering
principles just like we arediscussing today, in a very
(03:00):
accessible way.
Students in Physique Universitylearn to implement this kind of
flexible approach to nutrition,to training, really to
everything in life, while stillachieving remarkable results.
And if you wanna join us thereto take advantage of that, get
your free two-week trial, getyour free first challenge, get a
(03:21):
custom nutrition plan andeverything else that comes in
there.
Go to witsandweightscom slashphysique or click the link in
the show notes Againwitsandweightscom slash physique
or click the link in the shownotes.
So let's talk about thisengineering concept called the
black line versus the blue line.
It's something I actually justcame across recently, but it
(03:41):
explains this so well.
It comes from systems thinkingand from human factors
engineering.
I saw it in a number of places.
One place was an article by anengineer in LinkedIn.
His name is Jason Daring, Ithink is how you say it.
But the actual concept goes backto safety science and
organizational psychology, whereresearchers like Sidney Decker,
(04:04):
eric Hallnagel, pioneered thestudy of how work is actually
performed versus how it'sprescribed.
So listen up, because thisactually applies to your job as
well, not just nutrition.
So the fundamental concept isthat the black line represents
work as imagined, planned ordesigned.
(04:26):
So that is your idealized path,that is the perfect procedure,
the flawless execution.
So in the engineering world itshows up as detailed procedures,
steps, checklists, processdocuments right, so stick with
me, because we're going to applythis to nutrition.
The blue line, however,represents the work as actually
(04:48):
performed in the real world.
It's what happens when humansexecute the plan in variable,
complex environments where theconditions are constantly
changing, and the blue line,naturally, of course, is going
to deviate from the black lineas people adapt to all the
things going on, all the thingsthat are changing, all the
unexpected variables.
(05:08):
So this concept is central towhat safety scientists call
safety two thinking Okay, safetytwo, like not one, but two.
And that focuses onunderstanding why things go
right most of the time, ratherthan just analyzing the failures
.
Pretty cool, right?
Why do things actually do goright most of the time, rather
than just analyzing the failures?
Pretty cool, right?
Why do things actually do goright most of the time?
And the insight that they foundis that success doesn't come
(05:31):
from perfectly following theblack line, the plan.
Success comes from skillfullynavigating the blue line, making
smart adaptations, havingflexibility, maintaining
resilience when the deviationsoccur.
In fact, research in this areashows that things go right most
of the time, not because peopleoriginally follow the plan and
(05:52):
the procedure, but because theysuccessfully adapt to the
changing circumstances, whichare inevitable.
And when things go wrong, it'srarely because people deviated
from the plan.
Right, we don't blame theperson.
When things go wrong, it'susually because of an outside
force they encountered a novelsituation beyond their
experience or their adaptability.
So now let's translate thisdirectly to nutrition.
(06:14):
Right, we talked about theblack line versus blue line
generally.
Now we're gonna talk about why,normally rigid plans usually
fail with nutrition.
So the black line in nutritionis your perfect meal plan, right
?
Your perfect nutrition plan,it's the calories and macros,
tracking to those exactly theprecisely measuring and weighing
(06:36):
your food.
You know, having your mealswith the right timing, the
absence of, maybe, things you'retrying to avoid.
It might even be the absence ofcomplete food groups.
If you're trying to avoid.
It might even be the absence ofcomplete food groups if you're
trying to follow a rigid diet.
It's basically the plan thatyou design on Sunday night, that
you say I'm going to start onMonday with the best of
intentions, and this could applyto even when we do this right a
(06:57):
proper fat loss plan where youdo have some calorie macro
targets and you know exactlywhat you're trying to do and you
have a lot of flexibility inyour food choices.
This could still be the blackline.
You're assuming you're going tobe able to hit those targets
and your protein, fats, carbs,your meal timing every day right
, you're going to assume thatthat's the perfect plan.
That's the black line.
(07:19):
The blue line is what actuallyhappens in life.
Okay, you execute that plan and, starting on day two, things
start to go wrong.
Your meeting runs late andyou're starving right, it's what
happens when your friendinvites you to an impromptu
dinner.
It's what happens when you'retraveling and your options are
limited.
It's what happens when stress,when emotions, when just the
human cravings we all have startto influence your choices.
(07:41):
Okay, and most people approachnutrition with the first
mentality, the black linementality.
I can even accuse myself, when Ihave a brand new client, of
having that to an extent,because I give you a plan, I
give you an idealistic scenarioof all the things that if we do
them, we're going to get from Ato B.
