Underrated goal: Feeling your best

Here are some principles I follow with the goal of feeling my best

I am often asked what my goals are at the moment - people are usually referring to fat loss, muscle gain, performance in the gym.

To be completely honest I don’t have any. That’s not why I eat and train the way I do. Sure, I might tweak things now and again if I've gained or lost a little too much but aside from that the focus now is to feel my best so I can show up at my best in other areas of my life.

Once you realise the instant returns of diet and exercise in terms of mood, productivity, positivity and simply how you feel you’ll find it much easier to stay consistent.

Rather than going into the gym and putting in the work for the long term goal i.e. putting in the reps in the hope that in 3-6months you’ll see you’ve built some muscle you can get some instant gratification by realising the immediate impact of exercise.

& rather than sticking to nutrition principles with the goal of losing fat over weeks to months focus on how good it makes you feel when you fuel yourself properly (side note - if your diet is making you miserable you’re doing it wrong - let me help you here).

It’s wild to me that we’ve turned diet and exercise into a punishment when it’s undoubtedly the highest level of self care.

There is nothing you can do for your health that will have more impact than consistently exercising and consuming a healthy diet.

Anyway this actually wasn’t what I was going to discuss today…

I wanted to share a few things I am changing in my to boost mood.

Side note: I always use at least 30days to see if something works. Most people give up after a week when they don’t feel magically different & most things take time.

1. Oily fish 2-4x a week (salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna)
   If you’ve not read why I set range targets make sure you read this.
   Or if you prefer listen to this. I recently revisited the research around oily fish and brain health & function and it compelled me enough to reintroduce oily fish into my diet more consistency (previously I was 95% vegetarian with fish 2-3x a month).

2. Cut back on ultra processed foods as much as possible without being obsessive
   One thing I think we get wrong in the fitness industry is focusing too much on calories and not enough on the quality of our diets. I am all for food freedom & not labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but realistically there are certainly foods you want to eat more of & foods you should eat less of. Ultra processed foods come under the latter. I will still consume protein shakes and bars on occasion for convenience but make a stronger effort not to rely on these and favour whole foods.

3. No starchy carbs during the day (apart from weekend brunch)
   I want to be clear here that there is nothing wrong with carbs at any time but you may find, if you’r anything like me, that starchy carbs during the day make you a bit sluggish and fatigue. My brain seems to work better when I avoid these during the day.
   The reason I have added in aside from brunch on the weekend is because brunch is my favourite & the whole point in this is to make me FEEL my best.
   It’s unlikely that hard rules with no flexibility are going to result in you feeling your best.

4. No snacking (fast between meals)
   The main issue I have with snacking is it tends to be both mindless and distracting. Mindless in that you aren’t thinking about the food choices you are making and distracting in that you lose concentration when you snack all day. I also think there is a big benefit metabolically to have periods of the day where your body is not in a post prandial (after meal) state.
   
   Note none of the above are about calories but for most people focusing on the above will result in fat loss.
   
   & for many focusing on the quality of your diet & behaviours around food is a far better approach than tracking calories for fat loss & certainly for feeling your best. This approach bypasses many of the negatives associated with dieting.
   
   If you want to feel your best and you’d like my help to get there simply click here, fill in the application, tell me a little about you and I will email you.