The gap between what we know and what we do is perhaps largest when it comes to what we put on our plate. Compared to nutrition, putting in the work in the gym every day is easy. Part of what makes eating right so difficult is the cultural mindset we’ve developed about food and our relationship to it. Food plays into our emotions, accompanies our social events, and occupies a place in our psychology as deep and intimate as religion.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle people face when trying to eat in accordance with their goals is America’s love affair with the diet. As far back as the 1920s, everybody from government agencies to snake oil salesmen have taken their turn on the soapbox, preaching to you that you should follow one diet plan or another to lose weight, look better, and perform at your peak. But every diet fails for the same reason: it doesn’t create a lifestyle that you can follow for the rest of your life.
That’s what Alex Maclin wants to change. In his years of experience with the likes of Travis Mash and the Barbell Shrugged crew, he figured out that moving a barbell was the easy part. Moving your mind to a sustainable nutrition philosophy was much harder. He’s recently struck out on his own to provide personalized nutrition coaching for anybody who wants to get out of the yo-yo cycle of dieting, and into a sustainable practice.
Alex and I chat about how he starts his coaching process with building trust and asking the right questions. He explains that while his strategy includes talking about food, it’s really about empowering the whole person. He has learned the value of creating early wins to create positive momentum, and that creating change isn’t about telling people what to do. It’s about helping people realize what they really want, what it will take to get there, and then giving them the tools and knowledge to keep doing it for a lifetime.
