I am sitting here reading these 3 words over and over thinking about what they mean to me and doing a quick check in with each of these pillars to see where I am at, something that we should all do from time to time.
I really believe having these 3 things right or working on them heading in the right direction is essential for your fitness journey and achieving your goals. If you can master your mindset, nutrition and training you are without a doubt setting your self up for success.
While these 3 things are each very different they are all interconnected and work hand in hand with each other. If your training is awesome but your nutrition is not so good, you won’t be making much progress! If your nutrition and training is on point but your mindset isn’t in the greatest state chances are you will be making little progress
Obviously each of these pillars need to be worked on separately but the NOT so obvious thing (which most people get wrong) is the order in which they work on them.
Mindset. Such a powerful word. Your mindset refers to everything that is going on in your head, your general attitudes and simply the way you think about things. And mindset is where most people fail!
Your mind is the strongest muscle in your body. If you can conquer your thoughts and mindset that is a massive win. Your mindset includes characteristics such as motivation, discipline, determination as well as negativity and laziness. Think of your mindset being your foundation, without a solid foundation you can’t build a house!
Nutrition. There is so much conflicting information out there about diets and magic weight loss pills and fat blasting shakes!! It honestly doesn’t surprise me that people genuinely just have no idea about food and good nutrition!
Nutrition is what we choose to eat and is always based on education. Like nothing new you are learning, once you educate yourself on what to eat and what not to eat then you can conquer your diet.
It is confusing, I totally get this. This use to be me: I never read the nutrition labels on foods, I didn’t know where to start! It all just looked like mumbo jumbo to me and was all very confusing! But once I started to understand what was written on the labels and what to look for in foods it soon became second nature and once I understood more I could then start making informed decisions about my heath and diet!
One thing that I will say which is SUPER IMPORTANT: What works for others may not work for you!!! There is no “one size fits all” diet so you need to find what works for you and your body!
Last but not least, Training. I have written about training before so I won’t go into too much depth on this one but overall training is about exercising and essentially getting your body moving! This doesn’t even have to be joining a gym, this might be making a simple goal of going for a 30min walk every day. It might simply be choosing to take the stairs at work rather than the lift. Or maybe park that little bit further away from the supermarket door!
So why are the pillars in this order?
Good question!
Lets put this into perspective…
If you train your absolute butt off and do the best workout ever, work up a nice sweat and walk out of the gym feeling awesome from all of the natural endorphins exercising produces then head straight to get takeaway for dinner, top that off with a can of coke and some chocolate or ice-cream for dessert your session was basically for nothing.
YOU CAN’T OUT TRAIN A BAD DIET.
In saying this, there is a big difference between a planned “cheat meal” and having the mindset of “I trained today so I’ve earned that triple choc sundae”
We all need a cheat meal every now and then- we are only human after all! Lets be honest, who would go crazy living off chicken and broccoli for every single meal!!!??
At the end of the day this boils down to MINDSET.
Fix the mindset, then perfect the nutrition plan, then train hard and follow an appropriate program- this is the key to success!
How can you master these 3 aspects? Just like you would train in a gym, you also need to train your mindset and train your nutrition knowledge.
1) MINDSET TRAINING
For most of us success first happens in our minds. Our thoughts become our reality. So just like we train our body in the gym we also need to train our mind. We all have the power to make a change. We CAN CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK. Everyone has the choice to be happy or to be sad. Everyone has the choice to stay in bed and hit snooze or get up and make that early morning session because the rest of their day is full of work/kids/activities/appointments.
Here are a few strategies that you can work on to help conquer your mindset and get in the right frame of mind:
- Surround yourself with positive people
- Be Thankful
- Change your negative thoughts into positive ones
- Wake up early and Seize the Day!!!
- Read positive books or listen to podcasts
2) NUTRITION TRAINING
Like I mentioned before Nutrition is about education. You will never fully achieve your fitness goals without a solid diet.
You can learn this from a Dietician, a personal trainer or simply from your own research. There is a lot of information out there so if you are really struggling and aren’t sure where to start, ask for help! Everybody is different and everyone may react differently to certain ingredients (lactose or gluten). If you have stomach aches often, get an allergy test and monitor what you are eating.
Next on the education list it to start reading and learning what nutrition labels mean. Start looking at the fat, carbs and sugar content of foods you are eating. Educate yourself on the calorie count as well- the average daily energy intake is 2000 calories. If your thinking about what to have for lunch and looking at a meal that is 1500cals I would be seriously looking at another option as thats already over half your daily intake in one meal! Once you are educated you will be able to make the decision if you should be eating it or not!
Learning which foods are high in protein, carbs, and good fats will also set you up for success. Knowing what foods are packed with sugar and are high GI is also what you should be educating yourself on.
A simple rule we have when we go grocery shopping is stick to the outside isles!! We can generally get our entire shopping done from just 3-4 isles of the supermarket, we don’t even need to enter the others.
3) EXERCISE TRAINING
What are your training goals? Do you want to be stronger? Fitter? Faster?
Your goals might be specific (body building, olympic weightlifting to run a marathon), or they might be general (improve overall fitness, get stronger)! These goals will determine what kind or training you should be doing. There are so many different types of gyms and training these days. The most important thing to do is MOVE YOUR BODY.
Once you have decided on a type of training next is a progressive program that will lead you to your goals. If it’s not progressive, you won’t progress – it’s as simple as that! Learning the correct technique for your type of training is essential to making progress and just as important. It will also reduce your risk of injury and will allow you to continue without hiccups!
Mindset, nutrition and training are your three pillars of success. Train each of these pillars and master them.
If you are able to do this then you will achieve your fitness goals!
