Having a healthy diet is so important to your health and fitness goals. If you’re training really hard but eating really poorly then you won’t be getting the most out of your performance in the gym, on the field, on the track, or wherever you happen to be. If you’re not training much, or even at all, and eating poorly, then obviously you will gain unwanted body fat. It doesn’t matter which end of the training spectrum you’re at, you need to be eating well.
Because every body is different, you shouldn’t all be eating exactly the same foods. Aside from various food intolerances, some people respond well to high carbs, some do better with lower carbs; Some people do well on high fat, others feel sluggish and do better with a lower fat diet. There is no set-in-stone diet that is going to fit well for everyone. This is how I’ve come up with The Definitive Diet, which is based on whole foods, rather than counting calories or macros.
What I want you to learn today is how to find out what the optimal diet is for *your* body type.
Firstly, I recommend getting a copy of The Definitive Diet (free version available when you sign up to the newsletter). From there you can start to make some tweaks to suit you. Now, you don’t need to know what your blood type is, whether you’re an endomorph or ectomorph, or any of that nonsense. This is just a simple way to learn what works for you.
What I’d really like you to do is start tracking your progress on a weekly or fortnightly basis, making some small changes, so you can measure what works and what doesn’t. From there you can find out exactly how to eat for your body.
Start today by taking your body measurements and make a decision if you will take your measurements weekly or fortnightly. Set up a spread sheet or draw it up in a notebook. Include today’s date, your weight, and body measurements. Your minimum measurements should be your waist at belly button and hips at the widest point. If you like you can also add more body measurements such as bicep, chest, thigh, calf etc. From now on, you will take your measurements on the same day every week or fortnight.
Sample body measurement chart. Click to enlarge.
Once you’ve started your chart, you can start implementing nutritional decisions. Make a simple tweak to your diet, so you can measure your results next week. A small tweak might be eliminating white sugar, going gluten free (this has worked for EVERY one of my clients), avoiding takeaway food, adding 3 cups of vegetables a day, drinking 8 glasses of water a day, only drinking alcohol one night a week etc. Stick to this like glue and measure your progress regularly.
After a few weeks you may be ready to make another change. You might like to add a source of protein to each meal, give up finishing your child’s leftovers, give up snacking, introduce snacking etc. Whatever you do, make a decision, make a note of it in your measurement chart and retake your measurements next time.
And don’t just write your measurements. Make notes on how you feel. Are you more focused? Do you sleep better? Do you have more energy or do you feel sluggish? All these things are good indicators of health.
From here you can make executive decisions about what works and what doesn’t for your body. If you get negative results then ditch that change you’ve made. If you get positive results, then stick to your changes. Keep up regular measurements so you know exactly what is working and what isn’t. If you don’t know what works then there is no point trying various diets or implementing new habits. By keeping up regular measurements you will know if you need to scrap something or not. There is no point trying to eat 6 small meals a day if it doesn’t work for you, and there is no point eliminating snacking if that hasn’t produced any positive results.
The whole idea is it keep it as simple as possible so you can find out what works for you. Give this a go, and stick to it. Be CONSISTENT. If you are consistent then you will be guaranteed results. If you are not consistent or if you don’t track your progress, then you either won’t get results or won’t even know if you’re getting results.
You know your body better than anyone – Be your own nutritionist.
I like writing. I like knowledge. I like sharing my knowledge. $3.50 buys me a coffee, which puts me in a creative writing mood; $5.50 covers the website’s costs for a month.
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