There’s a never ending trend surrounding nutrition in today’s society that promotes the concept of needing to deprive or heavily regiment the food you intake to achieve the results you’re looking for. Eliminate this specific food/nutrient and you’ll lose the weight. Minimize what you intake in calories to obtain this body type. The list goes on.

If you’ve tried any of these fad diets or regimented nutrition concepts you’ve probably experienced resistance and struggle during the course of the endeavor. The highly favored misconception that nutritional habits require some sort of deprivation or struggle, the “sacrifice” to achieve perceived success is not only flawed but often never sustainable for the long term

As an athlete I’ve had exposure and experimentation with many different nutrition approaches. All of which have failed to be sustainable.

Through the course of participating in fad diets and the newest trends I adopted many misconceptions surrounding nutrition as well as unhealthy habits. The habits I often gravitated towards were the need to deprive my body of nutrients that I perceived at the time to be detrimental to what I needed to achieve in my body while simultaneously limiting my caloric intake. Together creating a unideal combination of toxicity.

Did some of these efforts and regiments have an impact on what I needed to achieve? Yes. But none of them allowed for a consistent maintenance of healthy habits and fueling my body to receive the proper nutrients and calories needed to sustain successful training and performance.

Through all the fads I stumbled upon both having a macronutrient based nutritional plan which in turn opened me up to fueling my body in a portion controlled basis. Being so inclined and attached to the misconceptions, appropriately fueling my body took some time to adapt to both mentally and physically. I constantly questioned a great deal of how fueling my body in this form could have impact or how in taking a higher number of calories would in turn allow me to achieve my goals. Additionally I constantly questioned how it could be possible to enjoy the food I was taking in and still be on path to achieve the things I had set out for my body and training.

However consuming food in a portion controlled fashion created immense shift in my relationship with nutrition as well as my relationship to fueling my body properly. Having the ability to enjoy what I was eating opened up the window of feeling fueled and fulfilled to train, to sustain healthy nutritional habits on a consistent basis, avoiding feeling deprived, and intake the proper amount of calories to achieve my goals successfully and sustainably.

You see, we often fall victim to the depriving our bodies and drastically altering what we intake nutritionally as the only valid concept and course of action to achieve what we are aiming to have happen in our bodies. But the truth is that fallacy more often than not never takes us down the path to success.

Open up to the possibility of defying nutrition misconceptions. Try on something new, sustainable, and enjoyable and drop the unnecessary struggle you think is required to achieve success.