Nutrient Rich healthy eating, is almost an unknown idea, because it’s a zone of eating, that is unique. It’s where you actually eat  naturally, whole (plant based) nutrient-rich foods, in a successful way, 90% of the time or more. If you look at how most people eat, they are eating 90% or more nutrient poor foods only to find themselves stuck, suffering the consequences of a no-doubt great tasting, yet standard American diet (SAD) and hopping from one weight loss only diet to the next trying to deal with those consequences which are of of course, the obesity and health complications that so many people think are the natural effects of aging, but are really due to a nutrient-poor diet.

Weight loss only diets are usually never healthy, because they are only focused on helping you lose weight, not get healthy which is the key to living at a your ideal weight to start with. So low cal, and low carb / high animal protein, and low fat, and eating less… all while exercising more are the status quo when it comes to weight loss. And none of them work, or for long. Not only are each of these strategies narrow minded, short term and unhealthy, but even when they do promote weight loss the body soon adapts or due to it’s unsustainable nature it cannot be continued.

What’s so amazing is what happens next… people start to eating healthier when they finally stop eating the standard American diet and dieting, (eating less or manipulating protein, fat and carbs). Yet, they get trapped eating half-baked healthier diets with foods that may be plant based, gluten-free, vegan, low glycemic, raw, a nourishing tradition, or the way apes eat all day in some extreme way…

What happens is they end up eating what is emerging as the new Standard American Diet, which are foods that are better, more plant based, but are still processed and full of refined and added sugar, salt and oil, prepared in addicting, highly concentrated ways, processed and prepared so that the original nutrient integrity is not there. This is not nutrient rich healthy eating.

Nutrient Rich healthy eating is when you are eating foods in the natural state, or as close to it as possible in a way that maximizes nutrients, is appropriate in calories and is great tasting; with half-baked healthier foods as the fall back plan if you can’t get the best, not the target way to eat. Nutrient Rich healthy eating is should be the target way to eat for us all.

All Healthy High Achievers have Performance Lifestyles!

1] You establish a practical spiritual context for who you are, why and how to fully engage with the world, not longer encumbered by the negative influences of your ego.

2] You get your life into alignment, meaning: the way your life is structured, you lifestyle and your goals.

3] You no longer misinterpret uncomfortable emotions, fatigue, stress and fatigue as you evolve.

4] You learn how to story your life around what you want, not what you don’t want

5] You stop making goals out of lifestyle proficiencies like eating better and exercising, (these are not goals) and improve your lifestyle so that you can better achieve your life, business and sporting goals.

6] You get so clear on your goals, you know what to fully engage on.

7] You have a better quality of life.

First, let’s get clear on the terms. What is spirituality? (in practical terms)

Spirituality is not an area of your life or lifestyle, nor is it’s practice one of the 12 proficiencies you need to know to become a pro at living healthy and higher achievement; it is more than all of that. All Performance Lifestyle proficiencies are empowered greatly by a practical spiritual context and practice, including meditation.

Spirituality is the context from which you live your life.

It’s not religion or an “ism” of any kind, and it’s not escaping from your life to attain some kind of impractical enlightenment that may work for some very poor person with no attachments, or a rich person with the resources to quickly change or escape circumstances to do whatever she pleases; both of whom can more easily leave their life as they know it and sit on a rock with their legs crossed, transcending the real world in pure awareness.

Practical spirituality, does not require you to leave the life you live, although you will come to know your life from a whole new place.

It is, a context for who you really are, why and how to more fully engage with the world unencumbered and no longer at the mercy of the ego’s past.

We already speak of life at the next level as relative freedom from the hidden lifestyle challenges that hold you back. But is there something behind all the hidden challenges? Deeper than the alignment of how your life is structured, proficiency in the Lifestyle skills, and the direction and clarity of your goals?

Every aspect of a Performance Lifestyle is guided by your spiritual context. If you don’t have a practical spiritual context from which to live from you will be held back with the biggest challenge of all; not knowing who you are, why and how to fully more engage in the world.

When I first started teaching Performance Lifestyle I was on a quest to resolve many of my own hidden lifestyle challenges as I helped others resolve theirs. I was desperate for answers and I knew others were too; so what better way to get answers than lead the charge towards a better way of life.

What I never factored in, was an understanding of spiritual enlightenment and it’s practical purpose for living better.

Bringing Performance Lifestyle model together would take longer than I would have thought and mostly because of an unenlightened perspective and the encumbrances of my own ego. As I did, many people asked about spirituality, and if a Performance Lifestyle included spirituality in any way. The best answer I could deliver was “it’s all spiritual”.

Even early on, I knew that a practical spiritual context was the basis of the Lifestyle that would work for you, only I was unable to explain it in much depth and frankly wasn’t sure I quite embodied it yet.

I myself had big issues here, living out of ego riddled with distorted thinking; the whole concept of spirituality was confusing for me; a mix of religious dogma, flightiness and philosophy with no context that really made sense.

