Nutrition for peak performance

This week’s newsletter is a continuation of last week’s newsletter Sugar is Poison! It covers tools and techniques to help you quit sugar, as well as other practical nutrition ideas to improve your performance.

It is a summary of many concepts included in The POSITIVE Lawyer ® online learning and coaching program and several chapters in my new book The POSITIVE Lawyer Mindset. If you want to find out more, you can book me in for a FREE 30-minute coaching call.

Foundations for optimal performance

When we piece together the numerous research studies on how factors such as mindset, positive emotions, health, and fitness impact our performance, success, and happiness, the following five foundational components become evident –

1. Sleep
2. Healthy body
3. Work-life balance
4. Positive mindset
5. Meaning

Let’s take a deep dive into the good nutrition side of building a healthy body. We will continue the theme of ‘sugar’ and specifically consider tactics to reduce sugar consumption, as well as a model of overall good nutrition. Not only does our food feed our bodies, but it also feeds our brains and is one of the core foundations for optimal performance.

Eating better will increase your productivity and wellbeing!

We all know that we feel better when we eat better…

Good nutrition and healthy eating are about more than weight loss. Good eating habits improve your wellbeing, your mood, your productivity, your focus, and your happiness.

Extensive research studies (too many to list and too many to count)…confirm that the food we eat impacts our health

“Employees with unhealthy diets were 66% more likely to report a productivity loss than healthy eaters” - Brigham University research

World-leading nutrition advice

“Our diet and lifestyle programs have been developed to improve healthy lifestyle behaviours. These include improving diets and physical activity to enhance wellbeing and reduce the risk of obesity or manage chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.” CSIRO

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), Australia’s national science agency has conducted research that has led to the creation of world-leading diet and lifestyle programs to improve healthy lifestyle behaviours. Their findings indicate that by improving diets and getting more physical activity people can expect enhanced wellbeing; reduced risks of obesity; and other chronic diseases including Type 2 Diabetes.

I’ve included links to both their nutrition research and their diet and lifestyle programs. It’s worth taking the time for a deep dive into the information provided and then using it to develop your own improved eating plan.

I prefer not to think of ‘diets’ as these tend to conjure up ideas of nutritional deprivation. For me, nutrition is about having a healthy eating plan that is a natural part of your lifestyle and supports good health, as well as optimal physical and mental performance. It’s all about a commonsense approach.

Links to CSIRO eating plans and research –

1. Nutrition - CSIRO
2. Diets - CSIRO
3. The CSIRO Low-Carb Diet Health Program - CSIRO
4. The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet - CSIRO
5. The CSIRO Healthy Gut Diet - CSIRO
6. CSIRO Protein Plus Nutrition and Exercise Plan - CSIRO
7. CSIRO Women's Health and Nutrition Guide - CSIRO

The CSIRO has found these specific foods improve brain function –

• Folate found in beans and greens
• Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish
• Vitamin C found in berries and citrus
• Vitamin E found in nuts and vegetable oils

This small list supports the importance of highly nutritious food and those high in good fats. Low-fat diets of recent decades have definitely been debunked.

Why am I interested in reducing sugar consumption?

The primary reason that I felt compelled to write on the topic of sugar addiction is that around 6 years ago I went almost completely processed cane sugar-free. Then over the last 2 years, it has insidiously crept its way back into my life due to momentous life changes and on-going mild levels of stress.

With the move into Spring for me this year, I have undertaken a habit audit and review and one of the major commitments I am making is to get back to sugar-free and stay that way.

Sugar-free for me means –

• Not having food in my home with processed cane sugar or alternatives such as corn syrup, beet sugar etc.
• Not buying or eating food when I am out on a normal day that contains the same forms of processed sugar
• Enjoying a wide variety of naturally occurring sugar in food that has been minimally processed
• Cooking nutritious meals for myself instead of reaching for processed meals
• Doing meal preparation and taking my own healthy snacks whenever I am out and about
• Occasionally choosing to eat sugar as part of a celebration meal or special eating experience, and when I go to friends' houses for a lovely meal

I know that for me to be able to live my best life and maintain peak performance, then I absolutely need to severely limit sugar consumption. I still enjoy the occasional amazing dessert as part of a gourmet dining experience, or when I go to someone’s home for dinner. The rest of the time I make it hard to access sugar, and super easy to eat more healthily overall so that I can squash any cravings.

