Let’s Talk About the Gap Between Knowing and Doing

You know you need to eat more protein. You know skipping breakfast backfires. You know the granola bar in your glove box isn't really lunch.

So why is it still so hard to do the thing?

This is the gap nobody likes to talk about. The space between what you know and what you actually do.

And no, it’s not because you’re lazy or undisciplined. It’s because life is busy and noisy and full of competing priorities. Somewhere between school drop-offs, workouts, meetings, and maybe a few minutes of quiet in your car, your good intentions get swallowed up.

The truth is: knowledge doesn’t always equal execution. And honestly? That’s not your fault. But it is something you can fix.

Why We Get Stuck in the Gap

Most people walking into a gym don’t need another lecture on why protein matters or how to read a label. They’ve heard it. They probably already follow five nutrition pages and three fitness influencers who yell, “PUT COTTAGE CHEESE ALL OVER IT!!”

What they need is something quieter and more useful: a way to connect the dots between knowing better and doing better consistently.

Here’s why that gap keeps showing up:

• You’re overcomplicating it

• You’re trying to do everything all at once

• You’re stuck in all-or-nothing thinking

• You haven’t built any systems to make the right choice the easy one

You’re not broken. You’re just overloaded. And no one makes great decisions when they’re mentally tapped out.

You can have all the nutrition facts in the world and still find yourself eating chips for dinner if you never planned anything else. That doesn’t make you bad at nutrition. It makes you human. But at some point, the gap between what you know and what you do starts costing you energy, progress, and confidence. That’s when it’s time to change your approach.

So What Does "Doing" Actually Look Like?

It looks like:

• Planning some kind of breakfast the night before so you don’t start your day with caffeine and hope

• Putting pre-cut veggies in your grocery cart instead of pretending you’re going to dice them all like a cooking show

• Grabbing a rotisserie chicken and frozen rice and calling it dinner

• Packing snacks like a parent prepping for a road trip, because future-you is going to be starving

Doing isn’t dramatic. It’s not a cleanse or a six-week shred. It’s a series of really average decisions that add up over time.

Doing is choosing simple meals you don’t resent making. It’s keeping protein bars in your glove box and prepping a solid dinner. It’s making the best choice you can with what you’ve got—not trying to execute a Pinterest-worthy food plan in the middle of a hectic life.

If You Want to Do Better, Start Smaller

Instead of thinking "I need to overhaul my diet," ask:

• What's the one meal I keep skipping or scrambling?

• Where do I usually fall apart (late afternoon, after dinner, weekends)?

• What can I prep in five minutes that I actually want to eat?

Most people don’t need extreme plans. They need a base routine that’s easy to return to when things fall apart. A couple of go-to breakfasts. A few snacks that always hit. A default dinner that doesn’t stress them out.

It might not look impressive. But it works. And once it’s in motion, you can build from there. Add one habit. Tweak one meal. Give yourself a chance to succeed without needing a perfect streak.

Here’s What We Tell Our Members at GRIT:

You don’t need to earn the right to start. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to show up a little more prepared than yesterday.

Because bridging the gap between knowing and doing isn’t about discipline. It’s about building a system that supports the person you’re trying to become.

That might look like:

• Prepping three meals instead of seven

• Swapping your go-to drive-thru order with something higher in protein

• Saying no to one thing so you can say yes to actually sitting down and eating

Real progress doesn’t come from knowing more. It comes from doing a little more, more often.

So no, you don’t need another macro calculator. You need a plan that fits your life. You need support when it gets messy. You need permission to start small and keep going.

And if you need help figuring that out? That’s literally what we do here.

Let’s close the gap—one (realistic, human, not-a-cleanse) step at a time.