Today I’d like to myth-bust this idea that achieving optimal health has to be a precision endeavor. We rely on precision in our everyday lives. However, when it comes to our physiology, precision can actually stop us reaching our peak health and performance.
We Need Metrics
One seminal tool we use as humans is quantification through numbers and math. This tool is so embedded in our modern lives, we take it for granted as a de facto part of our existence . . . what I call the “manmade construct”, because harnessing metrics as a frame of reference allows us to be precise. This precision allows us to replicate, and in the world of all things manmade, like money, objects we engineer, manufacture, build or produce, this strict adherence to precision has enriched our lives and moved Humanity forward.
Why Some Metrics Don’t Work in Biology
The problem is biology doesn’t work this way. Nature and natural systems do not use metrics to operate. There is no blueprint for your DNA, and how that unique set of DNA you were bequeathed by the union of your biological parents will express itself (given the infinite variables).
In the age of modern Computer Technology our Technological Hubris has deluded us into abandoning this very basic fact, and it will have devastating consequences if we do not find the balance. This takes me right back to myth busting our attempts to make so many aspects of health and performance precise.
Precision diet, nutrition, fueling, training and competing simply set you up for failure in the long run, and the stress of chasing numbers in a constantly changing world is a recipe for insanity. It’s like watching the Type A Ironman Triathlete come unraveled when things don’t go ‘precisely’ as planned during their race. When their 400 calories/4 gels per hour on the bike race plan results in GI issues, vomiting, dehydration, under-fueling, bonking and a DNF. See what I mean? Maybe you know someone like that? Maybe it’s you?
Or the Keto enthusiast who calculates their macros to the Nth degree and counts the calories of each macro, and God help him/her if a teaspoon of refined sugar sneaks in under the radar. Or the ‘Clean’ eater who has to have non-GMO, Certified Organic, Locally Grown grass fed, Gluten-Free, Pesticide Free, Carbon Neutral foods from Whole Foods, which he/she had to drive 40 minutes to when there was a Kroger’s 5 minutes away from their home.
“Precision Stress” Is Not Good For Your Physiology
The truth is the underlying physiology of chronic stress from living this way has way more negative impact upon these sorts of people, than that teaspoon of sugar or getting your fresh whole foods from the local supermarket.
Do you need to restrict and manage your carb intake and eat healthy wholefoods? Of course, but in the quest for perfection we lose sight of the actual goal; a doable and sustainable way to higher health and peak performance.
The Right Place For Metrics
Science seeks to understand rather than know. Here is where metrics and modern technology can help us in our understanding, and to guide us forward in our quest for higher health and peak performance. This is a nuanced difference but a vital one to understand.
Understanding is dynamic and fungible, while knowing is a rigid static state. The only thing I ‘know’ related to this are that:
1) Life ebbs & flows and can be messy and complicated no matter how’together’ one has it.
2) Life is in a constant state of motion.
3) And,most of all, Life is meant to be lived.
We have to find the balance, YOUR balance, and this is anything but precise because precision, by definition, is a static state whereas balance is a dynamic state. Living things are in a dynamic state. YOU are dynamic!
Combining Science with a Non-Precision Approach
This is why our way of coaching is ‘non-precision’ . . . we take our deep understanding of the science of optimal fat metabolism, and make it ‘doable’ in the context of your life so it becomes habit thus sustainable in the long run.
I’ll leave you with that well known aphorism: “Perfection is the enemy of the good” This is how a non-precision approach can help you reach your goals of higher health and peak performance.
If you’d like to learn more about our unconventional ‘non-precision’ approach to reaching your health, wellness and performance goals book a ‘Get Acquainted Call’ with one of our Coaches to see how we can help.