Tactics to reduce sugar consumption

Beating sugar addiction or more generally reducing sugar consumption requires the application of willpower and an adjustment to existing habits. It is necessary to replace current poor habits with new and better ones.

We know from James Clear’s Atomic Habits Cheat Sheet that I share a few weeks ago, that there are 4 laws of habit change that support us to create good habits, these are –

1. Make it obvious
2. Make it attractive
3. Make it easy
4. Make it satisfying

Breaking bad habits requires an opposite approach to the application of these 4 laws. James refers to this as inversions of the laws –

1. Make it invisible
2. Make it unattractive
3. Make it difficult
4. Make it unsatisfying

Breaking bad sugar habits

This is what I do to break my bad sugar habits –

• Make sure I have nothing with added sugar in my house, apart from the odd condiment such as seeded mustard
• Do online shopping and never put anything with added sugar into my cart
• Ban those super yummy gluten-free shortbreads that I LOVE from my house
• Talk to all my friends about my sugar-free status so that there are disapproving looks when I hover over something with added sugar
• Specific my dietary requirements when travelling and eating out as BOT gluten and sugar-free – it’s amazing what some restaurants will come up with when faced with this challenge
• My Mum is under strict instructions to never buy me sweet treats or chocolate
• I eat a low carbohydrate diet, high in good fats which is a combination of Atkins and Paleo. This is so satisfying and decadent that I tend to lose my sugar cravings after a week once I’m back on track

These are some of the tactics I employ to create good habits and reduce sugar consumption –

• Allow myself healthy sugar-free treats – the most indulgent are sugar-free dark chocolate covered almonds, the Atkins sugar-free chocolate with peppermint crips, and an amazing brand of gluten and sugar-free doughnuts in single-serve packages called Noshu. I’d eat one of these treats on average every day after going to the gym. This is also an example of habit stacking – go and work out and then I can have a sugar-free treat.
• Take the vast majority of my food with me when I am out and about. I very rarely buy any pre-prepared or takeaway food.
• I’ve never liked or drank soft drinks or cordial, so I have an alternate and yummy drink that I sip on throughout the day that takes its place – I dilute sparkling water with pure cherry or pure pomegranate juice to get some extra vitamins and have a satisfying drink with no sugar
• I also drink up to 6 large mugs of herbal tea daily; some of these are naturally sweet tasting with natural sugar-free flavours such as Vanilla, Cardamon, Strawberry, and Mulberries. Yummy stuff!

Summing it all up…

Summing it all up, the latest science back nutritional advice boils down to the following key elements –

1. avoid all highly processed foods as these are often devoid of nutritional value.
2. eliminate artificial foods, chemicals, and additives.
3. eat as close to nature as possible.
4. eat fewer carbohydrates – pasta, processed grains, sugar, confectionery, baked goods.
5. eat more – good oils (coconut, extra virgin olive oil), more nuts (any variety in moderation), more protein, more avocadoes, more fatty fish, more eggs, and very dark chocolate or pure cacao.

Find out more…

The key message from this newsletter is eat less sugar if you want to improve your wellbeing, performance, and happiness.

Module 4 of The POSITIVE Lawyer online learning and coaching program provides a summary of good foundations to support energy and focus, all designed to help you optimise your performance.

For a peak at what’s inside, you can book me for a FREE 30-minute coaching call. What are you waiting for, book in NOW.

OR, buy The POSITIVE Lawyer Mindset book for some great tools and techniques.

My aim is to inspire you to transform your working life and achieve great things and I look forward to joining you on your journey!