Air out your secrets.
Come out of the nutrition closet.
What’s your secret?
Does it seem like “everyone else” in health and fitness knows something you don’t?
Does it feel like “everyone else” is eating better? Or doing all their workouts? Or dropping pounds of fat like rats leaping off a sinking ship?
Are you convinced that “everyone else” sails on through their days, avoiding chocolate fudge cake like it’s a plate of dog poop?
Does it feel like you are doing, feeling, or thinking something just a little bit... embarrassing? Foolish? Shameful? Weird?
Maybe yesterday, you ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes... for dinner.
Do you feel like you’re letting down your coach when you don’t always make smart carb choices, or when you miss a protein serving?
Everyone else is in the same boat. Everyone is living on the same planet, following the same physiological rules and dealing with relatively similar mental, emotional, and physical stressors.
The problem with secrets, secrets are nagging. They keep gnawing and nibbling on your soul.
Secrets make us feel alone and isolated.
In coaching, secrets hurt your health and fitness because they can actually push you to make worse choices.
If you feel bad about eating a piece of cake, the resulting guilt and shame may encourage you to say “oh $&#! it!” and eat more.
If you are having trouble with a few exercises and feel too embarrassed to ask for help, you might eventually avoid the gym altogether.
If you constantly worry about “making a mistake” or “letting the team down”, all your energy goes to rigid self-control... and when the self-control hatch blows — look out!
If you have a “foolish” or “unrealistic” dream — say, climbing Mt. Everest — and constantly focus on why you can’t or shouldn’t want to try that, then you probably won’t even try getting close. You might not even try to climb a local hill because why bother?
Come out of the closet. Healthy nutrition and deep health is a path you walk for life. It’s a daily practice and a process. It’s a way to self-knowledge.
Deep health isn’t perfection or groupthink. It’s not a badge you have to wear forevermore. If you’re sitting on a secret ... come out of the nutrition closet.
Tell your truth. Get real with yourself.
Whatever it is, it’s not so bad.
And once the “secret” is out... you’ll feel much better. You’re human. You’re a work in progress, just like everyone else.
Chris, myHealthCoach