I still don’t know how I didn’t die.
I would eat two sprinkled donuts and drink a Red Bull before 7am football practices during high school. The thought of doing that before a simple workout right now makes me gag. I have no idea how I didn’t just keel over in my football pads during those August workouts.
It’s no wonder I had major gut and stomach issues in my late teens & early twenties. I was dumping pounds of sugar (and crap) into my system. It wasn’t until I was closer to my mid-twenties that I started to better understand nutrition, well after my playing days were over.
How much better could I have trained and played if I’d known then what I know now?
Great athletes understand that they can be at their best without being intentional with what they consume.
Back in the day? Athletes would smoke a cigarette or drink scotch before professional games.
These days? The best of the best are monitoring every single gram of food that goes into their body. They monitor their heart rates. They utilize cryo-chambers for recovery. And they make sure the food they put into their body only fuel them for performance and recovery.
There will be a time for donuts, alcohol, and junk food – and it’s not in-season, or even in the months leading up to it.
To be at your best, you must eat at your best.
Our minds work the same way as our bodies.
We can’t build an optimistic mindset if we’re constantly watching mainstream news, having gossip-filled conversations with our friends, and reading only junk magazines.
It’s impossible to improve how we show up the world when we spend our free time doom-scrolling Twitter or binging every episode of Netflix.
It’d be like eating donuts and drinking beer before going to workout. You may get away with it a time or two? But it won’t be long before your body can’t handle it anymore and spits out (one end or the other) everything you consumed.
What you put in eventually comes out.
Want to be more optimistic? Trade your morning talk radio for a positive podcast or personal development book.
Want to build your grit? Trade your gossip conversations over martinis for tough workouts & coffee chats with gym buddies.
Want a more positive outlook on life? Cut your cable bill and spend more time in masterminds, books, and volunteering.
If you want something better to start coming out of your mindset in the form of your thoughts and words, make sure you start putting better stuff into it.
Championship mindsets aren’t built from crap.