Overwhelmed With Your Diet? Try This!

We’ve all been there — staring down a mountain of to-dos, goals, or expectations that suddenly feel so big that we freeze. You’ve got things you want to accomplish — maybe with your nutrition, maybe in your career, your relationships, or your overall health — but the path ahead feels so overwhelming that you end up doing... nothing.

Sound familiar?

It’s like you’re reaching for a bunch of things floating in the air — all these tasks and goals you feel like you need to grab in order to make progress. But there are so many of them, and they’re so high up, that you can’t quite grasp any of them. So you stay stuck.

This happens all the time when we’re working on lifestyle changes. Especially with nutrition. We tend to picture these big milestones — the goal weight, the perfect week of meal prep, the totally dialed-in routine — and we overestimate how important those big moves are. At the same time, we underestimate how powerful the small, seemingly insignificant moves are.

But here’s the truth: real change is built on thousands of tiny, repeated reps — not big dramatic moments.

So what do you do when you’re overwhelmed?

You shrink your story down.

That’s the shift I want to talk about. When things feel too big, too chaotic, or just too much — you zoom in. You create the smallest possible picture that will still keep you moving.

Let’s say you wake up on a day where everything just feels like too much. You had planned to meal prep, hit 10,000 steps, and make it to the gym… but now even getting dressed feels like a stretch. Instead of trying to push through it all, ask yourself:

👉 What’s one thing I can do today that will move the needle for me?

Maybe that’s a 15-minute walk. Maybe it’s choosing a high-protein breakfast. Maybe it’s just filling your water bottle. Is that less than what you had planned? Sure. But is it way better than doing nothing at all because you feel stuck? Absolutely.

This approach doesn’t just apply to nutrition, either.

Let’s say you’re staring down a packed workday with overlapping deadlines and you feel like there’s no way you’re getting it all done. Instead of throwing in the towel and spending an hour spiraling at your desk, try this:

👉 What can I get done in the next hour?

Just focus on that. Shrink the story down to one single block of time and put a rep in. That action — even if it feels small — will often lead to more action. It breaks the stuckness.

Small reps still count

The smallest steps are still reps. They still move you forward. And if you keep stacking them — even inconsistently, even imperfectly — they become habits. Those habits shape your lifestyle, and that’s how long-term change actually happens.

Eventually, that overwhelmed feeling starts to lift. You’ll have days where you can zoom out again, where the bigger picture feels less intimidating and even motivating. But whenever you feel stuck?

Shrink the story. Do the next small thing. Keep moving.

Because it doesn’t matter how small the rep is — it still counts.

💡 Want more support on building better nutrition habits that actually stick?

 I’ve got resources, recipes, and real talk to help you make progress without the pressure. No matter where you are currently in your journey, I have ways to help, check out my website!

Coach Ashleigh🦈