There Is No Perfect Diet.
You may have seen, there are now hundreds of diets contesting for the title of “the perfect diet” or “the diet you need to be on to lose weight”, or there are many ‘dietary camps’, each claiming specific benefits and superiority over the other. The range of options can also be extremely confusing – ranging from paleo, raw, vegan, vegetarian, wheat free…the list goes on.
I am here to tell you today that there is no perfect diet. I mean, if there was why would there be hundreds of them in an industry now worth upwards of $60 billion?
Even the one that your friend has been on and has been raving about where she has lost 10lbs in 5 minutes. And the reason is not that the diet doesn’t work, as it may do. It works for your friend right? So it must work for everyone!
Wrong.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like this. Everyone is individual and this includes how weight loss works for them. What works for someone else may not work for you.
What we have to do is find what works for us and what is OPTIMUM for us. Not perfect.
It is the same when looking at training programs? Do you see everyone being prescribed the same training session each day? No, because each individual is different and has a different biological makeup, and this should be the same for our nutrition.
We all have different genes, lifestyles, metabolisms and gut bacteria, all of which strongly influence our dietary requirements.
So how do we find our optimum diet?
Obviously, you could go down the route of specific science where you could have hundreds of biomarkers tested, alongside a full health and lifestyle history and assessment. However, not everyone is in the situation to do this.
Here are three simple ways you could optimise your nutrition for yourself.
- Record What Works For You.
This involves being aware of your body and how you feel. You know how you are feeling better than anyone else.
Start noticing things that are happening in your body and record what you are eating each day to try and make a link.
After going out for a work lunch you feel extra bloated compared to normal. What did you have at lunch or breakfast that morning? Was it different to usual?
On Tuesday you felt great in the afternoon when today around the mid-afternoon point you to slack and feel tired and lethargic. What was different about Tuesday? What have you eaten different from what you have eaten today? Did you drink more water maybe?
Tune in to these little symptoms and you can start to build a better picture of how you react to different foods.
2. What is the goal of your nutrition?
When you plan your exercise training you set goals right, and from that, the training is set accordingly to achieve those goals. So why wouldn’t you do the same with your nutrition? It will give you better focus and structure around what you need.
3. Know where you are right now.
The main point to start at is to see where you are at right now. What are your bad nutrition habits? What are your good habits? What can be improved? What is your exercise routine like compared to your nutrition? Are you trying to out train a poor diet?
These are some of the questions you should ask yourself. It will require a full assessment of your current situation and take some hard, tough, honesty with yourself. Only from a true analysis can you start to forge a plan and know what steps you need to take.
If you are confused by the plethora of diets and minefield that is nutrition and want to make changes please come and speak to one of the coaches at TeamBreakthrough and we will be more than happy to help!
Jack Coxall