Okay, here comes another football analogy: Quarterbacks are provided with a play to run by the coaching staff. However, each play comes with a “Plan B”, Plan C and Plan D”. This means that if for some reason the first option is not viable, the QB will then very quickly look at the second option and go through those progressions until the play that has the best chance of succeeding is attempted. Even at the line of scrimmage before the play, if the QB sees a defense aligned in a certain way, an “audible” will be called and the play changed before the ball is even hiked. By the way, all of this transpires in milliseconds, meaning that the QB has a miniscule amount of time to go through his “progressions”.
Now, to the weight control arena: Sometimes, our best laid plans for meals/snacks are thwarted due to unforeseen events/circumstances that pop up quickly. As an example: We bring a lunch to work consisting of salad and 5 ounces of chicken. We then get informed at 1100 am that we need to attend an offsite lunch meeting and food will be provided, i.e. we cannot bring our prepared salad. The “food provided” will be pizza and sandwiches. How do we navigate around this and remain adherent to our dietary plan? One “progression” may be eating the prepared lunch early before leaving and not eating the pizza/sandwich lunch. Another “progression” may be contacting the person ordering food and ask that a protein/vegetable dish be ordered for you. A third “progression” may be taking the proteins off the sandwiches and eating a pure protein lunch.
Successful weight control requires constant adjustments, “quick reads” and sometimes calling “audibles” in order to confront environmental factors that try to steer us off course. Being able to quickly and successfully go through our “progressions” will help us achieve our goals.
