Will it take forever to fix my nutrition habits?

In a word, yes, but we’ll get to that a little later.

First, you will hear us talk about the importance of paying attention to nutrition.

You might be participating in a nutrition kickstart focusing on gaining consistency with eating healthy foods or just hearing about nutrition options for the first time as you go through our 1-1 OnRamp programme.

Focusing on nutrition, behavioural change and consistently fueling with real foods, we get the best results in the gym.

Outside the gym, we gain so much more.

By paying attention to our long term nutritional habits, not just during a 4- or 6-week challenge, we have the best chance of achieving a life free of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.

Many of us look at nutrition and exercise when we want to lose weight, or when we’ve had a scare from the Doctor.

The issue here is that fear or unhappiness are poor long term motivators.

What we need to look at is addressing behavioural change.

Think about past measures you have taken to lose weight.

Many of us have tried a quick fix:

• Enrolled in a super restrictive challenge
• Followed a fad diet to lose weight
• Taken meal replacement shakes that put you in a crazy caloric deficit
• Juice cleanses
• Detox diets
• Challenges that eliminate certain macronutrients

and even things marketed as “magic pills”, “skinny teas”, “fat burners” or other miracle cures.

These approaches have the potential to bring success in the short term.

Following the quick fix, what happens next when you want to actually maintain these results?

Regardless of the amount of weight you lose on any given quick fix, it is tough to maintain these results.

This is why it’s so important to focus mindfully on developing and adopting healthy habits when it comes to food choices.

The problem is that this piece is what many people file in the too hard draw.

This is the stuff that takes time.

The Infinite Game

From the beginning of your journey, it is important to look at where you want to be 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, a year from now, and where you want to be beyond that.

Where do you see yourself 5-10 years from now?

What does age 75 and beyond look like for you?

Challenge yourself to avoid putting so much pressure on yourself to lose weight and change body composition quickly.

Challenge yourself to think of it this way…

When you are 75, you likely will not care, or remember how long it took you to hit your weight loss goals.

At age 75, you will be empowered by knowing that you took the time to learn habits that are allowing you to be the healthiest and most functional 75 year old in your community.

It is for this reason that we encourage a long term approach with a nutrition coach as an accountability partner.

Together, with your nutrition coach, you will avoid the many quick fixes out there.

At Ignite Fitness and Nutrition, any nutrition programme you are invited to join comes with the offer to continue your nutrition coaching at the end to stay on track with long term goals.

With an accountability partner and by taking a more long term approach, you will learn about balance, flexibility and sustainability.

Remind yourself that you are not doing this for a quick fix.

You’re never going to ‘fix your nutrition habits’, rather you’re going to continue to modify them to suit your life as you age.

You are doing this to allow you to live your best life, and to give you the opportunity to be the healthiest version of yourself, for the rest of your life.

To see how we can help you in avoiding the quick fix, schedule a Free No Sweat Consultation with one of our coaches today.