Look Good, Feel Better: The Bigger Picture to Health, Fitness and Nutrition

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 22.24.13

Guest Contributor: Noel Flynn from ABC GYM

This is going to be a hard read for some. Why? Because it might not give the answers you want to hear or even care about. Your health, your fitness are one thing but your relationship with food is almost a mirror of how you are coping in your personal life. But first the bigger picture.

I want it to be clear, I am a Strength and Conditioning coach where my primary training is based around athletic performance, injury and pain reduction while building strength and fitness. I am not a dietician, I am not even going to give myself the label of nutrition coach which along with Strength and Conditioning is fast becoming a self-appointed title for people with no qualifications. Instead I am a person who reads, studies, watches, observes, lives and learns with my own struggles around nutrition

I want you to realise there is no Magic Pill.

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 22.16.47
In order to get the results, you must do the work. But you must also decide how much work you are prepared to put in!  If you’re  looking a quick fix, then this blog series is not for you, as quick fixes are not what I am about. Believe me, I have attended course after course believing the next one I attend will change everything. Yet the only the only way to make changes is to implement a little something from every course I attend.  The people who read this blog are smart people, you know the difference between and apple and an apple pie….but that apple pie sure does smell good.

Remember Simplicity + Consistency = Success

Have you got a comparative mindset?

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 22.12.24

Do you compare yourself to others and what they post online? When you put up a profile picture, do you throw up any picture or  is it the one that you’re looking your best in?  It is important to remember that the stuff people post on social media is of them looking their best. That person online who you find you are comparing yourself with, does the exact same.  Except here is the problem – you are comparing someone else’s ‘Highlight Reel’ with your ‘Behind the Scenes’. Everyone has sh*t going on in their lives and for a lot of the social media fitness influencers what they put up is a ‘front’ to  the nonsense going on behind the scenes.

Principles Over Methods or Macro over Micro.

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 22.11.19
Often people ask, when they enquire about the gym ‘Do you do kettlebells?, Do you do TRX? etc., etc. I do but that question is irrelevant. Both of these are only training methods, merely tools used in exercise like any other. It is the results that are generated, the qualifications of the trainers, the culture, ethos and philosophy of the gym which are questions you should be asking.

That goes both ways, are you the type of person who asks is it ok if I eat bread? or is it ok if you put honey in your porridge? but yet don’t drink any water, stay up late every night scrolling your phone while Netflix is on in the background. Do you wake up fearing the day ahead? Are you skip exercise regularly, while you food binge for the weekend. Soon the question about bread or honey becomes irrelevant in terms of the bigger picture.

Methods are many, principles are few, when you have the right principles, many methods will do 😉

It is all just a story!

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 22.09.05The amount of times I get told by a new client that ‘I just want to lose a bit of weight, I know I will never be skinny!’ I don’t mind if you want to be skinny or not.  What I want to help  you understand, is by telling yourself  ” I know I will never be skinny story”  over and over again, you’re setting yourself up to underachieve.

While there is not a whole lot wrong  with only wanting to lose ” a bit of weight” . By coming to be and saying ” I know I will never be skinny” What you’re really saying is ‘I have wanted to be happier all of my life, In my head I associate happiness with being skinny and I have settled for never achieving that!’ Which means happiness is what you are after.  This is where your relationship with food is mirrored in your personal life. When I am stressed I eat, when I want to reward myself I eat, when I am bored I eat and when I am sad I eat and it’s never the healthiest food either. I don’t want people to confuse the sentiment here. I do not mean people only eat sweets and takeaways to fix a hole or make themselves feel better. Far from it.  But maybe, just maybe it is self-sabotaging the efforts you were making because you feel you are not worth the effort of it all. That folks is the story you tell yourself underneath it all on a far too regular basis.

So before you jump on the next bandwagon have a think about what you really want and what prevents you from having it.  Often it is not about knowing more, it is about releasing yourself from the reasons you don’t do what you already know.

We also recommend

No Comments

Leave a Reply