Post the 2022 Winter Olympics, I am reflecting on how the games went for the eight athletes I was supporting during their preparation, training, and of course the events themselves. As with any major event, there are always lessons that can be learned and things we could do differently next time. Whilst each athlete's strategy was very different depending on the person, their sport, and their personal goals and situations, there are quite a few themes that came up with all of the athletes, and many of them were things that could apply to the rest of us mere mortals as well so I thought it might be interesting to share them here. #1 Assess Your Goals Before deciding what will and won’t work for you, you first need to know what it is you want to achieve. Sounds simple, but is it? Often, what we think are our goals are actually those we have picked up from other people along the way, or more commonly, are a proxy for something else. The most common example of that for non-athletes is weight loss. It’s so common for women to cite weight loss as a goal without really asking why, and it’s often not something they actually really care about at all. It may be that their clothes are feeling a little tight and they think they ought to lose some weight. Maybe it’s tied into some comments a friend or family member made. It’s quite often that there is some underlying unhappiness and as weight loss is always portrayed as some kind of panacea for everything, we immediately latch onto that: ‘I will be happy when I am slim’ is a really neat way to defer the problem and make it something visible. Except for that weight loss never addresses the actual problem so it can’t possibly be the solution.
So I’d encourage you to really think about what your goal is and really delve into the why behind it. Of course, if weight loss (or, since I really hate that term, improving body composition) is a goal that’s perfectly fine, just make sure it’s for you and what you really want. Other goals might be something like getting stronger, feeling healthier, having more energy, sleeping better, improving mental health, etc. The reason it’s so important to define your own goals comes down to motivation. If those goals are your own that motivation is intrinsic, whereas if they come from someone else pushing it on you it would be extrinsic motivation, and as I’m sure you all know only too well, intrinsic motivation is vastly more powerful. #2 Have A Plan Once you’ve figured out your goal, or goals, you need a plan. The great thing about nutrition is that there is no one fixed plan per goal (so if you don’t like kale, you don’t need to eat the damn kale!). The plan that will work for you is as individual as your fingerprint, so it might be a question of reading what you can about the subject and then deciding what is likely to work best for you, and will work best within your lifestyle. Then start to adopt those habits gradually over time. The key thing is that the plan fits within your lifestyle and is enjoyable for you. If it’s not, you simply won’t be able to stick to it and you won’t get the results you’re looking for. The classic example of this is when people go on a diet to lose fat mass, they over-restrict their energy intake, inevitably end up bingeing or over-eating, then don’t lose any fat mass in the long term and end up frustrated and disheartened. Although it’s very easy for me to sit here and say ‘have a plan’ I recognise this is the aspect that may be the most daunting given the amount of Nutri-bollocks information out there .
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