Your mindset is your set of beliefs, attitudes, or opinions that influence how you think, feel, and behave.
Read that again… and again…..Lets break it down
Your beliefs – so everything you believe about nutrition and exercise. Every little snippet of advice you’ve heard from someone who didn’t have a clue what they were talking about but the information stuck in your head.
Every moronic video on social media by barely qualified personal trainers who are trying to go viral which causes you to believe things like sugar in fruit is bad for you or that eating after 6pm is what’s causing you to be overweight.
That friend who told you the best way to lose weight was to do HIIT workouts and running, or the other one who said weights was the right way to go. Leaving you confused and constantly feeling like you are doing things wrong.
Every single belief you have impacts what you eat and how you exercise.
If you have heard that fruit is bad every time you have a banana you on one hand feel like you are being healthy and on the other hand feel like you are doing something wrong.
This is why the NUMBER ONE priority of losing weight and getting healthy is changing your beliefs.
Education is key – you need to understand what health is, what it looks like and how you achieve it. This is dictated by the beliefs, education and lifestyle of the person teaching you.
The industry is rife with people trying to go viral by being more and more controversial.
As an example…
Fasting isn’t just a tool to help people control calories – it’s now something that restores your body to full health through autophagy (Autophagy allows your body to break down and reuse old cell parts so your cells can operate more efficiently).
BUT….. it’s not.
These are the claims, but studies have proven that it isn’t the case at all. That doesn’t mean people don’t believe it. It’s much easier to listen to a jacked up guy or girl saying that something like fasting is the missing piece of the puzzle than it is to listen to someone discuss study results.
You don’t need to have an advanced knowledge of nutrition but you need to understand what your body needs and then look at what your day to day looks like and figure out how to get that in.
Someone who does shift work will have a much different set of problems than someone who works 9-5.
So not only do we need that knowledge to know what is needed we also then need to go a step further and work out how that works for you specifically.
It’s not an easy process – it requires trial and error and being human – we are prone to messing up, we then need to change your beliefs on how to get back on track.
Everyone struggles. Everyone puts their health on the back burner. Everyone prioritises other things. Kids, work, friends, partners etc etc. There are times we are just too busy to do everything.
Thats the same for everyone – so why do some people find it easier to be healthy than others?
That lies in the choices they make after they have messed up.
I regularly have takeaways, at least one a week, I never feel a slight bit of guilt after them. I just go back to doing what I normally do.
One of my favourite evening snacks is grapes, melon, yoghurt and some syrup. I’ll often have a takeaway and then that later on. That right there is the difference, I keep doing what I always do, I don’t think “oh well, I’ve messed up now, might as well go and eat a pack of hobnobs and a share bag of crisps”. I just make a slightly better choice.
Imagine for a second you smashed a takeaway and then said – “I’m away out to get some fresh air and walk for 20 minutes”. Not as a punishment, but because you made a slightly healthier choice then sitting feeling guilty.
We sometimes get caught in a “I’ll start tomorrow”, “I’ll start again Monday”. Why not change that mindset and never let multiple “bad choices” follow each other. Not that having a takeaway is overly bad but why not follow it with fruit – balance. Don’t feel like doing a workout? That’s cool, skip it but try go for a walk – balance. Eaten a share bag of crisps? Oops (it happens). Sit and write a plan for the next day so you are organised with food – balance.
See how quickly you can feel more positive with one tiny decision.
Social media is filled with people telling you how perfect and amazing they are. It can look like they don’t struggle and they never do the things you do like skip a workout or eat half a birthday cake.
They do……
They just get over it quicker than you.
(I once went to Asda at 9pm and bought a massive birthday cake that fed 15+ and ate half of it. Wasn’t even anyones birthday).
The number one piece of advice I can give you is – if you are struggling with your weight you need to learn about nutrition – you can then make informed decisions.
I hear sooooo often “I know what I’m doing, I’m just not doing it” – this is always followed by the person proving that they in fact don’t have a clue what they are doing by telling me a heap of nonsense about metabolism or something.
This is the sole reason why I developed the Education Hub as part of my programme. 50 videos talking about real life nutrition. You are shown how to be healthy in this day and age – facing the challenges that no one has ever faced – food at our fingertips. Not just food – high calorie food.
You can have your cake and eat it too – you just need to know how.
