The truth about exercise and nutrition.
You can bring the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
You learn fairly quickly in life that you have to do a lot of things for yourself. Your parents and teachers will help you with your school work but ultimately, you have to do it yourself. If you don’t, well, you probably won’t get any results.
When it comes to exercise and nutrition, the same thing applies. Whatever your exercise domain, whether it is running, walking, Crossfit or dancing, you have to put in the work to get the result. Nobody else is going to do it for you. A coach can write your programme but they cannot perform it for you. You can bring the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
Nutrition is pretty straightforward really.
Again, we learn pretty early on in life what is generally perceived to be healthy and what is not. We learn that breakfast, lunch and dinner seem to be good ideas of times to eat, that we can snack here and there in between, and that we should drink plenty of water throughout the day. There are some more complexities to it but the fundamentals are fairly simple. Again, we can get a coach to set our macros, we can read cookbooks or nutrition guidelines but the only people who can action it is ourselves. Nobody else is going to do it for you. You can bring the horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
"What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do." Aristotle
Frankly, it’s discipline and habits.
It’s having the discipline with yourself to go for the walk when your steps are low for the day. To go to the gym or go for the run when you feel a little tired and not up to it. It’s having the discipline to know that some days you won’t feel like it but it’s actually just feckin good for you, so you have to do it. Not every day is a good day. Some days are just about getting through them, but they add up in the long term to make more good days, weeks, months and years.
The long term why is that we can carry our shopping when we're 85.
And here’s the thing, remember why you’re doing it.
Because as much as we may have different “Whys” in the short term; body composition, mental health, performance, etc. I think we all have the same long-term goal. That long term why is that we can carry our shopping when we’re 85. That we can get up off the toilet ourselves and wipe our own ass. Because, I don’t know about you but I would to be bloody independent when I’m older. So, the next day you need a little motivation to do a workout or eat a little better, maybe forget the short-term goal and remember that you’re building your habits and foundation for later in life. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy rich food, wine and days of doing absolutely nothing but if you’re struggling to do just one thing, maybe you need this reminder.
It’s about making smarter choices that we all know.
Sometimes we need guidance and we need to put ourselves in the right environment to make those choices easier but ultimately we need the discipline to follow through. We need to learn at times but it’s not rocket science. The hardest thing to do is start. When we try to start something we think of every possible outcome and failure, usually the failures. We overcomplicate it and we get stuck. Do find a coach, a cookbook or ideas. Then start. When you start, figure it out as you go along because it’s much easier to adapt and change direction while in motion than it is to get moving from zero.
Next time I'll give a few process steps for what I find works.
My next post I’ll give a little more guidance on what I’ve learned and coached for building habits, making your surrounding environment better and the benefit of a little accountability at first.