3 Audible.co.uk Fitness Mindset Book Recommendations

Need some audio book recommendations? If you’re interested in human psychology (as it relates to healthy living, fitness, nutrition), habits, mindset, and nutritional science, check out my three recent favourites.

If you haven’t got an Audible.co.uk account, sign up! Listening to audiobooks is a great way to actually “read” (if I didn’t listen to audio versions, I’d only get through about 25% of the amount of books). If you like the book enough, or think you want a paper copy so you can mark it up, you can just buy it afterwards.

Most of my Audible library is non-fiction books about sport psychology, mindset, productivity, nutritional science, and human behaviour.

(I also listen to fiction – I think it’s important for copywriters to read/listen to a wide range of writing – and I just finished “The Tiger’s Wife” by Téa Obreht – the youngest winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. It was AMAZING and I’d thoroughly recommend it. I was bereft when the nice Audible man said the familiar “Audible hopes you have enjoyed this programme…”)

Mindset, Carol Dweck

Mindset presents a huge body of research in a very accessible way. It’s fascinating, but practical too. It centres around “growth” and “fixed” mindsets and how they can either limit us or help us set goals and achieve incredible things. The book is split into four sections: mindset relating to business, sport, parenting, and relationships. It turns out that our mindset isn’t set in stone, and this book gives plenty of practical tips for changing yours, once you’ve identified how it could be holding you back. There are lots of interesting case studies (some very famous – listen to the Sports section and you’ll get the distinct impression that Dweck is not a McEnroe fan!) Dweck looks at how our individual mindset is shaped by – and starts to develop – in childhood, but makes it clear that there’s plenty we can do at any age to change it. I imagine this book would be an interesting listen for business and sports coaches, parents, business owners and entrepreneurs, and anybody wanting to get more from life. I’ve recommended this book to so many people!

Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink

The title Mindless Eating is a bit misleading – it’s by no means just about mindless eating. In fact, it’s about how our food choices, behaviours, and habits (good and not-so-good) are shaped by our home and work environments, and of course by restaurants, shops, advertising, and food industry marketing. Even if you think you are totally clued up about how the food industry works, you’ll be stunned by some of the findings. If you want to change your food behaviours, or if you just find the psychology of food and eating interesting, you’ll love this book. It’s grounded in research but is very engaging and actually very funny (I’ve heard Wansink on a few podcasts and he’s hilarious). Learn about the “halo effect” of so-called healthy foods and healthy living fads, discover the hidden cues that probably affect you every day, and get clued up on ways you can redesign your environment to help you be more in control of how much you eat. I bet this book will change the way you look at food, eating, shops, restaurants, and even your own kitchen – in a good way!

The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal.

I’m still listening to The Willpower Instinct but I’d recommend it already. The title is slightly tongue-in-cheek, because McGonigal argues that “willpower” isn’t actually set in stone. In fact, she presents the idea of “I will”, “I won’t” and “I want” powers instead. This book is about the science of self-control and can be applied to any habit you want to change. You’ll hear about what willpower is (and isn’t), and how it’s actually a biological function, not a virtue to be boasted about or longed for. The book sets out simple ways to identify things in your life that make “willpower” difficult, and ways to improve your environment and reactions so you are more successful at achieving your desired responses and actions. Each chapter has an exercise you can do (based on McGonigal’s popular Science Of Willpower course at Stanford University). You can listen to the book straight through and pick the exercises which will best help you, or work through it methodically and do each exercise in turn. Either way, I bet you’ll find it fascinating.

Have you listened to (or even actually read!) any of these? What did you think?

3 Audible.co.uk Fitness Mindset Book Recommendations is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.

Differences between years 1-4 of bodybuilding preps

After writing my prep-update post the other day, I started thinking about the differences between my prep these days and how it was in my first year. Not training or diet, but mindset and generally how prep affects my life (or perhaps rather how life responds to prep?) It really is quite different, and all in a good way.

What’s different in my fourth year?

The Box
I used to have a box.. no, not a box, The Box. It was such a significant part of my prep that I used title case when referring to it (and anyone who knows me as a copywriter will realise how it pains me to do that!) The Box was a cardboard box (a large one) full of foods I’d bought during prep in order to eat afterwards. All sorts of shit. Over-priced imported American cereal. Pop Tarts. Peanut butter anything. American candy. Oh… all sorts of stuff. I don’t even know. By the time prep was over, I didn’t even remember buying most of it. And, of course, I ended up breaking into The Box more than once during prep.

Funny story about The Box v2 (2012 prep). I struggled so hard to stay away from it that, during my divorce, whilst my ex and I were separated and I was still in the house, I actually locked The Box in the shed and asked him to come to the house and take the key away. Whilst we were getting divorced. Yeah… priorities…

I do not have The Box this year. Or even a box. I just… don’t.

