As Certified Health & Life Coaches for men, every day we see the pitfalls that guys find themselves in regarding their health. But, far too often we see that certain myths are what keep them from getting started on the road to achieving optimum health.
We are here to help you conquer some of the most common ones we’ve heard.
“I Am Doomed to My Genetics”
Do genetics play a role in our health? Absolutely! Although recently we are finding that they don’t play as large of a role in chronic disease as once thought. If we eat the same way, stress the same way and live the same way as our folks then of course we are going to increase our risk of suffering with what they suffered from.
However, through recent scientific research we are seeing that nutritional standards are actually affecting our genes more than we once thought.
Your body is constantly changing and evolving and nutrition is the one of the key components that gives your cells the messages regarding how to grow. If your body is continuously receiving messages from live, whole foods filled with vitamins, minerals and nutrients then it is going to move in a direction far different then if it receives information from processed, dead, nutrient void food.
As Dr. Campbell perfectly stated, “Genetics are what loads the gun, but diet and lifestyle are what pull the trigger.”
“I Have to Give Up My Favorite Foods to Be Healthy”
This is a big one. Food is a great pleasure for so many of us and to associate health with giving up this pleasure isn’t something that is going to go over very well. As men, we tend to be resistant to changing our diet since some of our favorite foods might be deemed as unhealthy.
We take two basic approaches to this dilemma:
1. Instead of focusing on what needs to be removed from your diet, start focusing more on what can be added in. Start with salads, green vegetables and fresh pressed juices. Begin by adding these foods into your diet consistently and stop focusing on what needs to be removed.
2. Improve the quality of your choices. If you are reluctant to make a needed change to your diet at least increase the quality of what you are currently doing. Choosing more organic foods, grass-fed proteins and higher standard products will add more nutritional value while also developing a new mindset and higher quality standard around your food and health.
“I Need to Spend All My Time in the Gym”
Short answer to this is “no, you don’t!” Getting your diet up to a higher standard is incredibly critical. Exercise plays a role but not as much as you may believe. The truth is that sustainable health is closer to an 80/20 ratio of nutrition to exercise.
So you don’t need to spend hours in the gym each day and week. Find something you enjoy doing and just be consistent about it.
On the other hand, it is also foolish to think that you can eat whatever you want and then take the approach that exercise will fix it all. It has been said many times and bears repeating “you cannot out-exercise a bad diet.”
"There’s No True Link Between Diet and My Libido, Energy and Strength"
Your body is made up of raw material and that raw material runs on the information that you give it consistently. We see time and time again with our male clients that as they consistently clean up their diet, their energy sky rockets, their libido improves or actually returns.
Overall, they feel stronger and more youthful.
As you are committing to your health, shift your focus from how many pounds you are trying to lose to actually gaining energy. As that increases, you will have the vitality to do all the other things that will help pounds come off effortlessly.
“I Can Worry About My Health When I Am Older”
As we’ve mentioned, your body runs on consistent information. What you do today and each day is incredibly critical for your future. Too many of us are putting our heads down and plowing through life, work and responsibilities only to look up one day with the realization that we have forfeited our health along the way.
Commit now to making small consistent shifts every day that will build over time. There is no need to make any sudden drastic changes. It’s not what we do every so often that counts, but what we do consistently.
Do not wait to add attention to your health. Do it today so that tomorrow you can enjoy all that you have worked hard for. Make health one of your greatest achievements.
Now go forth and conquer!
What's the one thing that's been a health-myth for you?
In health,
Michael & Pablo