Right, that is a black line,where you believe that success
(08:02):
means following the planperfectly and any deviation
represents failure.
And this perspective fromengineering shows us why this
fails.
And it's simple.
Think about it this way In acomplex environment and guess
what?
Daily life is right, complex,unpredictable.
There are simply too manyvariables to account for.
(08:22):
You just cannot account foreverything that's going to
happen.
Just like if you made a map andgave yourself directions from
here to the store, you don'tknow if there's going to be a
squirrel crossing the roadconstruction along the way.
Just you don't know what'sgoing to happen.
Somebody's going to sideswipeyou, right?
Just as no procedure cananticipate every possible
scenario, your plan, yournutrition plan cannot possibly,
(08:45):
nor should it account for everysituation you're going to
encounter.
Um and and I think the drivingexample is apropos, right,
because if you try to do that,if you try to tell somebody when
they have to break, accelerate,change lanes et cetera, you're
not, you're not going to accountfor what's what's happening,
you're not gonna know when toput in those instructions.
You can try, and then, when youactually drive, you see how
(09:08):
closely you follow yourprocedure.
In reality, you don't right itit.
So your procedure only capturedthe most basic aspects of that
driving trip right, turn here,stop there, et cetera.
But then every trip you areactually successful and you get
to the store.
You adapted and adjusted totons of things that were not in
your plan right, and so youdidn't succeed because you
(09:28):
followed your plan perfectly,but instead you skillfully
navigated the variables andunexpected events.
So when we think of nutritionplans and why they fail, there's
a few obvious reasons.
The first one they ignore thecomplexity of real life.
So, again, going back to theplan that I provide to clients,
we go in already discussing fromday one that this is an
adaptable plan and that we'renot.
(09:49):
We're probably not going to,it's probably not going to be
working like you think by daytwo or three, because
something's going to happen inyour life and that's when we're
going to have to have aconversation, coach and client
um, to help you get through that.
So plans ignore the complexityof life.
They assume a level of controland predictability that does not
exist, and so when you design ameal plan, for example, this is
(10:10):
a good example of something toorigid.
A meal plan doesn't account forall the variables that affect
your eating behaviors, from youremotional state at the moment,
to your work schedule, to yoursocial obligations.
Second is that rigid plans docreate an all or nothing mindset
.
The more rigid, the more ofthat mindset you're going to
have, because when hitting thattarget exactly is the only
(10:33):
acceptable outcome.
Any deviation is going to makeyou feel like a complete failure
and that's what leads to what Icall the diet spiral.
This is where a small deviationtriggers that feeling of
failure, like you let yourselfdown.
It leads to you giving upentirely the effort mentality
and that leads to even moreextreme behaviors in both
directions.
(10:55):
The third thing is that rigidplans don't build the adaptation
skills right.
So when I give my clients aplan, it's understood that this
is just one little piece of anoverall strategy.
But when your strategy is juststick to the plan perfectly,
you're not going to develop thedecision-making abilities, the
skill needed to navigate thechallenges that come up.
(11:16):
And this is a skill.
If you want quick weight loss,you can crash, diet on really
low calories, you can cut outcarbs, lose a bunch of weight.
You won't even know how you gotthere and if you try to do it
again, it's not going to work.
And then what do you doafterward?
Right, you didn't develop anyskills, and then you're
extremely vulnerable to anysituation that disrupts your
routine in the future.
(11:37):
The last thing about rigid plansis they create psychological
stress, and it's unnecessary.
It's just not necessary.
It's this constant pressure tobe perfect.
It's the guilt when youinevitably deviate.
It's the anxiety about socialsituations.
Tell me if this doesn't soundfamiliar, right?
All of this decreases yourquality of life.
(11:59):
It just makes life suck andthen, ironically, guess what
happens.
It makes the adherence to theplan harder and harder and
harder, and so it's something Isee with clients all the time
who've come to me in the pasthaving tried all these different
approaches.
Usually it's specific dietsketo, carnivore, whatever and
they're rigid, right, it's likeyou have to cut out these food
(12:19):
groups or you have to stick tothis specific meal plan, and
they always start withenthusiasm, they stick to it for
a while, they get some quoteunquote progress, and sometimes
I'll even ask, hey, what'sworked for you in the past?
And I say, well, keto workedfor me for three months, but
then it stopped, right, likeyou're not still doing it for a
reason.
You feel like a failure.
You then abandon the plan.
You think all plans are likethat, and even when you start a
(12:42):
new cycle again, you have moreand more skepticism for each one
.
