“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
I’m sure you’ve heard that saying before but have you ever connected it to your fitness journey?
Yesterday I made a post on IG that was inspired by a thought that Mel had with regards to missing a workout.
She was explaining to me how so many people think that when they miss a workout, they’re sabotaging their fat loss efforts.
Keep in mind, these are often people who are training 5 or 6 days per week.
The gist of the post was that working out isn’t really much of a driver for weight loss.
When it comes to weight loss, nutrition will drive most of those results.
When it comes to maintaining muscle, strength training and protein will drive most of those results.
And when it comes to calories burned, walking and daily movement will drive most of those results (well, technically, your BMR will be the largest factor but I’m referencing the part that we have more control over).
The reason this is important is because it tells you the roll that each part plays in the overall ecosystem of your health and body composition goals.
Training plays a role in your body composition goals but it’s not the ONLY thing that matters.
If you know that training plays the role of muscle maintenance, hormone health, strength and confidence, bone density and joint health, and improved metabolic function … then you can keep things in perspective.
Because none of those things can be accomplished if you’re doing too much. If you’re over training or under recovering.
So you can stop worrying about sabotaging your fat loss goals by missing 1 day at the gym.
In fact, JK and I were chatting the other day about how most people thrive on training 3-4 days per week.
Many of the benefits listed above can even be achieved with 2 days per week.
The people that can get away with training 5, 6, or 7 days often eat and live to make that doable.
For example, athletes whose sole job is to get better at their sport. So they eat a lot, recover a lot, and train a lot.
The average person who deals with the daily stressors of life is typically going to thrive in that 3-5 days per week range (more likely 3-4 days).
Because allowing for better recovery and stress management plays into the concept of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
This whole health journey is like an ecosystem.
An ecosystem is defined as “A system that includes all living organisms (biotic factors) in an area as well as its physical environment (abiotic factors) functioning together as a unit.”
I think of how trees grow tall to get sunlight and provide shade for animals and each animal has a role in the ecosystem (excuse the poor example lol but I think you catch my drift).
Similarly, our health is an ecosystem where each part influences the others.
It’s easy to only focus on the training and nutrition parts. But then we miss the mental and emotional parts. Or we miss the environmental parts.
Your environment can influence your behaviors and actions like deciding to go for a walk or not. Or deciding to eat foods that make you feel your best or not.
Moving your body and eating well also influence your mental and emotional health which influences your decision making which influences your ability to continue to eat well and move. This then influences your sleep and recovery, which influences your metabolism and hormones, which influences your mental and emotional health.
If we drew a diagram, you would see each part connected to every other part with arrows pointing in all directions because you can’t isolate components of health.
When I was my leanest, I was my least healthy. I was also my least happy.
Many people join our coaching program thinking that it’s just about what to eat and how to train.
I get it. That’s how most programs operate.
It should come as no surprise that most programs don’t work long term.
Our 1:1 coaching program is about more than just training and nutrition.
We focus on the entire ecosystem because that’s the only way to make it last. At least in my opinion.
I’m open to being wrong, but I’ve just seen too many people struggle playing the purely physical game and have also witnessed an incredible amount of success when we understand the ecosystem as a whole.
If you just want someone to give you a nutrition plan and a training program and send you on your way … we are not for you.
If you want someone to help you connect all the dots so you can thrive and flourish … that’s kind of our jam.
Do with that information as you wish.
