The Power of Fitness and Nutrition Transformation
Change your perspective on physical change
What is more common than a celebrity fitness transformation? How many of us have a friend that underwent a life-altering weight loss challenge? Why do we enjoy watching so The Biggest Loser so much?
The reason is that we are compelled by narratives involving weight loss and fitness transformations. We love the storied struggle to drop weight, lose fat, train hard, and overcome lifelong challenges. We admire how the person on the other side of change speaks of what they’ve become. Enamored, we often wonder what it would be like to experience that kind of change for ourselves.
The visible change makes weight loss transformations impossible to ignore. There is a vibe that encompasses the way they walk, talk, and act. As if shedding the weight revealed a new person altogether. You will notice it even with people that have proven success in other endeavors. Celebrities, for example, seem to embrace these changes just as much as the people we know.
The Power of Physical Change
Why and how does this happen? The answer is simple in theory but difficult to explain unless you have also experienced the life-altering effects of a fitness and nutrition transformation. The type of change it produces is beyond physical, as we are also altered emotionally, mentally, biologically, and even spiritually. We tend to stand taller, look straighter, and think bigger. There is simply nothing more powerful than a physical transformation because it is an act of defiance just as much as a collection of positive behaviors. Everyone expects us to remain the same, to gain more weight, and to take more medications, yet, we do the opposite in the face of constant and never-ending challenges.
“At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end.” — Christine Mason Miller
The power you gain from conquering what you eat and drink is unmatched. The mental strength developed from pushing your body to its limits is primal in nature. You must feel it for yourself because tapping into an ancestral source of power is unlike anything else in the modern world. If this power seems mysterious to you, you have yet to push yourself hard enough. People from around the world enjoy this feeling on a daily basis and continue to seek it out by challenging themselves through new physical endeavors. This is why CrossFit has become a global phenomenon. It is a hard workout that elicits these powerful emotions.
Nutrition Matters Most
Working out is great, and I will always be an advocate for progressive resistance training and daily movement. However, I am referring to the kind of life-altering change that comes from mastering nutrition. What and how much we eat is where true transformation occurs. We can workout out for hours a day (with lots of benefits) but never lose an ounce of weight unless we learn the skill of nutrition and master the mental and emotional aspects of eating.
Over time, we have built up a list of food-related beliefs that are hard to overcome. We also eat and drink all the time for reasons unrelated to food or thirst. We have people in our lives telling us not to worry about food and instead to just “be happy” and enjoy life. Today’s society has instilled new standards of physicality that rely on modern medicine and ignore most of human history. Our ancestors were lean, constantly moving, and full of vigor. This energy was hardwired into us because we consumed much fewer calories overall and didn’t have deposits of stored fat.
We must not forget the raw potential we possess as humans and learn to tap into our primal nature that will allow us to thrive in modern times. We possess the same genetic makeup as our ancestors that forged ahead to build the world we live in today. We require much of the same nourishment that we have always thrived on. Not more of it. We don’t need a surplus of everything, we need just enough to stay satiated and still maintain our edge.
“Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.” — James Clear
The fitness and nutrition transformation drivers are self-awareness and a relentless attitude toward the process. Self-awareness is not inherent either, it is something we must work at every day. I call it the skill of nutrition because we are practicing to improve in pursuit of a recognized outcome. The ability to stick to the process is the underlying foundation of almost everything I talk about. It is the base of the pyramid in my goal-setting process and establishes a true path to transformation.
For more information on lifestyle, fitness, mindset, and nutrition skills, check out my publication on living a High-Performance Lifestyle.