And then they come to me andthey're like super skeptical,
not even thinking they shouldhire a coach, because every
other coach or plan they'vetried hasn't worked.
And it's not a personal failure, um, it's a predictable outcome
.
This is, those are.
Those are flawed approaches,because you're trying to follow
the black line perfectly.
It's, it's.
It's not just difficult, thisis not, guys.
(13:03):
This is not a matter of gettingover the hump and doing it.
It is fundamentally misalignedwith how humans operate in
complex environments, and that'swhy I thought the black line
versus blue line was really areally great concept, right.
And so if, if, rigid adherenceto this straight black line,
this perfect plan, is not theanswer, how do we embrace this
(13:25):
more curved, meandering blueline and still make progress?
Because, at the end of the day,you want to end up close to the
black line anyway, don't you,right?
And so the key here listen up.
The key is to shift from aperfection-oriented approach to
a resilience-oriented approach.
Go from perfection-oriented,where you're trying to stick to
(13:47):
your plan, stay on track, stayon the rail, to a
resilience-oriented approach, avery flexible, adaptable
approach and instead of tryingto eliminate the deviations
right, which is just as good astrying to eliminate all the
things that stress you out inlife, you can't, you're not
gonna eliminate them we need toget better at navigating them.
(14:09):
So here's how to do it.
Here we go.
All right, first, I want you todesign a plan with flexibility
built in from the start, andthat means guidelines instead of
rules, ranges instead oftargets, identifying your
non-negotiables, but beingflexible everywhere else.
That is the kind of plan that Iput together for you when you
(14:31):
join Physique University or youwork with me as a client, in
that we give you yeah, we giveyou some protein and protein, or
we give you some macro andcalorie targets, but actually I
don't even give you targetstechnically, we have you use an
app that will determine theright targets for you flexibly
based on your metabolism as itchanges.
So already we're getting moreflexible.
I also don't want you to hitthe numbers.
I want you to get a minimumprotein, but then stay within a
(14:52):
wide range for your fats andcarbs and a range for your
calories, right.
I also want to allow you to eatall the things that you love to
eat whenever you want to eatthem, as long as you're sticking
within the overall guidelinesfor your overall diet, that is
flexibility.
That is flexibility.
That means you can eat whateverfoods you want and as long as
you're eating largely whole,nutritious foods with plenty of
protein and fiber.
(15:13):
Right, hitting those minimums,getting into those ranges, but
not hitting the exact targets,you're going to be good.
So instead of saying I have toeat 2000 calories every day
because that's my target, you'regoing to say well, first of all
, let's look at it across a week.
If I'm aiming for, say, 14,000calories for the week, I just
want to get close to that forthe week.
So I can go, you know, 1700 oneday, 2300 the next, no big deal
(15:34):
.
I've got some up and downflexibility and then at the end
of the week if I found that Iwas too far off one direction or
the other.
That's just data that I know Ican adjust from and it
acknowledges the reality of theblue line right from the
beginning.
The second thing you're going todo is have decision-making
frameworks for common scenariosfor you, things that all you
know are going to happen.
(15:54):
Right, the goal is not toeliminate those, it's to
intelligently foresee them andnavigate around them or through
them.
For example, you could developyour strategy for eating at
restaurants.
Super common, everyone goes torestaurants, like 99% of people
do, right?
So what are you going to do?
Are you going to download themenu ahead of time and pick what
(16:15):
you want and pre-log it?
Are you going to look at thecalories and macros if it's like
a chain restaurant or getsomething similar to that?
Are you going to look at thecalories and macros if it's like
a chain restaurant or getsomething similar to that?
Are you going to have just asimple plan of I'm going to
start from my vegetables, thenlean protein, then carbs, I'm
going to have two drinks, nomore.
Or I'm going to havenon-alcoholic beer right, you
just have a strategy because youknow you're going to the
(16:36):
restaurant.
So I don't want you to go therewith no strategy and then the
next day say I went to arestaurant, couldn't help myself
.
Or the reason I went over mycalories and macros is because I
went to a restaurant.
Well, you didn't have a strategy, right?
Same thing goes for any socialevent, a party.
We just had my wife's birthdayand I knew for a fact I'd be
eating cake and I'd be eatingleftover cake for the next few
(16:57):
days.
So, guess what?
That cake goes into my planahead of time and now I know
what's left for the rest of theday, right, you know when you're
going to have periods of highstress, the things for your kids
you know play or sporting eventor when you're going on
vacation.
You know that 90% of thesethings you know.
