Why week three breaks people

Almost nobody quits in week one. Week one has momentum, a new pair of shoes and the quiet thrill of telling people you have started something. Week two still carries it. Week three is when the plan meets an ordinary Tuesday — a late meeting, a cousin's engagement, a child with a fever — and the plan loses.

So I stopped designing plans for motivated people. I design them for tired ones.

Build the floor, not the ceiling

Every client leaves the first session with two versions of their week: the full version and the floor. The floor is what happens on the worst realistic day. Ten minutes, not sixty. One protein-anchored meal, not five perfect ones.

The floor is not a compromise. It is the actual programme. Everything above it is a bonus you collect on good days.

Make the restart free

The cost of missing a day should be one day. In practice people miss Wednesday, decide the week is ruined, and return the following Monday having lost five. We name this out loud in the first week so that when it happens, it is a known event rather than a verdict on your character.