How Your Diet Relates to Your Goals

When I was training for my marathon, I would be the first to say that 70% of the time, I did not want to get up and go. With my work schedule and meetings throughout the day, sometimes my work days would be 12-14 hours. Thus, most of my runs had to be at 4 a.m. due to the time it took to complete the run, get home to shower, and get ready for work. Getting up at 4 a.m. would give me enough time to prepare for my day. As you can imagine, that was not always easy, and I was not always motivated to get up and go when it was time to start the day. I was determined not to let my feelings dictate the goal I had set for myself.

A central part of the training was watching my diet and keeping track of my water intake. When I did not do this, I definitely would feel it. The price I would pay when I did not watch my diet would be a sluggish feeling of low energy, and the runs would seem longer and harder. Sluggish and low on energy, the runs became harder. Sometimes, I would have to walk because I would feel sick, which would set me back. Mistakes may seem small, especially when sitting in the drive-thru line. But continued minor errors compound into something much bigger. Those bad decisions could cost me days of setbacks on the training schedule. I noticed I had more energy, slept better, and did not feel sluggish when I ate clean. I was able to set a new time record for myself. This was huge and boosted my confidence. While doing all this training, I listened to podcasts and audiobooks related to running, eating habits, etc. Your diet for your goals includes what you eat and drink, your environment, and what you expose your body and mind to. Unconsciously, we tend to have some negativity surrounding us with certain music, TV shows, video games, family, friends, coworkers, and work environments. Whether we pay close attention to the negativity or not, it impacts our minds and daily decisions.

I started paying closer attention to my surroundings while training and began to correlate certain reality TV shows, music, and podcasts to negativity related to my training. For example, if the podcast discussed or even joked about laziness, I would slowly fall into that behavior and assure myself it was “normal.” Growing up, we saw Chad Ocho Cinco eating McDonald’s daily and thriving on the football field. I would start to think that I could do the same thing. Some of you can probably relate to something or someone on TV, an aspect of the music industry, or a podcast doing or saying something. You subconsciously inherit those habits regardless of whether it is a healthy habit.

We must do the alternative to that and surround ourselves with positivity to help inspire us and push us further in our goals. When training for my marathon, one of the perks of training early in the morning was no distractions. No text messages from friends and family that may distract me, no messages or emails from work - nothing coming through my phone that would distract and throw off my mood and essentially ruin my run. It was just me, the music through my headphones, and my run. This would allow me to focus on my goal.

Even when not training, I remember listening to audiobooks about endurance athletes like David Goggins, Cam Hanes, and the Iron Cowboy. Listening to these books inspired me and made me believe that I could do it on days when I had self-doubt. I remember reading The Iron Cowboy, a book about an athlete who did 50 Ironmans in 50 states in 50 days. This sounds wild. The author of this book spoke about his very first endurance race when he came out too fast and expelled too much energy too quickly. Mid-way through the race, he started to feel exhausted and became in a lot of pain. He stated that he had never felt this type of pain and exhaustion before and quickly started questioning himself. Why was he out there and putting himself through such a thing? He contemplated quitting but was able to break down the circumstances to help reset his mindset to continue taking steps. He focused on each step and took them one by one. And before he knew it, he was stepping across the finish line.

This is one example from listening to books and educating myself on motivational stories related to the goals I am attempting to achieve. I have unconsciously developed some discipline and habits from books, podcasts, and shows surrounding me.

Ask yourself, what are you surrounding yourself with? What does your diet look like? Does it align with your goals? If yes, GREAT. If not, take inventory and start by making small changes. Swap out listening to the radio once a week and instead listen to an audiobook of your interest. This concept does not just have to be about endurance racing; this applies to anything you would like to improve on and master in this lifetime. Take baby steps. I promise you will feel the difference. Your actions and habits will start to compound into greatness. STAY CONSISTENT AND KEEP GOING. Make it a habit to choose the hard right over the easy wrong, and I promise you that the payoff will be huge.