And for the things you don't,you probably are 90% confident
that they're going to happen atsome point.
(17:18):
Like you know, your friend'sgoing to ask you out on some
given day.
So have a strategy, right?
And when I work with clients,we like practice these scenarios
, we try to role play.
Or I will ask them what wouldyou do when this happens?
And let's talk about yourvacation in a month rather than,
you know, tomorrow, thevacation starting tomorrow.
Let's give it some time andbuild confidence and competence
(17:39):
about those scenarios.
So with that, let me share somepractical strategies, of course
, for implementing the blue lineapproach, because that's what
we're all about.
So strategy number one is havinga clear hierarchy of your
priorities.
So what this means is list outon a piece of paper or in a note
app the order of things as theyare in terms of importance to
(18:02):
you.
So what is the most importantthing?
Is it your strength training?
Yes, that is part of yournutrition, believe it or not?
Threw you for a loop there, Iknow, or did I.
Is it your protein intake?
Is it your overall energybalance?
You know your calories and thedeficit or surplus you're trying
to be in.
Is it the whole foodconsumption?
Like, maybe you are eating alot of processed foods or going
(18:25):
out a lot and your goal is toshift more toward the whole
foods for the nutrients and forthe satiety right.
Any one of those might deservemore of your attention than just
trying to hit exact numbers.
In fact, they always will.
So create a hierarchy of yourpriorities.
I don't talk about this a lotbecause sometimes we think of
(18:45):
these as pillars, that we haveto do all of them, but in
reality we should do one at atime to start, unless you're
working with a coach or asupport system where you can
really fall back on that as youslip along the way, which is
going to happen at first.
I would just do one at a timeand then you can make better
real-time decisions when thedeviations occur, because you'll
(19:06):
know which aspect of the planyou're going to protect most
fiercely, like if training's atthe top.
You know that that's going toaffect all the other decisions
around it in terms of yourschedule and what you're doing
for your training.
So that gives you theflexibility elsewhere in all the
rest of your schedule or allthe rest of your plan, because
(19:27):
you're protecting the one thingthat is most important right now
, and for food-wise, fornutrition-wise, this could be
definitely protein intake.
Right, that might be the thingthat you're going to fiercely
protect, no matter what.
That's number one Strategy.
Number two is I alluded to thiswith Whole Foods, but it's the
80-20 principle.
We come back to this a lot, butit's because it's super simple
(19:48):
and powerful and it's the ruleof thumb that if you aim for 80%
adherence to whatever it isyour core principles, then you
have 20% flexibility your coreprinciples, then you have 20%
flexibility.
Yes, this applies to the wholefoods versus anything else, but
it also applies to 80%consistency to your protein, 80%
(20:10):
consistency to the calories,and it'd be when, when we say
consistency, we don't mean, um,like 80% of the week, you try to
hit your calories and then theother 20% you go hog wild with,
like cheat meals.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
We're just saying you knowyou're going to try to adhere
but in reality it's not going tobe perfect.
(20:30):
So give yourself an 80% goal ismy point, and however you want
to define that 80%.
So, for example, if you eatfour meals a day across seven
days that's 28 meals in the weekthen that means 22 or three of
those meals are going to alignwith your plan.
If you have 80% and five to sixof them may not right Again,
(20:52):
it's not cheat meals, it's justbuilding in adaptability.
And you notice it's not a lot,it's five to six, but it's not
zero either.
You're not giving yourself acompletely rigid approach.
So that's strategy number twois apply 80, 20, wherever it
makes sense.
Strategy number three this is if, then contingencies,
pre-planned contingencies forcommon scenarios.
(21:13):
Like you know that Christmas isgoing to come on December 25th,
so why haven't you budgeted andsaved up for the gifts instead
of spending it on your creditcard?
Right, that would be what afinancial person would chide you
for.
I'm the nutrition guy, but Iknow a little bit about finance.
What I'm going to suggest isthink about the situations that
are most often derail yournutrition efforts, but are going
(21:34):
to happen one way or the other.
They either happen on aconsistent basis or they happen
randomly, but they happen andthen come up with strategies for
handling them.
So, if work dinners right, ifyou you know work maybe you're
an executive, maybe you're alawyer or something and you have
to go treat customers orsuppliers, take you out for
dinner all the time or whateverand that's a challenge then you
(21:55):
might have a standard approachdeveloped ahead of time.
You review the menu in advance,you decide on your meal before
arriving, you pre-log it.
You have a protein shakebeforehand or some other lean
protein earlier in the day.
