When I first hired a fitness trainer in 2006, he presented me with a single sheet of paper with a list of foods and told me to start writing my daily food intake down. He told me 80% of what I wanted to see would happen with food.
When I brought him my week or eating at our next session, he was shocked. Almost no other clients had done this. I was shocked. How could you pay someone for professional fitness & nutrition advice and not follow what they were telling you worked?
For me, his single-sheet plan worked – very well. I lost fat, gained muscle and got the look I wanted while also improving my mental health. It seemed insane that all of these other people in the gym were continuing to show up but not do the single thing that would create FOUR TIMES more change.
It wasn’t the lifting, it wasn’t the cardio (well, it was some of that); it was the dang food.
I started my gyms and food was the entry point. Do the food, then do the exercise. Also, do the hydration, the sleep and the recovery. Without the food, you can work your butt off (or on) and stay the same. Your health markers will likely change, and that’s great, but lets be transparent – we all want some form of mirror gains – AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT; it drives progress.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had some life changes (many great, some just ok, some not great). One of those not-so-great changes is I’ve let my nutrition slip. My body composition is not where I want it to be and it carries over into other areas; as a father looking to live as long as possible, as a fitness & nutrition coach (imposter syndrome really creeps in when you’re 16% body fat vs. 10% bodyfat), as a husband showing up and pulling my weight.
Fortunately, I have the tools and I’ve made the changes, and the changes are starting to show. I’m down 2% body fat in a month, my fitness is improving and the feeling and visual is becoming pretty dang clear. One of the things I had in the past that that really helped that I don’t have currently is a group of people that push and encourage these positive food habits. Previously, I had a very active online group that helped drive my check ins and we really helped each other.
Somewhere, I decided to drop this group as I moved away from social media. I’m realizing now that social media isn’t the problem, it’s how I use it. If I use it for good, it’s good. If I doom scroll and watch 4 second videos, it’s very bad. Lets face it, social media was meant to be SOCIAL; to help. We’ve turned it into the worst of us instead of the best of us. That doesn’t mean we can’t choose to reverse that and make it what we want it to be – a tool that can help us relate to each other and drive positive change.
All that said, I’m kick starting my online group TODAY and it’s 100% free. Yes, it’s on facebook – I’ve tried Discord and slack and other things, but the truth is there just aren’t enough people on those platforms to make it work, or at least work for me.
So, I’m doing what one the best business partners I’ve ever had told me to do…
“Go back to the start and do what worked.”
I hope you’ll join me and 4x those results.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDanPlanFree
