At the gym, you will hear us talk about the importance of paying attention to nutrition. You might even be joining one of our 28 Day Challenge focusing on gaining consistency with eating healthy foods. Hopefully you’ve seen the nutrition pyramid depicting the importance of nutrition when it comes to getting the most out of your workouts.
By paying attention to nutrition, addressing behavior change, and focusing on consistently fueling with real foods, we get the best results in the gym. Outside the gym, we gain so much more. By paying attention to nutrition long term, not just during a 4 week challenge, we have the best chance of achieving a life free of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.
Many of us look at nutrition and exercise as a means for losing weight. That’s an awesome goal. The piece that often gets overlooked is “addressing behavior change”. So, let’s talk about this.
Think about past measures you have taken to lose weight. Many of us have tried a quick fix: Enrolled in a super restrictive challenge, or followed a fad diet to lose weight. There are many methods aimed at losing weight quickly. Many versions of juice cleanses, detox diets, challenges that eliminate certain macronutrients, and even things marketed as “magic pills”.
Following the quick fix, what happens next when you want to actually maintain these results? Regardless of the amount of weight you lose on any given quick fix, it is tough to maintain these results. You have taken the time to truly build mindfulness, develop and adopt healthy habits when it comes to food choices. This is the piece that many people find kind of boring. This is the stuff that takes time.
From the beginning of your journey, it is important to look at where you want to be 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, a year from now, and where you want to be beyond that. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years from now? What does age 75 and beyond look like for you? Challenge yourself to avoid putting so much pressure on yourself to lose weight and change body composition quickly. Challenge yourself to think of it this way… When you are 75, you likely will not care, or remember how long it took you hit your weight loss goals. Knowing that you took the time to learn healthy habits is empowering. These will allow you to be the healthiest and most functional 75 year old in your community.
It is for this reason that we encourage a long term approach with a nutrition coach as an accountability partner. Together, with your nutrition coach, you will avoid the many quick fixes out there. At 1836, any challenge that you will be invited to, comes with the offer to continue your nutrition coaching at the end to stay on track with long term goals. With an accountability partner and by taking a more long term approach, you will learn about balance, flexibility and sustainability. Remind yourself that you are not doing this for a quick fix. You are doing this to allow you to live your best life. Above all, give yourself the opportunity to be the healthiest version of your, for the rest of your life.