If you're concerned aboutportions etc.
Having some sort of plan, youcan come up with that plan.
Right.
That's flexibility too.
You can come up with thatwhatever makes sense.
(22:16):
If I'm your coach, I'm going tohelp you come up with that, but
ultimately it's on what worksfor you, and that means you can
navigate any deviation withconfidence.
Maybe not 100% of them, somethings are going to surprise you
, no matter what, but the vastmajority of them you can foresee
All right.
Strategy number four is what Icall mindful deviation.
So when you deviate from yourplan.
(22:37):
You will.
You always will.
You will many times.
Except that I want you todeviate mindfully rather than
reactively.
Somebody else called this aplanned reaction.
I think, or a what do they callthis?
A proactive reaction.
It's a mindful deviation.
It's a conscious choice.
(22:58):
It's made with awareness asopposed to impulsively reacting
to your circumstances.
This could be anything frompattern interrupts to Having
your priorities in your headthat we talked about earlier and
then acting on those, to takinga pause and thinking about the
emotions going through your head.
There's a lot of reasons, soI'll give you a specific example
(23:19):
.
Choosing to enjoy yourgrandmother's special brownies
at a family gathering is verydifferent from mindlessly eating
cookies because they're in thebreak room at work, right?
The former is a blue lineadaptation.
The latter is you're justgetting knocked off course,
you're just letting it happen.
So even with deviations, theycan be mindful, important
(23:41):
distinction, all right.
And then strategy five is I wantyou to focus on the momentum
rather than the adherence or theperfection, because if you
think of the blue line approach,where we have a black line,
that's a straight perfect line,and then we have this meandering
blue line, that's reality.
Remember that success is notdefined by adhering to the black
line.
It's defined by your ability tomaintain momentum right, even
(24:04):
though it zigzags, even thoughyou have inevitable deviations
from the black line.
You're going to end up near theblack line, but you're going to
deviate constantly.
It's your ability to keep theline being drawn forward right.
And so that means, for example,celebrate when you get through
a challenging situationreasonably well, instead of
(24:25):
beating yourself up for nothandling it perfectly.
Celebrate yourself for gettingthrough it reasonably well.
Celebrate yourself for gettingthrough it reasonably well.
It means quickly returning toyour baseline after a deviation,
right, getting up near thatblack line, but not necessarily
on it, but close to it, ratherthan allowing one off-plan meal
(24:45):
that you feel guilty about turninto an off-plan week.
So think about it visually thatblue line it starts to deviate
away from the black line.
That's your off-plan meal.
Well, all you have to do isdeviate back to the black line
the next day, instead ofcontinuing to go farther and
farther away from the black lineand going off the page.
And then kind of putting thisall together is using data to
(25:08):
refine your approach to all ofthese things over time.
Right, you knew it would comeback to data with me, didn't you
?
I mean, one of the mostpowerful aspects of this concept
, this blue line concept, is itcreates a feedback loop, because
you are tracking both your plan, which is the black line, and
you're tracking what happens,which is the blue line.
Pretty cool, right?
You're actually tracking whatyou intend to do and you're
(25:30):
tracking what you actually do,and that gives you an idea of
the gap and the insights so thatyou can keep improving.
And the gap isn't something tobeat yourself up over.
It's an acknowledgement ofreality and how you're able to
navigate and how you can betternavigate in the future.
So if you, for example, noticethat you consistently struggle
with late night snacking on workdays very common that is
(25:52):
valuable data.
So instead of saying I'm goingto try harder to resist, which
is willpower, you might adjustyour meal timing right To put a
snack toward the end of the dayto take care of your hunger.
Or you might change thecomposition of your meals to
have more fiber and vegetablesto make you fuller, more protein
in your dinner right.
(26:12):
Whatever it takes to bettermanage evening hunger, other
than dealing with emotionaltriggers and things like that as
well, it may just be a simplesolution like that that helps
you get back near the black line.
So I wanna talk about somethingcounterintuitive here, related
to this.
That is directly fromexperience with clients.
(26:34):
Okay, as a nutrition coach, oneof the most difficult things for
me and the challenge that Ifully embrace is getting clients
to adopt this blue lineapproach to nutrition.
Now, I haven't called it blueline before.
I might start doing that, butthere's this assumption that
embracing flexibility means I'mgoing to slow down my progress,
(26:55):
right?
Well, if I deviate constantly,aren't I going to get fat loss
slower?
Right?
Aren't my results going to bemediocre because I'm allowing
for constantly getting off track?
