22 Years of the TB12 Diet

Its the best night of the week for sports fans. Playoff baseball, NBA basketball, and NFL football all on a Thursday night. In addition, the NHL is starting real games and World Cup soccer games are also on nightly. Majestic, entertaining, and beautiful all in one; its perfect. There is one sport and person I wanted to focus on today and that's Tom Edward Brady. The Bucs play tonight which means we will see the best football player ever play one more time. I would say its coming to an end, but he may beat Father Time at this rate...

Each time he plays, we hear it all: the wins, the rings, the drive, the age, and the diet. Wait, the diet? Yes, his food routine may be the most unique aspect to him which is saying something. For those who don't know, Tom Brady is 44 years old playing football like he's 25. In fact, he looks younger and quicker than ever and his play substantiates that. His outspoken secret? His TB12 diet.

The casual sports fan probably has no idea what it is or what it's about. I attached a link below to Men's Health that explains it more in depth, and its fascinating to see the day to day decisions.¹ Rules such as no white looking foods, no anti-inflammatory foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, and a combination of ancient philosophies help him perform at the highest level possible. I recommend the 5 minute read. 

So if it works for him, why is no one else doing it (or at least saying it publicly)? Lack of discipline is one reason, but the other is what I consider to be "all-or-nothing" failure.  We emphasize setting a goal and achieving it by whatever means necessary. Seems fine on the surface until you realize how difficult this concept is to realize. Not all goals are easy, quick, or stress-free. They may require sacrifices that are too great to do all at once. Yet, we keep approaching problems with this mindset and the same results follow.

We should be approaching goals or problems like a multi-step math equation, almost creating a ladder where each prong represents a step to the end goal. Let's take learning finance skills to pass the CFA as our example. If your end goal is to just pass the test, you will get overwhelmed and struggle to grasp each concept due to the information overload. You will fail relatively early on as well, and now your career plans are upended. However, what if you set up your process in a different way. What if you set each part of the test along with individual concepts as a daily or weekly goal instead. What if you tried to learn a little each day by setting a 30 minute study timer. Your daily goal isn't to learn all of finance, it's one concept. You can see the results play out along the way. Morale is boosted and you feel invincible.

How does this relate to TB12 dieting? It means Tom Brady didn't become Tom Brady in one night or one season. Its the process and using little steps to see a great goal play out. We often hear cliché quotes about how "Rome wasn't built in a day" or "failure breads success" but they have no meaning without understanding the process behind it. 

Start setting your goals out by step rather than end result. Keep your confidence up and invested in what you want to achieve. And don't forget to enjoy little things at points too. After all, if Tom Brady's cheat food is pizza, you can certainly do the same thing.

Links:

1. Men's Health: https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19535249/tom-brady-reveals-insane-diet-in-new-book/