Are you playing offense or defense?

Are you playing offense or defense?

Where are you when it comes to health and fitness? Are you playing offense or defense? The answer to that can make a huge difference in your life.

Defensive nutrition

Let's start with nutrition and what defense looks like there:

• Processed foods
• Foods with added sugar
• Supplements to make up for deficiencies in food quality and choices
• Yo-yo weight loss and gain cycles
• Trying the latest fad diets and eating plans

Playing defense in nutrition looks like constantly responding to negatives with short-term solutions that aren't sustainable. When we're playing defense, we're reacting to weight changes and implementing fads.

Defensive fitness

How about defense in the area of fitness...

• Mindset of "earning" unhealthy treats as a result of what we do in the gym
• Inconsistency in our workouts
• Not working toward any specific goals
• Only paying attention to recovery, mobility, and soft tissue work when something hurts or doesn't feel right

Defense = Reacting

Basically, when we play defense, we're reacting to what's going on in our life. We're not really driving the boat - we're along for the ride and hoping for the best.

How often does defense score points or runs?

When the Braves are on defense, the best they can hope for is to hold the other team scoreless. You gotta be playing offense to actually score (I know - football teams can have a pick 6, but you can also say that the intercepting team switches to playing offense at the moment of the interception).

Playing offensive with nutrition

Here's what playing offense looks like in the area of nutrition...

• Whole foods
• Focus on healthy choices and portions
• Choosing foods based on what you like and the nutritional value that they add to your day
• Meal prepping or other means of planning what we'll eat (not leaving food choices to chance)
• Consistent, healthy body composition and gradual, sustainable changes
• An overall healthy relationship with food

The first two sentence from "Fitness in 100 Words" sums it up very well:

"Eat meat and vegetable, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that support exercise but not body fat."

We modify that quote a little to change "no sugar" to "minimize added sugar" since that's a much more sustainable approach. (You can find a Fitness in 100 Words poster above the water fountain at the gym.)

Fitness on offense

When we're playing offense in the area of fitness, it looks like...

• Consistent workout patterns
• Making fitness a priority (not leaving it to chance - "if I have time")
• Working toward a goal that you can articulate
• Focusing on areas of weakness or challenge in order to improve

Fitness on offense means that you are taking an intentional approach to your fitness. It's not about the quantity of workouts (above a minimum effective level) - it's all about the quality and the intent.

You can be on offense with fitness with 3 or more workouts per week. You can play offense with fitness even if you're just beginning.

How about an example of playing offense...

Jyn Erso (our fictitious athlete for the story based on Saturday being Star Wars Day) is new to fitness. She has a complicated background and wants an outlet to work off some stress and get back in shape after not working out for a long time due to personal issues.

Jyn commits to three classes per week at the gym. She makes a plan for what days she can be at the gym and coordinates those days around her family and career commitments.

Jyn starts meal prepping for her lunches since she normally doesn't have much time during the day. She pulls recipes from the gym's list that she knows she and her family will enjoy. Her focus is on whole foods and minimizing processed foods. She and her family find fruit and nuts they enjoy as snacks instead of junk food.

In order to minimize soreness and improve how she feels, she also incorporates 15 minutes of GOWOD mobility into her evening routine. She uses the mobility time as an opportunity to clear her mind and do some breath work before bed each evening.

Jyn's current goal is to squat to full depth with an empty bar and to hike the 5 mile loop at Kennesaw Mountain Park by the end of the summer.

Playing on offense doesn't need to be complicated

Most of us spend most of our life playing defense. We spend our time reacting to life and to situations. We let life and our environment drive our boat.

Taking back control of our own boat doesn't need to be complex. It can actually be quite simple.

• I'm going to work out on these days this week
• I'm only buying whole foods that add to my life when I'm at the grocery store
• I'm working toward a goal
• I'm working on something that's a weakness for me

It can be as simple as that.

Did you know...

Did you know that one of the things we as coaches do is to meet with members to discuss goals and help them map out realistic, achievable action plans to crush those goals? It's one of the best parts of our job as coaches, and we'd love to do that with you.

If you're a member of our gym, chat with Daisi, Tish, Matt, Andy, or me (Charles) anytime this week to set up a 30 minute time slot that works for you. If you aren't a member of our gym, click the link to schedule.

Do you know someone who could benefit from this approach to nutrition and fitness? Share this post with them...

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