The Nutrition Talk You Needed Today
Or maybe I just needed to type it. Either way, here you have it.
The scary part about the fitness industry is that affects every single person.
You can’t a be a living human and not eat or move.
Outside of those individuals with some serious medical conditions or dietary restrictions, you are likely being yanked around by a combination of three things:
your own lack of understanding of nutrition and exercise
the immense capitalistic efforts of the companies who sell and package foods / products / ideas
the terrifyingly huge percentage of fitness influencers and “health” gurus who either:
actually have no idea how misinformed they are and believe they’re being helpful,
or, care more about making money than they care about furthering their own understanding to make themselves more helpful
The bad news is that you have to do SO MUCH FUCKING WORK in pursuit of #1 to stay decently objective and selectively blind about #2 and #3.
The good news is that you have your whole life to do it.
- You’re never going to not need food.
- You’re never going to not need to move.
Taking the entirety of your time on earth to improve these domains at a snail’s pace still ensures progress.
Without looking up a single fact about nutrition or exercise, the very first and most helpful thing you can do is notice yourself.
Notice how certain foods, meal times, and plate sizes make you feel.
Notice how certain activities, ranges of motion, and physical hobbies make you feel.
There’s a billion things to learn and track, but you can’t collect personal data about them if you don’t even put forth the mental effort to be aware of them.
So that’s probably a great first step.
Just ask yourself a few times a day how you’re physically feeling, and why you might be feeling that way.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT > LOOKING HOT
With the primary goal of “feeling good” rather than “looking good”, this whole bodily care thing becomes much easier.
And the crazy thing that nobody seems to believe (until they’ve done it), is that the former often creates the latter.
When you treat most (not all) meals literally — as chemical energy for your body — you often end up with a physique you enjoy more, both in terms of performance AND aesthetics.
(not “all” meals, because you definitely should reserve a few ‘fun meals’ in between the many ‘fuel meals’ you have per week)
The goal for most people who want to enjoy their appearance by being smaller more should not be to “eat less at all costs”.
The goal for most people who want to enjoy their appearance by being bigger or more ‘jacked’ should not be to “eat more at all costs”.
Both of the people who want those scenarios don’t realize that they kind of want the same thing:
THEY BOTH WANT TO CHANGE THE **SHAPE** OF THEIR BODY
Most people (usually females) who say they want to be smaller and weigh less will point to a goal picture of some fitness influencer who probably weighs just as much or more than them, but simply has more muscle.
The girl with that goal physique probably eats more, too.
Most people (usually males) who say they want to be bigger and weigh more will point to a goal picture of some fitness influencer who probably weighs just as much or less than them, but simply has more muscle.
The guy with that goal physique probably eats less than you on average, too. He probably has just resistance trained in a semi-intelligent manner for a much longer amount of time than you.
THE TWO THINGS THAT WILL HELP ANYONE WITH ANY BODY SHAPE-CHANGING:
- Prioritize protein intake in all meals
- Prioritize resistance training at least 2-3 times per week
Those two behaviors (with endless ways to go about them) will help your body run more efficiently, and create more energy for you almost immediately.
Secondarily, and over the long haul, you will see those favorable changes towards “looking hot” that you initially thought were so important and urgent.
It’s likely that your body weight won’t change as much as you thought you needed it to in order for it to look different.
Stop weighing yourself so much.
Start asking yourself if you had protein with your last meal.
Stop trying to be small or big.
Start asking yourself if you have enough energy and strength for the activities you want to do in life.
This isn’t a short term game with an end date.
And ignoring it will be catastrophic.
You’ll have a bummer of a time being an older adult who is so frail they can’t walk around or travel.
It will suck to have a weak heart or weak legs.
It will suck to need round-the-clock assistance for your last couple decades of life.
The end goal isn’t to be hot.
There isn’t an end goal with this stuff at all.
The endless aim is lifelong physical independence.
xoxo,
AV ❤️
I’ve never wanted this to be a full-on fitness education newsletter, but if you DO want the nitty gritty on how bodybuilders do it, I coauthored THESE BOOKS with a couple of my friends to teach you how. I don’t think the average person should do everything in them, but I do think the average person could learn a lot about how to think about their nutrition and movement practice by giving them a solid read and reference.
Thank you for reading AV On Everything. This post is public so feel free to share it.
