When reading this quote, from Anon, I had to think of how applicable it is to food, diet, nutrition, exercise and being physical active.
Most of us have a reasonable good idea what we should and shouldn’t eat, drink in terms of food and beverages or what we should and shouldn’t generally consume ( e.g. cigarettes, excessive alcohol or various other drugs). I’m always astonished how we, or better our mind, is able to trick us into eating or consuming things we 100% know are not good for us.
Or …. are the food producers tricking us into this, adding ingredients i.e. sugar (often labeled different) and other additives that can be addictive and make us buy those foods and goods over and over again. I guess the whole area of marketing and advertising psychology plays a huge role. As we get promised if we eat this bar or that yoghurt it’s going to help us with X, and makes us feel happy (see all those smiley, young and fit looking people on the packaging) etc. etc..
The claims on food packaging can often be very misleading and are wide open to interpretation. In the one year long Nutrition & Health Coaching Course, I just completed, we spend a whole weekend on food labeling, learning how to read and interpret food labels, and also got two assignments going into lots of detail and assessing claims, packaging, nutritional values etc.. It was a fascinating assignment.
Coming back to my initial point …. all this raises for me the omnipresent question “How can we get ourselves to actually apply, day in day out, what we know is good for us in terms of nutrition, diet, food and exercise?”. This is one of the main questions I try to find answers to since I started to work in the health, fitness and well-being area in 2002. One of the main areas is raising awareness, educating clients and passing on knowledge to enable them to be self-sufficient in their quest to be a fitter and healthier person.
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Before we educate, learn and start we ideally identify our BIG – WHYs, our reasons for, wanting to be healthier, fitter, trimmer looking, more energetic etc. and what those things allow and enable us to do or be in our life. These BIG – WHYs can then be used as motivators, when we sometimes are in danger of falling of the wagon.
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Action Steps – Lets get you started (this will only take 5 minutes):
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(1) What health and fitness areas do you want to improve in? Make at note of three to five areas.
(2) Jot down three to five goals or objectives for those areas?
(3) Write down one or two specific actions you can take in the next week to get closer to achieving these goals (do this for all goals). Keep it simple and make it easily achievable, set yourself up for success.
(4) Take your diary (paper or online) and schedule a date/time when you do these tings.
(5) Get started now and progress step by step over the coming weeks.
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I hope this helps to get you that little bit closer to be healthier, fitter and happier.
Let me know how you get and what you think about these ideas.
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Martin
Are you interested in
“Look at this as a chance to learn more about nutrition and how food and what we *eat* or *don’t eat* influences our health, energy levels and ultimately quality of life.”
Some of my current south Dublin (D14, D16, D18) based personal training clients or fitness and Pilates class participants might know that I’m attending a one year *Nutrition & Health Coaching Course* with the IINH in Bray, just south of Dublin. IINH stands for “Irish Institute for Nutrition and Health”.
I will have to write four nutrition and health case studies as part of this course and found already two participants, who will join in in the next one to two weeks (Sat 16.01.2016). All meaning I’m still looking for another two case study participants in the D14, D16, D18 area.
The case studies consists of four One-to-One sessions, which are spread out over the next 8-10 weeks.
Session (1) – Initial Consultation – 1-1.5 hours:
The consultation should take place mid to end of January 2016. We will go through a nutrition and health questionnaire to find out what you are currently eating, are there any health issues, how active you are etc. etc.. I might give you a few small food, nutrition and diet tips after this session. The main objective here is fact finding and identifying what you current lifestyle is like.
Session (2) Nutrition, Diet Food Plan, recommendations, Tips – 1 hour:
(ideally 7-10 days after our initial consultation)
The information we gathered in the first session will enable me to create a personalized and nutrition and food plan with various tips, advice for you. This might include recommendations regards what foods you ideally eat more off, other foods you may replace with something else or foods that you could consider cutting out completely to improve your health, fitness and well being.
We could look into how to read and understand food labels, enabling you to make healthier choices when you go shopping. There will also be time where you can ask other nutrition and food relation questions e.g. “How much healthier is it to eat organic and is organic food really better for us or is it only a marketing ploy?”.
Session (3) Follow-up One 20min to 1 hour:
(around three weeks after our second session)
We will review how you got on with the plan and the various recommendations, possibly tweak the plan, identify other things that you can do and see what worked and what might not have worked for you, gather your thoughts, impressions and experiences so far. All to improve and deepen your understanding of how food and nutrition influences you physical and mental health, fitness and overall well being.
Session (4) Follow-up Two 20min to 1 hour:
(around three weeks after our third session)
The objective are the same as for session (3).
The follow-up session (3) and (4) might be done via skype or phone, but are ideally done in person.
Are you motivated? Do you want to make 2016 a health and fitter year and put in a bit of time, energy and commitment to see real results, then contact me. You will ideally keep a food diary for 7-10 days before we meet.
Please call or send me a brief e-mail via the form below within the next few days or as soon as possible if you are interested in participating in these case studies or if you know someone who would benefit from something like this.
Thank you
Yours in Health, Fitness and Well Being
_ Martin
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