We know. Advice about nutrition is so abundant that it makes carbon look scarce. So don’t worry, we’re not going to be endorsing any particular diet. We’ll leav...
We know. Advice about nutrition is so abundant that it makes carbon look scarce. So don’t worry, we’re not going to be endorsing any particular diet. We’ll leave that to others. But we do want to remind you that what you eat has a significant impact on your ability to reach your dreams and set out some ideas for eating well that aren’t onerous.
We’ve heard it a million times, but it’s true: eating badly can had a terrible effect on your health, both physical and psychological. Really, when you eat badly, very little can take the wind out your sails like overindulging. Seriously, what are you going to accomplish after you’ve gone out to “all you can eat sushi” and put yourself into a rice and salmon-induced food coma? That’s you done for the day.
But overindulging on sushi isn’t the only problem. Sometimes the things we take to help us carry on going have a negative downstream effect on our health and fitness. Let’s take coffee and energy drinks as examples.
There’s nothing wrong with coffee – it’s a brilliant drink and the caffeine kick you get is properly helpful. But when you start mainlining filter coffee to fuel yourself through every day, you’re starting to do some harm to yourself. And energy drinks are the worse, but not just because of the high caffeine content. There are over 110 calories in a small can of Red Bull as well as almost an ounce of sugar (and that’s not to criticise Red Bull specifically – it’s just an example). Over time, that has an effect on your entire being, but especially your physique.
To be clear, we’re not trying to say you should never have an energy drink or a cup of coffee. Rather, we’re trying to draw attention to the way that our culture has normalised throwing them back like we’ll never get another opportunity in our lives again, and that this isn’t optimal for us if we want to be in the best possible mental and physical shape possible. And, seriously, we need to be in our best conditions to reach our goals.
Having said all of that, here’s what we want to say: You don’t have to count every calorie and put yourself onto a diet of chicken breast and broccoli to be successful. That would be a mad thing to say.
Our point is that our eating and drinking habits are an important aspect of our pursuit of success. We have to take it seriously.
But we still have to live and enjoy ourselves, so we’re also not saying that some insanely restricted diet is what is needed.
Instead, we’re arguing that a consistent approach to food and drink is the thing that makes the difference. If the default is to eat homecooked, unprocessed food, and a variety of different type of food throughout each month, while avoiding too much sugar, caffeine and alcohol, we’ve immediately put ourselves in a position where our bodies and minds can perform.
Another key is to make sure that we have enough meals in a day. It’s easy to skip breakfast, especially if you have to be up early, but then you’re going into the day without fuelling up, and that pattern also holds you back (even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time).
On the other extreme, it’s also unproductive to obsess about metrics and optimising your meals. That wastes cognitive bandwidth, puts an unsustainable burden and expectation on you (unless you’re Novack Djokovic) and is a game of diminishing returns.
As we said, the key is consistency because that will give you the baseline ability to keep on going and perform at your best.
With that said, we aren’t nutritionists, so if you want meal plans and a full nutrition guide, go to a nutritionist or speak to your GP.
But make sure you build the habit of eating well. Your success (and health) may well depend on it.
