Every week I meet people looking to improve their health. In our ‘No Sweat Intro‘ we meet with all our potential members, to understand their health and fitness goals. Without fail 9-out-10 people I meet with want to lose weight, and they believe the best path to losing weight is exercise.
Whilst exercise is great for your health in many ways (we cover this in another article here), unfortunately, it’s not the best path to weight loss. The myth of being able to out-exercise, out-run or out-lift your diet is just that a myth, and there is plenty of scientific research debunking this.
Let me give you an example: to burn off 1 doughnut you’ll need to run for approximately 45 minutes or 6-8km. Now a doughnut might simply be a slip-up or snack throughout the day but add this to the other things you eat throughout the day, week, month, year, and imagine how many hours you would need to exercise to burn it all off. It’s just not possible.
There is an old saying “Abs are made in the kitchen” I remember when I first heard this, I too was very skeptical. I was 23 years old and I had been going to a regular gym for just over a year. I had been working my ass off (or at least I thought I had) with very little results. I was young and vein and all I wanted was to have a six-pack. So I thought what the heck, I’ll give this nutrition thing a go.
I made myself a promise, I would eat 100% clean for the next 3 months, all in…no excuses. During those 3 months, I was not going to look at myself in the mirror. Why? I didn’t want negative self talk to stifle my efforts and if there was going to be a transformation, I wanted to really notice it.
During the 3 months, I stuck to my plan. I could feel my body changing. I felt better, “people” were noticing me more and my clothes we beginning to feel loose. I knew some big changes were happening.
At the end of the 3 months, I stood in front of the mirror and for the first time in my life, I could see abs. I was stoked, but that wasn’t my driver anymore. Over those few months, I had learned so much about my body. I was full of energy, I felt amazing and most importantly I was happy.
What began as a quest for aesthetics had led me to something far better. Feeling amazing and loving life. I felt so good I decided I wanted to continue eating clean, and I have ever since.
The moral of the story: Nutrition is the foundation of health and fitness. what you eat (quality) and how much you eat (quantity) will determine how you look and feel. Good nutrition can completely transform your life.
You can’t out-train a bad diet.