We’re seeing gyms all over the country (CrossFit Minnesota, SnoRidge CrossFit, CrossFit Ramstein and CrossFit X, to name a few) adopting the Whole30 program as part of their commitment to good nutrition. We love hearing their success stories – members who are performing better than ever, who are leaning out without even trying, who are seeing improved fasting blood glucose and cholesterol and blood pressure and iron levels within just a few weeks. We hope their successes will encourage other gyms to take on the Whole30 program, and will offer as much support as we can in YOUR gym’s efforts, too. But before you do, we’d like to wax poetic about one common “nutrition challenge” structure we see, and why we think this theme will hurt your gym’s Whole30 results.
Many gyms seek to measure compliance with their members’ nutrition challenges. Measuring something that’s relatively intangible to begin – “healthy eating” – can be difficult, which is why gyms often implement their own set of rules and regulations. These rules are designed to statistically measure adherence to the program as outlined, usually by assigning points for various degrees of compliance. One such program outlined zero points if you eat “perfect Paleo”, one point if you include one individual transgression, two points if you fall off the wagon for an entire meal, and three points if your whole day goes to hell in a handbasket. Those who accumulate the least amount of “points” during the 30 day period are said to have achieved the greatest “success” with the challenge, and those with no “three point” days are said to have completed the program.
In our experience – and we’ve got plenty – implementing a point system in conjunction with your nutritional challenge is a recipe for disaster. While a point assignment strategy seems a logical way to measure compliance, any such system is doomed to backfire. Here’s why.
A group of day care centers in Israel were all experiencing a common issue – late pick-ups. Parents were arriving late at the end of the day, forcing the centers to stay open late too, and pay their workers overtime. In an effort to curb these late pick-ups, the centers introduced a financial penalty. Parents who arrived more than 10 minutes late had to pay a $3 penalty for each incident. The idea was that a fine would discourage parents from arriving late. However, after the fine was introduced, the number of late pick-ups actually increased – more than doubled, in fact. Parents now measured the financial difficulty of a small fine (minimal) against having to cut their tennis game short (troublesome), and opted for the fine. Their child’s well-being, however, no longer played a part in their decision making process.
The institution of a fine substituted an economic incentive (a $3 penalty) with a moral incentive (responsibility to your child). For just a few dollars a day, the parents could buy off their guilt. And for that reason, a point assignment as a penalty for making poor food choices will backfire. A point system serves to disassociate the choices your members make (eating the cookie) with their actual physical consequences (insulin spike, sugar cravings, digestive distress). Instead, your members now face a different choice: eat the cookie vs. rack up 3 points. Which one sounds more appetizing to you?
In our admittedly unofficial survey (mostly anecdotal evidence and first-hand accounts from gym members), gyms who institute a penalty or point system have far less compliance – and far less impressive results – than a gym who implements the Whole30 program exactly as outlined. By implementing a point system, it’s almost as though the gym members are expected to fail at some point or another during their month. “We want you to eat well, but since that might be hard, here’s an arbitrary system to measure how well you actually ate.” Except the system doesn’t measure a thing, because who knows whether a one point day means they had a little added sugar in their balsamic, or a dirty margarita with breakfast? Does earning 12 points over a 30 day period mean you had four entire days off the reservation, or that you included one thing you weren’t supposed to eat three days a week for the duration of the challenge? And regardless… which is “worse”?
The alternative to an arbitrary point system? Demand 100% compliance for the full 30 days, just like we do here, with our Whole30 program. No cheats, no slips, no “But Coach, it’s my birthday!”. Outline the plan, insist that members follow the letter of the law for 30 full days, and measure compliance like you measure pregnancy – you either are, or you’re not. Set the standards high, because you think nutrition is THAT important. Outline your expectations clearly, so everyone knows what is required of them. And give your members the best shot at success, because the Whole30 done with 80% compliance will mean your members will see (you know what’s coming…) 20% of the results. And give your members the opportunity to experience the full range of benefits that are sure to come at the end of their 30 days – which is, in fact, the real point of the challenge.
Ready to take on the Whole30 with your gym? In the middle of your Whole30 now, or just completed it with your gym? Post questions, comments or commitments here. (Want to read more about our take on “nutritional challenges”? Read “Burpee vs. Cookie“, a re-post from Urban Gets Diesel.)
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Point systems are just too complicated for me. I’ve never tried them. I just try to improve my diet by improving how healthy it is normally, going off of it less frequent and coming back to my normal quicker. Progress not perfection seems to work for me. I’m also trying to figure out how I screw up and figure out strategies for when it happens again. Learn from my mistakes idea.