In reality, the oppositehappens, because when you shift
from a rigid, the black linementality to the flexible blue
line approach, your resultsusually accelerate, and the
(27:17):
reason why is you're no longercaught in the cycle of perfect
adherence followed by completeabandonment.
You maintain consistentprogress.
That's all it comes down to.
You don't do it perfectly, andthat's the point.
You do it consistently, though,and you keep doing it.
The small, deliberatedeviations that you allow
prevent the massive unplanneddeviations that derail your
(27:38):
progress completely.
I think even more importantly isthat the blue line approach
helps you build skills, what arecalled progressive adaptation
skills.
Right, just like with training.
Think about it.
Just like with training, whereprogressive overload increases
your strength and muscle overtime, progressive adaptation
with nutrition makes you moreresilient, makes you more
(27:59):
capable, makes you more skilled.
You're going to be able toteach this stuff, my friends.
If you work with me as a client, you are going to be able to
come out the other end teachingother people how to do this,
because you'll just know how todo it, and that's what I want
for you.
I want you to know how to dothis, because you'll just know
how to do it, and that's what Iwant for you.
I want you to know how to do it.
(28:19):
You can get some of that fromthis podcast, but you get a lot
of that doing it yourself.
And so what happens is somewonderful side effects.
Yes, you transform your bodyGreat, we all want to do that
but you also transform thisrelationship with food, because
a lot of that relationship istied up in the anxiety and those
situations that cause thedeviations.
You no longer fear socialsituations because you're
prepared, or going on a tripbecause you have the skills to
(28:40):
navigate them.
Food becomes a source ofnourishment and fuel and
enjoyment, yes, rather thananxiety and guilt.
And then, probably mostpowerful of all just to wrap
this up and then I'll shut up iswhen you do this, you stop
identifying progress withperfection and then you
understand that any path to anygoal not just nutrition,
(29:01):
anything in life it's not astraight black line, but it's a
winding blue one.
And not only is that okay, it'sexactly how it should be, isn't
that powerful?
I'm exciting myself as I talkabout this, because when I came
across the image of the blueversus black lines, that oh,
light bulb clicked, got to sharethis with my audience.
So if we bring this all together, the black line versus blue
(29:23):
line concept shows us that in acomplex environment AKA life
success is not from perfectlyfollowing an idealized plan, but
from navigating with skill thatyou develop over time, the
inevitable deviations, theinevitable adaptations that are
(29:45):
required, because it's the realworld.
So when we talk about adaptingto your goals, your lifestyles,
your preferences and all thatwhich sometimes sounds like
marketing speak, that's kind ofwhat we're talking about.
And when you apply it tonutrition, your approach changes
, your mindset changes.
You no longer try to be perfect, but instead you try to develop
the skills, the strategies, themindsets that allow you to
(30:06):
maintain progress right.
Maintain progress despite thecomplexities of real life, and
you're not lowering yourstandards by doing this.
You are not giving up on yourgoals.
It's approaching those goals ina way that aligns with reality,
rather than fighting against it, and building a sustainable
approach.
Boom, that's what it is.
(30:26):
That is what sustainability is.
So I'm going to encourage youright now to examine your own
approach to your nutrition.
Are you caught in the trap ofblack line thinking, where any
deviation feels like failure, orhave you or will you embrace
the blue line reality, whereskillful navigation and
adaptation lead to progress andlasting success?
(30:50):
All right, if you enjoyed thisconcept, if you found it helpful
.
I'm all about frameworks.
I'm all about systems andapplying engineering-type
principles to your nutrition andtraining, because they work.
They reflect some of the mostcomplex environments and
situations in real life, andimagine if you can deal with
your complex human body in thesame way, with simple frameworks
(31:13):
and systems that just finallyhelp you break through and make
it work.
If you want to do that, pleasejoin us in Physique University.
Link in the show notes.
You get a two-week free trial.
Tons of goodies in there.
We do masterclasses with guestexperts.
Now we do challenges everymonth.
You've got courses.
You've got a free customnutrition plan when you join,
(31:33):
put together by me.
And remember that plan is theblack line.
The blue line is what we teachyou Evidence-based.
They work in the real world,not just on paper.
You can get all the details.
You can learn more Zero risk.
Go to witsandweightscom.
Slash physique or click thelink in the show notes.
All right until next time.
This is Philip Pape remindingyou to use your wits, lift those
(31:55):
weights and remember that lifeis a meandering, flexible,
adaptable blue line and if youfollow it, you will get all of
the results you ever dreamed of.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights podcast
.
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