That’s why I co-authored the book. The Curse of the Capable, “change your story“, to help myself and others improve their psychological self identity (ego) from negative to positive and more supportive of what they want. In that book, we introduced a 4-stage process for changing any inaccurate or unsupportive story(s) you have about your life, to one (s) that supports you, what you want and how you want to feel. This opened up the door for more conscious creation as you move forward in life.

The book, ended with the concept of the spiritual learner who stays open-minded and learning from all relevant sources, so as not to get stuck again with stories (philosophies, rules, and values…) that just don’t work for you. But while the feeling of freedom and peace of mind increased substantially with greater resolution and evolution of the psychological self, the feeling of complete liberation was still hard to find. And that, is what I have learned is why you also want a practical spiritual context, so that liberation and complete freedom is attainable… even the middle of a busy day.

As my spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen states, “freedom has no history”.

I was able to succeed at making massive lifestyle improvements even without a truly enlightened spiritual context, particularly in the positive self psychology I created by changing so many of the unsupport5ive stories in my mind; but the ease at which such changes could be made and a true feeling of wellness did not kick in until a practical spiritual context was established; knowing where I was coming from, where I was headed and why.

Today, the clearer I now become on the spiritual context of my life, the easier life get’s, even amidst the incredible challenging times that everyone is experiencing.

Do you need to change your spiritual context to get your lifestyle working better for you?

No, but remember a practical spiritual context is not a new religion, or some impractical approach to enlightenment that only those with little to no worldly attachments or with enough resources to exit life can maintain; where the only answer is simply to meditate more.

Don’t get me wrong, meditation is very important in life, now matter what your lifestyle, but having a deeper spiritual context or framework within which to live, that explains nothing less than who you really are, why and how to fully engage in the world will drive you right. In a world where people drive themselves into the ground that’s a pretty welcome potential. Don’t you think?

You must admit, even if you don’t know what I’m saying 100%, if you were to know who you really are, why and how to engage fully in the world unencumbered by the negative influences of your ego, you would be much more inclined to improve your lifestyle, wouldn’t you?

Believe me, you would.

It’s all about keeping your goals to yourself.

We’ve all done it and been told by hundreds of guru’s to declare our goals to our friends and get “leverage” on ourselves. Meanwhile this seemingly powerful idea, is preventing you from achieving your goals.

Yes, the problem is, you get the accolades before you’ve actually accomplished the goal and this kills your motivation.

Now imagine how you feel when secretly you know that impressing others with a goal completed is waiting for you in the near future.

How motivated are you?

Very.

See the video below with Derek Sivers.

Now about the only exception I can think of at this time, is this:

You have to tell some people your goals, like your associates and those who have a stake in it. Just don’t tell those people you want to impress. Therein lies your motivation.

This is why sports are such a great learning tool, especially when it comes to living a PerformanceLifestyle.
Heather Dorniden shows us what it looks like to keep your story straight (in your head), when things aren’t going well.

Here at PerformanceLifestyle.com we have been acknowledging the culture of achievement for sometime, because it has thrown most people’s lifestyles into a tailspin with overwhelm and burnout leading to overweight and health complications.

Simply put, your lifestyle is the way in which you achieve your goals and most people have never had lifestyle training, or coaching much the way an athlete would have to learn how to structure their lives, manage their energy, eat and train to achieve their goals.

The general public works longer, more consistently, and has to achieve more goals throughout the year than the typical athlete does under performance conditions, yet they don’t have anywhere near the level of lifestyle support that enables an athlete to function and perform as well as they do.

Hence, this is the reason why we don’t cater to athletes here at PerformanceLifestyle.com, but have opened up the Performance Lifestyle idea to the other 97% who may not be into sports or even a fitness enthusiast, but live in the culture of achievement and need to to change “improve” their lifestyle.

The benchmark is the PerformanceLifestyle formula above, but most people, including our children, have never learned the lifestyle mindset and skills set, and that’s why obesity and other dis-ease statistics keep going up and up in the wrong direction. We are driving ourselves so out of balance with a constant drive to achieve, that are bodies are not functioning and performing nearly as well as they could due to a depleted state.

That much change.

You can only burn the candle a both ends, eat nutrient poor food, be busy yet physically inactive and deal with all the unresolved issues that challenge you day to day and drive you to the point where you feel like you can’t stop to solve the real problem for so long before you run into real problems.

It’s happening with our kids and it creates performance addiction.

We think the need is to start living life at the next level where you buy into a new and improved set of concepts, and leave that old mentality behind. It’s the same mindset athletes and other healthy high achieving people have. It’s extra ordinary not overly exceptional, but you will appear “extraordinary” and exceptional without trying when you begin applying your rights to live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind so you can achieve even your most ambitious goals.

Key is, our kids need to learn this out of the gate, so they don’t run the race to nowhere!