At the turn of the new year we collected some feedback and it was clear that Nutrition was the most challenging part of your fitness journey. Based on this, we set out to have our first Fitness Nutrition workshop of 2015 to discuss our nutrition challenges.

Some great questions were raised, most were regarding Calories and Macro-Nutrients (Protein, Carbohydrates & Fats). And we get it, there is so much information all over the place: the web, our friends and family, everyone seems to know the best method for permanent weight loss… some of this information however conflicts with each other, so we feel more confused and frustrated than when we started our research.

Truth is, there’s no way around it. Because we’re all so different not every method will work well for everyone:

• Some people do shift work and their schedules are all over the place
• Some of us have a hard time eating 5 meals/day because we’re busy.
• Some can’t go without breakfast in the morning.
• Some people can’t seem to force breakfast down.

The cold hard truth doesn’t “sell” well,a so not everyone will give it to you. You won’t find hundreds of magazines by the cash register with real helpful advice because it’s a lot easier to sell if the cover says something like: “Don’t give up anything and lose 10 lbs in a week!”. So we have gotten used to making the following assumptions about our nutrition plan:

• It should be easy to follow.
• You shouldn’t have to give up your favourite foods.
• You shouldn’t feel restricted in your choices.
• You should lose weight and inches all over!

This is where your success will come from. It will come from managing your expectations and your relationship with food. Us eating (too much or too little) is simply the Symptom, we have to identify the Cause, the trigger and address it, then the symptoms will go away on their own. Easier said than done, absolutely! Here’s our advice, based on what has worked for Katie & myself:

–>Focus more on how you feel AFTER you eat, instead of the false sense of “instant gratification” you get from junk food.
–>Change your thoughts about food. Food is not the enemy, it doesn’t have a mind of it’s own. It’s our thoughts about food that give it power over us.
–>Own up but don’t stop there. Do something about it. Learn from it. A Mistake is only made once, if it happens again it wasn’t a mistake it was a choice.
–>Be prepared. Failing to Plan is planning to Fail. If you’re trying to just wing your food for the day you leave way too much up to chance.
–>You should expect and welcome the struggle, everything that’s worth anything requires effort. You don’t want it easy, we all know where that leads don’t we?
–>If your trigger for eating bad foods is stress, book a massage. If it’s boredom find a hobby. If it’s convenience, prep your meals the day before.
–>Remember Emotion should not dictate your nutrition habits. The moment you notice emotion, stop and analyse what’s going on.

Something we all agreed on when asked was that our struggle with reaching our fitness nutrition goals comes not from a lack of understanding of how macro nutrient ratios work but due to our emotion based decision making process surrounding food. So, let’s be honest with ourselves and address our triggers.

We are all in this together but no one can help you if you’re not willing to help yourself  😉

#DonotGiveUp