Week 1 is about three things: habits, eating out, and shift work. Before you start, make sure the basics are done — training programme open, tracker set up, MyFitnessPal logged in, and you've introduced yourself in the group chat.
Watch the video, then use the notes below as your reference all week.
Use MyFitnessPal as a planning tool
Open the app right now and plan tomorrow's food. Not log today's — plan tomorrow's. You'll know exactly what you're eating before you wake up. Ingredients ready, decision fatigue gone. That's the biggest thing that catches people out — the overthink, the "can't be a***d", the takeaway that follows.
If the day doesn't go fully to plan, just adjust on the day. The plan is the safety net, not the prison.
Five habits to lock in this week
- Cook a few meals really well. Have staples. Easy go-to meals you can repeat without thinking. Mince + taco seasoning + microwave rice. Slow-cooker chicken with a sauce. Overnight oats. Greek yoghurt with whey, banana and raisins. Don't waste time faffing with fancy recipes every day — unrealistic.
- Meal prep the smart way. No five-hour Sunday slog. Either batch cook just for tomorrow, or batch cook proteins and carbs — cook a load of chicken at the start of the week, cook a tray of potatoes, and assemble meals from there. Even prepping one meal for tomorrow beats prepping none.
- Protein at breakfast. 30–50 g first thing. Manages hunger across the whole day. Start with cereal or high-carb breakfast — you'll crash mid-morning and feel hungry till bed. Boring advice, brutally effective.
- Build a consistent shopping routine. Big Sunday shop, mid-week top-up, online — whatever fits. The point is the routine: have a list, get to the shop, get it done. Stop making it an event.
- Regular eating pattern. Random eating = zero control. You know your work schedule and training times — slot meals around them. Mine is roughly: wake 5:30–6am, caffeine + protein bar/shake + carb snack pre-training, first proper meal 9–10am, second meal 3–4pm, pre-training snack 6:30pm, sometimes a meal post-training. Yours doesn't have to look like that — it just has to be yours, and the same most days.
Tip: know where the decent food is near your work. Even a sandwich shop where you can ask for two chicken breasts chopped into a sarnie is a win on a rushed day. Knowing your good defaults makes the rest easier.
Why habits matter — raise the floor
You have a floor and a ceiling. Habits raise the floor — your new baseline becomes what your ceiling used to be. That's the whole game.
Without habits, most people live on the hamster wheel: start the diet, see progress, feel the negative symptoms, rely on willpower, give up, sabotage, default back to eating shit, beat themselves up, search for the next diet. With habits, your defaults get stronger — and even when you wobble, you bounce back quicker.
Trust the process. You might be miles behind someone else watching this. Doesn't matter. You level up week by week.
What you get from me each week
- A lecture on Monday (this one)
- Check-ins on Thursday
- A mini lecture mid-week (Wednesday-ish) when needed
- A Friday Q&A and roundup
Drop your questions in the group through the week so I can hit them on Friday.
Environment beats willpower
What looks like discipline is usually a carefully crafted environment. The people in the best shape aren't superheroes — their kitchen, work and home support them. No shit in the house. Tempting snacks out of sight. Habits run on autopilot because the environment is doing the heavy lifting.
If the biscuits are in the drawer at hip height, you'll eat them. If there's a snack drawer at work full of bars, you'll smash it. If the bars aren't there, problem solved — without spending a drop of willpower.
Look at four environments. Which can you improve?
- Home — kitchen, fridge, snack cupboards. What's in eyeline?
- Work — desk drawer, vending machine, "free biscuits" tin in the break room.
- Training — what's in your gym bag, what you eat pre/post session, where you stop on the way home.
- Social — who you're seeing, where you're eating, what defaults you're walking into.
You can give a fish all the nutrients in the world, but if the water's dirty, it's still a shitty environment. Clean the water. Stop relying on willpower.
Eating out — the swaps
Not every meal out has to be a three-course event. You can go to a restaurant and order a chicken salad, an omelette, or a steak. The "treat" mindset is what wrecks the week.
Defaults to lean on:
- Limit anything deep-fried.
- Go for grilled meat or fish.
- Always add veg if it doesn't come with the meal — just ask.
- Skip the bread basket — or save it for mopping the sauce, not for filler before the meal arrives.
Cooking-style swaps:
- Crispy → grilled
- Breaded → steamed
- Dipped → baked
- Creamed → braised
- Glazed → poached
Direct meal swaps:
- Deep-fried prawns / calamari → garlic-and-chilli prawns
- Breaded fish or meat → baked or grilled fish or meat
- Triple-cooked chips → baked wedges
- Burger or ribs → boneless burger or steak
- Creamy sauces → bone-broth-based sauces
- Rice → extra veg, cauliflower rice, or spinach
Shift work — if your day isn't a normal day
If you're on shift, broken days are reality. Adjust the structure: 3 meals + 2 snacks, maybe a shake, built around your breaks. Five things to lock in:
- Don't start your shift hungry. Eat a balanced meal before you clock in — protein, carbs, fats, fibre.
- Easy portable meals. Bagels, wraps, sandwiches if you're grabbing food on the move. Beats trying to sit and eat from a tub.
- Caffeine management. Eight-hour rule — no caffeine within 8 hours of when you need to sleep. Adjust based on your shift, not the clock.
- Hydrate. Don't run the whole shift on coffee.
- Bring your own snacks. Vending machines and break rooms are killers — muffins, crisps, biscuits everywhere. Pack ahead: nuts, fruit, bars, smoothies, rice cakes, hummus pots, yoghurt, flaxseed-and-fruit, boiled eggs.
Quick Q&A from the group
"If I hit my protein target, can I go over — or is going over bad?"
Going over is fine. Don't massively overshoot for the sake of it, but a bit over your protein target won't hurt anything.
"If I hit my calorie limit and I'm low on protein, do I go over on calories to hit protein?"
Prioritise the protein. If you went over slightly to hit it, reduce calories a touch over the next couple of days to balance it out. One-off? Don't even worry about it.
Week 1 action points
- Lock in the 5 habits.
- Plan tomorrow's food on MyFitnessPal — tonight.
- Pick 2–3 simple staple meals and repeat them.
- Build a shopping and eating routine.
- Audit your environment (home / work / training / social) and remove one friction point.
- If you eat out this week, use the swap list.
- Adapt for shifts if that's your life.
I'll drop a mini lecture mid-week and a Q&A on Friday. Get your questions in. Let's get to work.