Eat To Perform Blog

Does your workout program give you confidence? Does it build you up or tear you down? Do you do it with passion or with dread? Does it align with your goals? Does it push you to better yourself?

My drive for fitness is a challenge between me, myself, and I. The consistency comes from loving the game, not because I’m chasing a finish line. I don’t dread my training sessions. This isn’t something I have to hype myself for and I certainly don’t do it as a form of punishment for what I ate.

Here are a list of reasons that I train with passion:

•Using my body to its fullest potential is rewarding

•The increase of dopamine in my brain’s reward center each morning starts the day with a high

•I love the challenge. And it is challenging to BUILD the body

•My internal dialog is completely different with training vs working out to burn calories

•I love food. Like, a lot. Having a lifestyle where food and training go hand-in-hand instead of opposing one another is a game changer

•The boss-like feeling when I have 1.5x my bodyweight on a bar is unmatched. NOTHING gives me more confidence. Not the scale. Not my pant size.

And let me tell you about that confidence. I believe it is THE support system for the mental work that I’ve accomplished over the last few years. The learning to love myself and to not speak ill of my body was propped up by that confidence during my journey to self acceptance.

There is a necessary mind shift for success. You can’t kill your body day in and day out trying to be a smaller version of yourself… when you don’t even like yourself. No matter what activity you are doing, no matter what “diet” you are on… if you don’t like yourself, none of it will get you what you are truly seeking.

We tend to put the cart before the horse. “When I lose 20lbs, I’ll be happy”. It is in this flawed thinking that we get stuck in a rat race. An infinite loop. When in reality it should be “when I’m happy, I’ll lose 20lbs”.

The results are a byproduct of enjoying the journey. Find something that you love that supports your goals. When you are doing something you love that makes you FEEL good… you will start to make the small changes in your thoughts to swap that cart before the horse thinking.