Build the Base
Posted on January 06, 2019
This Tuesday, Duratus will be starting a 6-week health and wellness series called “Build the Base”. Below is an illustration of a pyramid showing the layers of overall fitness needed to build our General Physical Preparedness (GPP).
At the bottom is the base for all other aspects of what we strive towards in the gym, nutrition. Without nutrition as our base, all other layers of the pyramid are unable to sustain themselves long term. Building this base is much easier said than done. We understand that nutrition is one of the hardest layers of the pyramid to implement sustainably into a lifestyle. It’s often much easier to work and strive towards goals in the middle 3 layers of the pyramid (conditioning, gymnastics, and weightlifting) than to prepare a balanced and nutrient dense meal 3 times a day seven days a week.
Nutritional discipline requires foresight and preparedness, especially considering the other elements of our lives that require our attention. Wherever you are at with your nutrition, you can always grow and improve routine and habits to continue to build the base. This is not to say that building the base of your personal fitness is easy, but it is definitely worth the time and effort. Developing a strong base will not only increase your performance in the gym, it is also the best way to ensure your mental and physical well-being long term.
This is not about establishing better habits for the next couple of months. It’s about building a base for something that will be foundational to your lifestyle long term. As with many disciplines, it will begin with little changes in your nutrition that will eventually become part of your everyday routine. Not a diet, not a fad, and certainly not a fast weight loss program. Those things aren’t sustainable. Just small habit changes that will continue to build the base, so it is strong enough to support all of the hard work that is put in to developing the layers above.
For the next 6 weeks, the Dūrātus “Build the Base” series will focus on applicable healthy nutritional habits that we believe can be implemented long term into your lifestyle. Each week, we will have one nutrition related habit to add to your diet and one to remove. There will be a short post with some information behind the two habits and helpful tips for you to take into the week. As the weeks continue to progress we will encourage you to keep working on the habits from the previous week, while layering your life with the new suggestions.
What we will be providing are general suggestions with the full understanding that “Building the Base” is always nuanced for each individual. Everyone is on their own journey and will be approaching the suggestions at different levels. If one habit is to add in more veggies, that will mean different things to every single person.
With that said, the coaching staff at Duratus is here to help. If you have any questions about what any of these habits look like in your life, please don’t hesitate to ask one of us for further guidance. Keep in mind, none of the coaches are qualified nutritionists, but we do understand the importance and steps it takes to create habits in our own lives to build a healthy base, and all of us are still building our own personal bases as well. Pick a coach that you feel most comfortable with and have them be your go-to when any questions come up through the next 6 weeks.
We hope that you will join us in Duratus’ “Build the Base” series and that these habits will continue even after this is complete.
Please let us know if you have any questions.