Post-comp eats lists
I also used to keep a list (2011: a Word doc, 2012: a page in my journal) where I’d write down meals, recipes, food combinations that I’d eat after my final comp. The reasoning was that if I wrote it down, it would be out of my head (and that I’d remember it – because, obviously, eating a toasted cheese sandwich with crisps inside is information of paramount importance which simply must be recalled at a later date). I… don’t have a list this year.

Cravings
No cravings this year. Hand on heart. I don’t know if this is because I’ve finally found a way of dieting which satisfies my taste buds (and my micro nutrient requirements!) so my body isn’t trying to tell me anything. Or whether it’s because I’m so damn focused on my actual goals in this sport that psychological cravings mean nothing to me. I don’t know. I haven’t tried not to have any. I haven’t done anything to stop having any. I just don’t have any. Maybe it’s because, finally, I realise that 99% of foods on this planet will still be in shops, cafes and restaurants when I can relax my diet. Look, ma, I’m all grown up! 😉

Obsessive thoughts about food, eating out, meals I’ll make, things I’ll buy/eat

Similar to the list I guess. I used to just think so much about foods I’d eat, cakes I’d have at coffee shops, even things I’d buy from service stations (I know… what?!) I don’t do that now. About the only thing I am doing is really looking forward to going out for nice meals with family (Sissie – I’d love to go for a burger at The Nutmeg with you and brosephine!), going on dates where I don’t have to act like a saddo and ask for modified versions of things on the menu, and lingering over home-cooked meals with my Dad and my Mum.

Stock-piling
Similar to The Box. I used to stockpile foods, not even stuff you’d call “bad” foods, but things I still couldn’t really eat at the sharp end of a prep diet. Why? It’s not like Tesco is going to run out of muesli any time soon. My cupboards/fridge/freezer now just feature the food I eat at the moment. I haven’t even got anything stashed away in the freezer. I just can’t be arsed. If the apocalypse comes and all the food in the world gets blown up, I guess I won’t be here to worry about it anyway.

Focus and goal setting
I’m more focused this year. I was always focused (those who know me from a certain squeaky-clean, bubbly online forum 😉 will recall that I had a forum journal back in 2011 called “Operation Pro Card”… haha!) But my focus is different this year. It’s more… focusy. It’s narrower, yet calmer somehow. Perhaps because I understand the structure of the sport a little better, and I know what I actually want.

Sleep
I’m sleeping soooo much better. I used to wake most nights during prep (not the whole thing, the final 6 weeks onwards I guess) at exactly the same time every night. I never knew if it was down to hunger, cravings, wonky hormones, or my dreadful habit of reading food blogs (!!!) on my iPhone in bed at night (I no longer do that, either). But I sleep all night through now, 99% of the time anyway. My personal life is very different now to how it was during my first two preps, which certainly helps. Anyway – I’m not going to question it. Just be thankful for it. I love sleeping! 😀

Reading
On that note, I read a lot of blogs and online articles (occupational hazard!) Back during my first prep, almost all of the blogs I read were foodie ones. Recipe blogs, food blogs, “healthy living” blogs which frankly were anything but. I don’t read any of those any more. I read competitors’ blogs, yes, but not the ones which are mostly about terrible low-calorie “recipes” and borderline eating disorders. And not the ones full of cheat meals and other things which would often just trigger me into The Box or the post-comp eats list activity. I read loads of mindset blogs, strongwoman blogs, feminism blogs (hollah), writing blogs, funny/comedy blogs, blogs of my friends… lots of stuff. But not food.

Pinterest
Oh lord. Pinterest. I used to spend hours on damn Pinterest, pinning things I’d make (I never did), places I’d eat (I never went) and things I’d buy (I often did… they went into The Box). The boards are still there… peanut butter, cinnamon, banana bread, cereal (yes I had individual boards for those niche topics). I haven’t been on for ages, to pin or to browse. Partly because I CBA, and partly because I am aware that gazing upon pictures of peanut butter muffins with cinnamon buttercream and pretzel crumb topping is just a mental temptation I can do without.

Journalling
I’ve always journalled (have kept a personal diary since I was eight years old) and have always kept a training/food/mindset type journal during my bodybuilding preps. But these days I also keep a “me” type journal. I write a page every single morning before I get out of bed. I love this practice. I swear it’s helping, or perhaps I’m doing it because other things have changed. I’m not sure which came first.

To those of you in your second (or more!) year of competitive bodybuilding, what differences have you noticed since your very first diet/competition? Until I wrote this post, I hadn’t realised how far I’ve come and how much my mindset has changed. I can’t wait for my fifth (sixth… tenth… ?) year competing! 🙂

Differences between years 1-4 of bodybuilding preps is a post from The Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.