I hope you are well.

Today, I want to share with you a quick insight into how you can reframe your mindset as it relates to food/nutrition to empower yourself to live a better, more fulfilling life. 

I was answering some questions today on Instagram, when I had a thought. When people ask me questions about nutrition, I am so used to being asked fat loss focused questions that I almost assume that is what the question relates to. While that's not an unjustified assumption, I sort of wish it wasn't the case that the health & fitness industry is primarily the weight loss industry.

You see, a lot of people pursue fat loss goals over and over again, but they are never really fulfilled. Initially, you plan to lose a couple of kilos and think you will be happy. You lose those couple of kilos, then you realise that you want to lose some more. You lose 5kg and you still don't look like that person on Instagram that you wish you looked like. So, you decide to keep losing weight....

As you are probably aware, no, that's not right. Those lean people posting selfies on Instagram have just as many insecurities as you. They experience just as many ups and downs as you. Their sense of fulfilment with their life leaves a lot to be desired, just like you. 

But you know what, there is a lot that can be gained from your approach to health & fitness to empower you to live a better life. Improving your physical fitness, the strength of your body, your ability to endure prolonged struggle voluntarily and consistently come back for more are incredibly valuable and will carry over to you living a better life. At the end of the day, nobody really cares about the trivial difference a couple of kilos makes to the aesthetics of your physique. It doesn't make you any more useful as a human. 

When it comes to improving such fitness characteristics, the key components are 1) an appropriate exercise approach that is specific to the goal and 2) sufficient nutrition to support that exercise and the subsequent adaptations.

But what do most people who enter the "health & fitness" industry do?

So, essentially, all of your efforts lead to one, transient outcome: a decrease in your body mass. 

Is that really all that matters? Is that really all you want to get from all of your efforts? Why not build yourself a strong, resilient human vehicle that can traverse the world without limitation? Why not be the person people ask for help when moving the fridge? Why not be the person that can get up and climb a mountain any morning of the week? 

When you begin to reframe your value structure around fitness, you will begin to see that having a performance-focused approach to nutrition is actually incredibly valuable and rewarding. If you gauge your progress on performance, as opposed to aesthetics, you can begin to adopt a far more sustainable approach to nutrition that supports you being the best version of yourself OUTSIDE the gym. You don't have to be restricted all the time. You don't have to constantly focus on when your next meal is, how you can keep your calories down etc..

So yeah, the point here is that while fat loss is undoubtedly an appropriate goal to have for some people, it shouldn't be your only goal and it also shouldn't be your only measure of progress. Along with this, if you are at a healthy bodyweight, don't feel like you need to get leaner just because everyone around you is.

We will speak to you again soon.

Kind Regards,