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THE WAR WE FACE WITH NUTRITION: PART 1 of 3

By Coach Shawn

WHY DO I STRUGGLE WITH FOOD? 

We ALL struggle in the area of nutrition. 

This particular area of our lives is easily the one that could be said to have some of the most unique challenges that we as people will either overcome or unfortunately succumb to. 

We are faced with advertisements every :30 sec on the tv seeking to plant seeds in our heads of what they want us to eat.

The grocery store is organized, designed and set in a way of things THEY want you to buy and purchase.

Fast food chains have even done research as far as what colors of branding to choose for their colors to stimulate hunger in your mind as you see their logos. 

Food companies addressing the scarcity mindset within people in regards to finances, making food a game of how cheap can we get this, which creates the thinking within us, “if I spend less here I can either save or spend more elsewhere.”  

These are all a drop in a bucket of examples of the challenges we as people will face when it comes to food.

Not to mention a life of conditioning we are either aware of or unaware of such as childhood patterns set from our parents and upbringing. 

And a wiring of beliefs around food that easily could have been done over years that simply does not come undone quickly. 

It’s not eating well and healthy that is particularly difficult for us. 

It is overcoming our patterns, conditioning, beliefs and behaviors that is the truly difficulty. 

Building the proper habits, appropriate discipline and the level of consistency within eating well and healthy that is our greatest challenge. 

Our downfall is our lack of understanding in the area of nutrition. 

And unfortunately, we desire a greater understanding when we are at a place we do NOT want to be like being overweight, we don’t like how our body looks, we can’t gain weight, we feel crappy or have no energy are classic examples. 

This next line is something I learned a long time ago, and I urge you to take it in and never let it leave your awareness: 

Nobody cares about what you eat…

Except for you. 

So it is up to YOU to take control of your eating. 

Which will ultimately will lead to how you feel, 

which will ultimately lead to how you make decisions,

which will ultimately lead to how you lead your life. 

UNDERSTAND THE AGENDA

McDonald’s could care less if you hit their drive thru breakfast, lunch and dinner, every single day 365 days a year. 

They’ll simply ask, 

“Would you like to supersize this meal to save an additional 50 cents?” 

The grocery store clerk isn’t going to stop you if all you purchased every week was processed food, ice cream, soda and junk food. 

Swipe, swipe, swipe. 

They’ll simply say, 

“Did you find everything you were looking for today?” 

TV advertisements for domino’s pizza delivery don’t care if you order in every single day for dinner. They’ll track their sales going up and track it back to dinner time and re-target their advertisements to hit your emotions. 

Creating their next commercial, 

“Save your time, you’ve worked hard all day, no need to cook, order Domino’s and we’ll be there in 20 minutes so you can spend more time with your family and enjoy delicious, cheesy…” 

You get the idea… 

IN PURSUIT TO BE A DIETITIAN

When I was in College at the University Of Delaware is the first time in my life my eyes became truly open in regards to food. 

I was in the Dietetics program, and had my heart set on creating real change in the world and helping people learn how to eat better and live longer, healthier, happier lives. 

Within the first few weeks we were reviewing the food pyramid. 

I remember the teacher going over the base of the pyramid, the foundation of eating. 

This information was shared at global level instructing and guiding people how to eat, how many servings and what to eat. 

The base of this pyramid consisted of 6-12 servings of grains, wheat, potatoes, with pictures of spaghetti and bread. 

When I raised my hand and challenged the standard food pyramid, its relevance, misguidedness and a framework to over consume and eventually lead to weight gain I was hushed, dismissed and disregarded by my professor

This and many more occurrences like it happened within my first year under this program. 

The combination of what felt like a complete unwillingness to change or improve this flawed way, on top of shadowing days in the life of Dietitians who in my opinion were unhappy with their lives and simply checking off boxes more than creating real change and who seemed to covet possessing the “title” of “Dietitian” more than anything, led me to leave the program. 

This is not the future I set forth for myself. 

Note: This is not to say that Dietitians are bad, ineffective or aren’t important. This was my experience. I work with a colleague within Two Brain Coaching who’s a Registered Dietitian, Jennifer Broxterman whose work is incredible.  And in following a lot of her teachings do you know what she addresses often? Behavioral and habit improvements within the human being. 

At an educational level, this felt like an utter failure to me. 

At University they seemed locked and set in particular methods without flexibility and that didn’t sit right with me. 

I even vaguely remember a discussion with our professor at Udel about how the goal of nutrition was “agricultural benefit” opposed to the total health and wellness of individuals. 

The game felt rigged.  Misleading. 

Agendas felt more about money and profit than helping people lead a healthy, long and  fulfilled life.

To be continued in a 3 part series.

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