Pillar #4 of my book The Fitness Curveball is focused on how to fuel your body for success.
The food you eat can be either
the safest and most powerful form of medicine
or the slowest form of poison.
— Ann Wigmore
Food = Fuel
Food is essential to life, amazing in taste, diversity, and the power it possesses to heal and fuel our body. However, even as an industry professional, I didn’t always believe, understand, or follow this principle.
As a kid, my parents made me eat my vegetables, and I led an active lifestyle but, like most kids, I loved junk food. There are legendary stories about how much food I used to eat, and most of it was of poor quality. Things like pizza, fast food burgers, and pop (soda) were almost daily choices. The mentality was that I was active, so I could eat as much of whatever I wanted.
These choices became a key learning opportunity in my adult life.
My Journey
Since childhood, I’d experienced challenges, frustrations, and physical symptoms. At that time, I wasn’t aware of how these issues were linked to nutrition. Severe skin conditions, digestive disruptions, and appetite abnormalities plagued me. My parents sought advice and guidance from medical specialists (GP’s, Dermatologists, Autoimmune specialists). The professional recommendations, along with the information I learned in university health science courses, failed to remedy these issues.
The quality of my nutrition improved slightly through university when I started personal training, but I was still plagued by the same health and skin issues. When working with clients, the nutrition advice centered on the standard government healthy eating guidelines I’d learned in university. Also, through the personal training courses, I’d taken. This involved basic education on macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat), the food pyramid and the Canada Food Guide, the “calories in versus calories out” equation.
It wasn’t until I reached my late twenties that I got fed up dealing with my symptoms and conditions. I then decided to expand my knowledge base outside of the mainstream options.
Through further study and observation of pioneers and thought leaders in holistic nutrition and wellness. I learned almost all I had been taught was wrong or misguided. Therefore useless to me and my clients in changing body composition and leading a healthier life.
I dedicated a significant amount of time to researching and discerning everything ‘fuel’.
The result has been an amazing (and ongoing) journey that has eliminated my issues, caused me to reassess my pre-existing beliefs about nutrition, and positively transformed the health of me and my family. It has helped me live a happier life, and allowed me to better serve the needs of my clients.
Learning Objective
Contrary to what most people think and struggle with each day, proper nutrition and healthy eating are simple. I’m excited to show you how straightforward and fulfilling this change can be. Throughout the following section, relevant parts of my own journey will be shared alongside important nutritional information and healthy eating recommendations.
My objective is to eliminate your key confusion and frustration points about nutrition, simplify the process of choosing the right food to eat, and help you look at food from a different perspective. Doing this will allow you to better accomplish your health and body composition goals. Because let’s face it, that’s the number one reason most people get interested in nutrition at least in the beginning.
While my approach to nutrition is simple and straightforward, this is not a typical diet book. It will not focus on weight loss, calorie counting, or the number of grams of a specific nutrient each person should consume. It will likely upend many of the popular notions of dieting and nutrition advice that you currently believe to be true.
My goal in this nutrition section is to:
- Share my knowledge and experience with you.
- Help you look at nutrition from a different and (I believe) more effective perspective.
- Inspire you to ask better questions about food and your relationship to it.
- Provide you with the practical tools and strategies to eat well, nourish your body, enjoy food, and reach your healthy body composition goals.
You will NOT be asked to:
- Go “on” a diet.
- Starve yourself.
- Eliminate or severely restrict major things such as “carbs”, “fat” or foods you enjoy, without at least having important background information from which to make the decision.
- Blindly take my advice: I will provide valid external sources that you can review as desired.
Nutrition Section “Cheat Sheet”
Here is a quick start guide and “Cheat Sheet” for those of you who want to jump right in and choose not to read the background information (at first).
If you take this route, I strongly suggest you set aside time soon to read the entire section. The information gives you the background and specific details to properly understand and implement the recommendations. Learning and practicing the strategies below are the keys to effectively navigating the often challenging daily decisions you will face.
The nutrition solution to look, feel, and be healthy, inside and out…7 Essential Strategies to Success
- Eat food (real food, not “food-type products”).
- Eat at regular intervals and consistent times.
- Manage portions easily.
- Forget about calories and nutrients.
- Get in touch with your gut and digestive system.
- Take time to eat meals and share them with other people.
- Look at food and nutrition from a new perspective.
Now that you know these 7 essential strategies for nutrition success let’s make sure you have all the information you need to make the necessary changes in your day-to-day life.
In Pillar #4 (Fuel) of The Fitness Curveball book, I break down each of these 7 strategies into a simple and easy-to-implement plan. This is the final part of a 4 book series to help you hit a grand slam in health and happiness, no matter what life throws at you.
Following these simple and highly effective strategies will help you fuel your body for success and performance. Also, enjoy food, and reach your health and body composition goals while being able to maintain them indefinitely.
You can pick up the books at www.thefitnesscurveball.com or www.timborys.com/curveball.
