Week 2: Self-Analysis

This is the reality...

Chapter 2 of Purpose & Power is an honest assessment of Nutrition. In the following micro-essay, I tell some stories and follow up with a recommendation. What you consume is what you are made of. Your blood filters and disperses everything. You are made and re-made by all that you consume. You’ve got one vessel. Build it up, maximize its efficiency, and reside in it until the last of your days.

Self-analysis:

To change your performance you must change your self-image and elevate your comfort zone… you can change any attitude you don’t like… no one can change your self-image for you. You have to do it yourself and the first step is to admit you are the problem… keep your mind only on what you want to have happen. If you catch yourself worrying just rehearse performing well and the worries will tend to disappear.

— Lanny Bassham

Despite being consistently fit and strong, for as long as it has been a priority, there was something missing. The workouts came easy. I enjoyed the challenge as well as the instant feedback that followed. Yet, nutrition, one of the pillars to lifestyle, wasn't even on my radar. I consumed too much of everything bad and had an immature relationship with nutrition. I was lazy and took shortcuts whenever I could.

Fast forward to late 2005. I had made fitness and personal training my purpose/lifestyle. Surrounded by friends who had matured in their behaviors of consumption, as well as clients that struggled with this aspect (some mightily), I started to take this life-element more seriously.

Physique. Good nutrition builds lean mass. A heavy rotation of protein: steak, fish, chicken, eggs, and healthy carbs: sweet potatoes and brown rice, had me realizing that the work-hard, eat-smart equation produces results. Next, I signed up for a bodybuilding competition, which offered built-in accountability: a deadline. My food choices were narrowed down to only those things that would offer a successful outcome. Elimination works. The pressure of the stage, the judges and cameras mounted with each passing day. Simply ridding my diet of excess sweets and refined sugars had made me visibly leaner. With decision fatigue/emotional eating gone, I had begun to mature.

Awareness. Shortly after that night on stage I realized that the bodybuilding lifestyle was not sustainable for me. Being active, mobile, light, lean, and adaptable held greater appeal. With equal discipline, I started rock climbing and trail running. Both sports require an ideal strength to weight ratio (strong + light). Like bodybuilding, the sport, or activity, was the driver for the nutritional component that followed. Fueling for prolonged movement meant eating less (volume), but more nutritionally dense foods. The directive: light and agile. Over time, my appearance shifted quite drastically. I was smaller but leaner, and more striking in physicality. Think Bruce Lee versus an NFL linebacker. The saying, "appearance is a consequence of fitness" became something I could actually relate to.

You can control how you look and feel by moving daily, and eating mostly healthy foods. We all know this works. Live the script day in and day out. By doing this you will develop your own standard.

A Sample Nutritional Environment:

• Hydrate with a pinch of sea salt. Start your day with 20-24 ounces of cold water. Over the course of the day, drink to thirst. Be conservative with “plain” water.

• Your environment will dictate your demand (desire) for water.

• Water / Coffee / Tea + an (occasional) adult beverage in the evening.

• Smoothie:

  • ice

  • water or milk

  • peanut butter powder

  • blueberries

  • spinach

  • protein powder

  • local honey (optional)

• Snacks (options):

  • cashews

  • avocado

  • gomacro bars

  • boiled eggs

  • dates

  • raisins

  • nuts

  • fruit

• Dinners:

  • chicken / fish / venison / steak / pork, etc.

  • occasional potato, yam, white rice, quinoa, etc.

  • spinach salad w/beets, carrots, feta, avocado oil, and sea salt

    • or a similar combo of veggies, sometimes sauteed.

• Cheating:

  • 1-2 meals a week. Keep it to a meal, not an entire day. Make sure you are very active on that day (and the next morning) and it won't set you back.

    • Burger or Pizza

  • if training hard, for a marathon or endurance event, you will need more calories

• Alcohol:

  • be careful with consumption 90 minutes before bedtime or you may pay for it in quality of sleep, hydration, and performance the next day

Always check in with how your nutrition is making you feel. This is key.

Be smart with carbs. Make sure they go right to an activity or are being stored for a big cardio/endurance event the next morning. A healthy dose at night can accelerate recovery during heavy training periods.

Many years later I still adhere to this philosophy. Make good choices easier by limiting your options. Repetition is beneficial or harmful. Choose to make it beneficial by making the high-calorie meal the outlier. Plan for success. Foster an environment for this to occur.

Make the transformational process of owning your health a focused competition with hard deadlines.

Putting things off is the biggest waste of life. A denial of the present by a promise of the future, which lies wholly in uncertainty…

— Seneca