Lets order takeout for dinner and have the guy at the drive-thru pull us off to the side and make sure we only receive chicken and steak meals. We have no concept about anything except eating. When everyone is finished, a second car pulls up and a different driver pulls off a different meal for us. What a rush! There is a whole world of food prep and cooking out there for us that we just haven’t tapped into yet. There is absolutely nothing better than being on the receiving end of a fabulous meal and a great cooking lesson, right? And yet, we aren’t even eating. We are sitting on our lazy bodies today as you read this, not knowing what to do with our time except eat and eat. And now we are hungry. What are some things you do when you aren’t able to cook for yourself? Who are some of your favorite chefs? What do you need to learn about food? Let us know in the comments! Have you ever had these conversations? “You have to cook more.” “You need to be more active.” “You just need to eat more.” “You can’t get into any other habits unless you lose weight.” “Your fat is too high. You need to go on the diet of the moment. It’s not sustainable.” “It’s time to exercise, even if you can’t see the results right away.” It’s easy to fall into these traps. For a lot of us, we get into the same places over and over. We need some outside motivation, a way to be inspired, and someone to show us how to do it right. The problem is, we don’t have that person or that motivation, but we keep the same cycle of thinking around. It’s time to break free! The key to a successful food transformation, a healthier life, and a stronger relationship with yourself is not just a strict diet, more cardio, or more weight loss. You have to stop being motivated by the scale, the calorie count, and the outside forces. You need to become the motivator. You need to tap into your internal drive to move, feed your mind, and nourish your soul. Here are three steps to making this happen. 1. Stop listening to people around you. Stop accepting their opinion of how you are living or think about how you are living. What does your diet look like? How often are you eating? What is your ideal level of fitness? How do you eat? What does your eating environment look like? Are you eating in the middle of a busy, stressful day or relaxing with a cup of tea in the backyard? You have to be your own coach. You need to set the standards for how you will live and set out goals for yourself, but you need someone who will help you to identify those things you are holding back on. I know everyone says that it’s your own fault when you fall off the healthy wagon. But that doesn’t make it true. It makes it a fact. You are a part of the solution, but you aren’t the one looking at the picture. You aren’t the one looking at the whole board. You need to start working with someone who will be honest with you, tell you when you are moving in the wrong direction, and help you to identify the habits, ideas, and rules of living that you have absorbed as a result of your environment and lifestyle. Your coach can help you see through the fog. You need to know what you are running away from. You need to know what is important to you. You need to know how to hold yourself accountable. To work with a personal trainer or coach, click here. 2. Focus on what matters most to you. There is a reason you are overweight, inactive, or both. It’s not just your own eating issues or the fact that you are weak willed. You don’t just eat whatever you want because your willpower is weak. Find something you love to do and get that one thing taken care of. Start a new habit and change your life! You are more than your body and what it looks like. You have so much more to offer to the world. You can contribute to others. You can learn something, accomplish something, and make someone’s life better through your actions. Use what you eat to fuel that passion, your body is a part of that. You can find and develop the passion in you, and it will make a big difference for you and everyone around you. Focus on the things that will make a difference and stop wasting your time on crap that doesn’t matter. 3. Create healthy goals. You need to set goals that are relevant to you. You need to create goals that are challenging but that you can complete. You need to create goals that you want to meet. If you hate what you are doing, you can’t expect to be successful. You need to get on board with the goal or remove the person. Only give yourself goals that you can handle, where you can win, and where you can grow. You need to have a plan. You need to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. You need a path to success and the motivation to pursue that path. If you don’t have an end goal, you will wander aimlessly through life, trying to get somewhere that doesn’t actually exist. Don’t let that be you. You need a true path to success and joy. Don’t make excuses, don’t give in, and don’t give up. You have what it takes to live the life you deserve to live. All you need is to get into action. I could write a book on exercise. I could write a book on diets. But that’s not what this post is about. What I want to talk about today is nutrition. You know those people. We all know them. They are the ones who eat the absolute best foods known to man. They are the ones who know how to fuel their body with everything they need to perform, survive, and thrive. They are the ones who know how to eat so much food it is comical. They walk into a room with a plate of food that is so piled high it’s an assault to the senses and they don’t even know it. It’s as if they are completely unaware of what they are doing. They have figured out how to put that amazing quality of food that they love into their bodies in a way that allows them to perform like they were born to do it. There is a big difference between people who eat a lot of things and people who put those things together in a way that fuels the body in a way that allows it to do what it was made to do. Those with the ability to eat like that aren’t in it just for fun. They aren’t eating all day because they have an easy time putting it away. They don’t have a love affair with food, they don’t have an obsession with a way to get their love of food into their body. They aren’t just eating everything in sight just because. They eat when their body needs it, in a way that makes their body better at eating. They eat what their body needs, in the right amount, and at the right time. They eat when it’s time to eat and stop when it’s time to stop. They eat in moderation, in a way that maximizes the amount of nutrients taken in. They eat enough to satisfy their hunger, but not so much that they are still hungry later. They eat based on what their body needs and not based on the size or popularity of the food. These things might not seem like much to us. But they are really important. They will help us to be more resilient. They will make us stronger. They will give us an edge in all areas of our life. As much as we might believe that it’s the quantity and quality of food that matters, it’s not. It’s the quantity and quality of food in the right amounts and at the right times. The most successful people I know are the ones who are living this way. They have figured out how to create a lifestyle where they can look good and feel good without