Thank you – just realized reading this that I have an internal point system. You’re right: it doesn’t work. Thank you for hitting my reset button!
I can speak from experience when I say that this is 100% on point. We did two different Whole30 inspired challenges at Crossfit Ramstein. The first included what we called the ‘burpee cookie’ rule where the penalty was 100 burpees that had to be performed BEFORE the ‘cheat’. While I was hesitant to include it, it was my first challenge and I wanted to add the ‘stick’ that would act as the incentive to keep people on the ‘challenge wagon’. Well, we had one person go totally off the program, which I attribute to a lack of commitment and just not being ready to undertake it. Then we also had about 3 people play the ‘100 burpee’ card and do their burpees so they could drink wine on their birthday, eat wings during the Super Bowl, or whatever the case was. Personally, being in the military I’m used to hearing ‘If you do x, you will be punished with y’ and it was a powerful enough incentive to keep me from reaching for whatever I may have craved. (By the way, I don’t suggest visiting a German chocolate factory in the middle of your Whole30 challenge. That was definitely a tough test of willpower for me!)
Fast forward 6 months and it was time for our second Whole30 challenge. This time around I decided there would be no more Ms. Nice Coach. It was going be tough love, harden the F- up style. No burpees for cheats, just dedicate yourself to the program and do it. Well, surprise surprise, we only had one person eat something not Whole30 approved. Everyone else said it was tough, but they did it. As the coordinator I felt a lot better about my decision and learned a lot from the experience. I’ve never been a fan of the ‘Don’t do x or you’ll be punished with y’ system. I wanted to treat people like responsible adults and if they faltered, hey they’re human, they can try again next time. And this proved to me that I really didn’t need to have a ‘burpee cookie’ rule to do it.
After that experience I decided that the new rule for any of the people I coach would be that if they said they were going to do a Whole30, they needed to stick with it and the incentive to do so would come from their own internal motivation and goals, and a sense of personal responsibility and integrity. For some people this really may be the hardest thing they have done when it comes to their diet. But if they make it to day 30 and cross that Whole30 finish line knowing they did it 100%, they will have the peace of mind that they really can do this and maybe even adopt it as a lifestyle, and they don’t need a get out of jail free card or a point system to do it.
I LOVE this post. LOVE it!
I’m on week two of my own whole30 clean-up, and it’s… challenging. Illuminating. And also inspiring because the motivation is completely internal. This is my first time doing a whole30 completely “from scratch,” i.e., I ate total sugar-poison for three weeks and now I’m 100% clean eating. When I switched from zone to the whole30 way, I’d already been grain-free for about two years. My hat is off to all the people who’ve experienced this kind of whole30. Slashing all sugar, grains, and diary all at once is tough — but 9 days in, I’m already feeling better. Hooray!
Agree 1000%!!! In the words of Yoda “DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY!” We had that on our nutrition board in our tiny garage gym during our Whole30. Our clients knew for a month 100% compliance was going to be the only way to do it – and they did! When you instill the expectations in anything worthwhile, people will accept the challenge or they won’t. I was on Weight Watchers for far too many years. Gaming points became habit instead of trying to figure out how to optimize my nutrition. Our Delta5 folks had a month to ask questions, prepare meals, strategize how to handle various situations. We talked each other down when we had to and shared our victories at the end. When you give an inch, a mile …. or a cookie ….will be taken!
The last time I used a point system as reward-or-punishment was in fourth grade when I had to learn my multiplication tables (a miserable failure). If an adult (that’s most of us here, right?) needs a points system of punishment and reward to keep himself on track, he’s got a lot more problems than just dietary choices.
We’ve done two Whole 30 inspired Paleo Challenges at Crossfit St. Louis and both times we had very high expectations of our participants. We set up our rules based on the Whole 30 program and told them that the only way they would truly see the results they were looking for was to go 30 days of strict paleo. I stressed that their results would correspond with compliance. We had some great success stories and those who stuck it out and went strict for 30 days seemed to continue to make it a lifestyle after the challenge was over. If you cheat, you “spoil the experiment”. What surprised me and many others who did the challenge was the fact that after the challenge was over, the weight loss and sense of well being continued on the next months even more effortlessly than the first month. I can’t imagine ever going back to my old style of eating. Thank you for your wonderful program and the great info you put out for all of us! We will be starting our next challenge again in January 2011.
Loving the Whole30.
The all or nothing, just do it people mentality may lead to the last supper phenomenon?
How many people jump ship and say the heck with it because a perceived over indulgence in Apples?