Yesterday, I talked about how playing offensive line wired me wrong around food.
From age 14 through 25, I force-fed myself as much as possible, honestly, a good portion of the time. That was the job. Not healthy — but that was what the job required.
And then I retired from my football career. Started trying to get healthy and drop some lbs. And here’s how it played out:
I’d have a meal plan.
I knew my calories, I knew my protein target, I knew what a solid day of eating was supposed to look like.
And I’d do pretty well with it — for a day, maybe two.
And then I’d have a long day at work, get tired, get stressed, etc., and go off the plan.
Maybe I’d eat an entire bag of chips before dinner. Maybe I’d just hit the drive-through instead of eating what I had planned.
And then it would start — why did I do that? What is wrong with me? I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing – but I just can’t seem to follow through.
And then I’d fall off the plan for a couple of days before dragging myself back to it.
Sound familiar?
Here’s what I eventually figured out was one thing going on underneath all of that.
The meal plan wasn’t the problem.
Now I DID need the meal plan. Knowing your calorie target, your protein target, what a solid day of eating looks like — that foundation matters.
But something was missing on top of it.
And that missing piece was identity.
In my own words — and this is not a politically correct way to put it, but it’s honest — I was thinking of myself as a “fat offensive lineman”. That was the identity running in the background. And no meal plan overrides that. You can white-knuckle it for a few days, but eventually your behavior follows your belief about who you are.
(And obviously, that’s not a nice way to talk to yourself. I would never say that to someone else. Just to myself. Which — honestly — is something I’ve also gotten a lot better at through this whole process.)
If any of this is resonating and you already know you’re in, you can grab one of the 12 spots right here -> SIGN UP FOR THE MINDFUL EATING SUMMER RESET
Otherwise, keep reading — because here’s where it gets interesting.
James Clear lays this out in Atomic Habits. His core idea is that you don’t change by focusing on goals. You change by focusing on identity — who you believe you are. And you build that identity through small consistent actions that each act as a vote for the person you want to become. No single action transforms you. But the votes stack up. And as they stack up so does your belief about who you are.
So here’s the practical takeaway from that.
Every time you make a small good choice around food — eating a little slower, stopping when you’re full, choosing the slightly better option — that’s a vote. You’re not trying to be perfect. You’re just stacking votes for the person you want to become. Over time, those votes build the evidence that you are, in fact, someone who takes care of their body.
That’s the foundation of what we build over six weeks in the Mindful Eating Summer Reset — in a small group setting with real coaching and real accountability.
If you’ve already worked with me and have a meal plan, bring it. We’ll use it or freshen it up as part of the program. If you don’t have one we’ll get you set up. But then we stack the psychology on top — the identity work, the behavior patterns, the stuff that actually determines whether the plan works long term.
This is capped at 12 people total. Once those spots are gone, registration closes. If you’re ready to do this differently — not just follow another plan, but actually change how you think about food and who you are around it — grab your spot here.
-> SIGN UP FOR THE MINDFUL EATING SUMMER RESET
— Forest
PS – Spots are going fast. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time. GRAB YOUR SPOT HERE.
