System: A set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method.
A system is a method for doing something, which can be put in place such that when you apply the system it continues to produce the result that you're looking for - over and over again.
When you put a system in place, you remove the need to "start from scratch", and save yourself heaps of time.
For example, this email that I'm writing now starts as a template, so that every week I sit down and fill in the gaps. I have a system in place.
On the other hand, imagine if every week I built the email from scratch, it wouldn't make much sense would it?
So, how can this be applied to living a healthy life? You can create systems in your nutrition and lifestyle that "run themselves".
For example, every day you eat your first meal at roughly "..." o'clock, and it usually consists of ".......". Meal 2 is at "...", and it usually consists of "......". Before and after my workout, I usally consume "......." and ".......". And then dinner I change every day, but have plenty of time to enjoy the process of doing so, so that's okay.
If these repeated meal choices line up with your goals, and you have them stocked up - you simply cannot go wrong.
A quote by Barack Obama: “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”.
Everyone has the power to do the same. Pare down some of those decisions, and let the systems run themselves - keeping you healthy and making good choices.