Without a doubt, last week was one of my busiest weeks I’ve ever had working in the fitness industry. On average, I will work anywhere from 38-55 hours a week on the floor training clients along with another 10-15 hours a week designing customized nutritional plans and training programs for our online clients. Add on an additional 3-5 hours of admin work, and as you can see, my schedule is never really empty or slow. And I absolutely love that! I’ve always considered that a busy business is a bitch-less business, and the busier we are, the less time we have to bitch and complain.
But last week was insane! I was literally waking up at 4am everyday and going to bed at 12am if I was lucky. Historically speaking, July has always been a slow month for our company. Well, history did not repeat itself this year, as this has been by far our busiest July to date. And it doesn’t look as if it’s going to slow down anytime soon.
Now being busy is great. And when you own and operate your own business there really are no such things as days off. But being a fitness professional who practices what he preaches on a regular basis, it’s important for me to stay on track with both by training and my diet, even at the busiest of times. And I’m reluctant to report, that last week I was negligent with both of these extremely important components of my health and fitness.
That’s right, I broke down. I ate what I wanted and used my long work days as an excuse to skip my workouts. I even found myself justifying my lackluster performance with my training in the gym and dieting outside of the gym with the lamest excuse that I hear all the time – “I’m too busy”.
Fast forward seven days later and I sit here today writing this blog as a bloated, constipated, irritable and lethargic mess. My body is not happy with me and it’s punishing me for my carelessness with my training and recklessness with my diet from these past few days.
So it’s time to reset my mind. It’s to time to recharge my body. And it’s time to refine my colon (it really did take a beating last week). However if there is one thing I learned from this little speed bump (besides that I now require laxatives after consuming dairy and cannot tolerate gluten after 6pm), it’s that I really do rely on my diet to function. In fact, I rely on my diet so much so, that without it, I wouldn’t be able to get through my 12 hour work days and 2 hour workouts. I wouldn’t be able to operate on 4-5 hours of sleep per night. And after developing a closer relationship with my toilet last week, I realize that I wouldn’t be able to be as “regular” with my digestive system that I normally am. In other words – I NEED MY DIET TO LIVE!
Now by no means do I consider my diet to be perfect. In fact, I’ve yet to see a single diet that is perfect. Everyone that I work with or speak to, either lacks something or consumes too much of something else within their own diets. And when it comes to which nutrients we need and which foods will give us cancer, and which macronutrients will make us fat, and which calories are good and which calories are bad, everyone seems to have their own opinion. And when it comes to critiquing another person’s diet, everyone seems to become an expert. But to me a person’s diet is just like a person’s religion, it’s extremely personal. Unless a client has asked for my assistance or advice with their diet, then I don’t offer it, nor do I offer my opinion. However I will say this – When it comes to designing an effective and efficient nutritional plan, you have to learn what works for you. And before you learn what works for you, you have to learn your body.
Do you want to know how to learn your body and learn what works for you? Then check out Part 2 of this week’s blog next week and I’ll tell you.
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance