Nutrition &
Hydration

When looking at all four Foundational Accelerators, nothing is more fundamental than what you eat and what you drink. Although nutrition & hydration are different topics together they are the building blocks of life and any improvements you want to make. The way we are designed is no longer compatible with much of the food on offer and the eating habits we now have. It’s time to reset. There’s a saying, ‘you are what you eat’ and it’s true. But we’ve lost sight of the fundamentals in terms of what we consume. The way in which the food industry markets to us is a much bigger topic and is arguably the systemic issue behind rising obesity, rising rates of cronic illnesses like diabetes but that is a much longer topic worthy of deeper discussion (hint: future blog). For now, lets focus on personal accountability  and personal choice. The first reset required is nutrition vs. eating/consuming. We often eat to feel full and this is often achieved with bad carbs. Start to prioritize good, slow release GI carbs like quinoa, green vegetables, lentils, beans, most natural dairy and stop eating the bad carbs that spike your blood sugar like white rice, white pasta, white bread, basically any white carb. On the topic of carbs, think quality over quantity and think nutrition value over volume consumption. There are many meal delivery companies that can deliver nutrition, or blogs on how to prepare balanced meals that can be frozen for the week ahead.

 

The second reset is our relationship with water. It goes without saying, we all likely need to drink more water, many of us significantly more. And by water, I mean plain, pure water. An important source of water is also the water found in the nutrient rich foods we eat. This makes up a percentage of what we need but it's the additional consumed water that brings the collective water intake to the required levels. There are many ways of improving the quality and availability of your water supply and it’s important to create a source that you like the taste of. Is it filtered, is it ionized, does it come in a bottle, is it alkaline based. There are so many options to consider but best to start with what you have available and build preference from there.

 

There are countless areas you can invest into but the bottom line is, as with any of the foundational accelerators, there are also a host of no cost / or low cost options to get you started. It’s exactly how I started. For example, for sleep make the decision to go to bed earlier and work towards getting 8 hours sleep, for hydration drink a load more water and be consistent, for nutrition cut out added sugar and white carbs to begin with, for movement, well, just move more and for your mental health learn how to breath from your belly, download a free guided mention app and throw a few bags of ice in your bath tub. But for those that are already at that point, or just prefer to invest time and money into further accelerating their growth, there are countless ways to do that, some of which are listed below.