You have to keep in mind who you’re learning health and nutrition information from. If you are trying to change your physique and you’re following people who are really advanced and they’re already very lean, have already been lifting properly for several years, and they’re talking about their habits are what they have to do to get results. That is going to leave you feeling very overwhelmed.
Now I spent several months in Bali two years ago, and the fitness culture is really big there, the bodybuilding culture. People there are serious about that . It was the first time I had really been exposed to that kind of environment. Made me realize, 1, that life is not for me, but 2, they were very dialed in and focused on every aspect of their lifestyle, their nutrition, their fitness. Cuz their goals were to step on stage and to be really competitive with the top in the industry. Now a lot of people in their audience are also in that realm, but a lot of them are just general people like you and me. And what I used to think when I would look at people like that is saying, oh my gosh, I need to weigh, track and measure every single thing. I have to be monitoring every aspect of supplements and my sleep and I need to be track making steps and blah, blah, blah. Reality is they need to get that intense in order to get further results, whereas the rest of us need to just focus on the nuts and bolts and use some common sets.
So step 1, general lifestyle habits. After you have a healthy relationship with food, do you resistance train full body two to three times a week? Do you get up and move often throughout the day? Are you eating enough protein? If you want to build muscle and maintain it, just a casual calorie deficit. These things do not need to consume your life. In fact, they shouldn’t. You can and should live a very normal life. I understand most of society doesn’t live in these healthy ways, but hopefully you catch my drift. Go out to eat, socialize, engage with people around. You should not be able to tell you’re dieting because remember, you’re not a professional bodybuilder. You could still get leaner up to a certain point, of course.