the 3 things i'd focus on to build an athletic physique from scratch

a no-bs guide to building an athletic, strong body from zero: how to eat to fuel your training, lift around the seven movement patterns, and build the habits that actually make it stick.

if you handed me a blank slate tomorrow, took away the six years of training, the gym routine that runs on autopilot now, and told me to start over, i wouldn’t panic. i’d actually feel a little relieved. because i know now what took me years to figure out, and most of it is simpler than the fitness internet wants you to believe.

when i first started, i did everything backwards. i ate less, trained more, and treated my body like a problem to fix. i bought into the idea that getting in shape meant shrinking. it took me a long time to understand that an athletic body is not built on restriction. it’s built on fuel, consistency, and a handful of habits that are almost boring in how plain they are.

so here’s how i’d do it again, from zero.

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nutrition: eating to support your training, not to punish yourself

i’ll be honest with you. the biggest shift in my whole fitness life had nothing to do with a workout.

it was learning to eat enough.

for years i thought “healthy” meant tiny portions and constant low-grade hunger. i’d eat a sad lettuce salad (no carbs, not enough protein, no taste) and call it a meal, then wonder why my workouts felt like wading through mud and why i was thinking about food every fucking hour. the name of this newsletter is a joke and a confession at the same time. i spent so long fighting hunger that now i treat it like information. hungry usually means my body needs something, and that something is fuel.

if i started over, my plate would follow a simple shape. a clear protein source in every single meal. half the plate fruit and vegetables. the rest a mix of carbs and fats that i actually enjoy eating.

if you have no idea where to start with nutrition, i wrote a whole piece on it, with a step-by-step breakdown 📝

how to eat to gain muscle and lose fat (beginners friendly)

for the purpose of this article, i’ll just cover the basics.

protein first, because it’s the one most beginners undereat and the one that matters most for building muscle. protein is the raw material your body uses to repair and grow the tissue you break down when you train. i’m not precious about the source, i just make sure something protein-rich is on my plate before i build the rest of the meal around it.

then the produce. half the plate fruit and veg, because that’s where most of your fiber, water, and micronutrients live. and because it lets you eat a genuinely large amount of food for not many calories. this is the trick that changed how full and satisfied i feel: high volume. i’d rather eat a giant bowl that takes me twenty minutes to finish than a sad little portion i inhale in three bites and resent afterward.

my faves: big roasted vegetable bowls, fruit with yogurt, soups, air-fried veggies and potatoes, all sorts of veggies mixed with carb sources to add more volume for fewer calories (pasta, quinoa, rice, beans). and don’t forget the spices and condiments to bring flavor. all of these are delicious, nutritious foods you look forward to, not food you tolerate.

and whole foods most of the time. not all the time. i’m not interested in a version of fitness where you can never have a croissant, which would be both tragic and unsustainable. the “most of the time” is doing the heavy lifting here. if the bulk of what you eat is minimally processed and built around protein and produce, the occasional pastry or glass of wine doesn’t move the needle.

food is not the enemy of the body you want. it’s the thing that builds it. you cannot grow muscle, recover from training, or have the energy to be consistent if you’re running on fumes.

eat to support the work, not to apologize for existing.

training: full-body strength, built on movement patterns

if i started over, i would not walk into the gym and start doing random machines based on whatever was free. i did that for months and it got me nowhere except mildly sore and very confused.

i’d train three to four times a week, full body each session, and i’d build everything around seven movement patterns: squat, lunge, hinge, push, pull, carry, and rotate.

let me explain why patterns instead of body parts, because this is the thing i wish someone had told me on day one. your body doesn’t move in “biceps” and “abs.” it squats down to pick something up, it hinges at the hips to lift from the floor, it pushes things away, it pulls things toward you, it carries heavy bags up the stairs, it rotates to reach across. train the patterns and you train the whole functional, athletic body, not just the muscles that look good in a mirror.

for the first four weeks, i would chase one thing only: form. light weights, slow reps, paying attention to how each pattern actually feels. this is the most important phase of your program. spending four weeks learning to brace your core and move well is what lets you load heavy later without your lower back filing a complaint. i rushed this part the first time and paid for it with a tweaked back that set me back longer than four weeks ever would have.

then, for the next eight weeks, progressive overload. this is the engine of the entire thing, and it sounds fancier than it is. progressive overload just means gradually asking your muscles to do a little more over time. a little more weight, one more rep, one more set, better control. muscle grows in response to a demand it isn’t used to. if you lift the same weight for the same reps forever, your body has no reason to change. so you nudge it. last week you squatted 30 kilos for eight reps, this week you try for nine, or you add 2.5 kilos. small, steady, written down so you actually remember what you did. the notes app is your training partner.

cardio i’d treat as a tool, not a way to burn as many calories as possible. this is a big one for women especially, because so many of us were taught that cardio is how you earn your food or undo a meal.

i refuse to train that way anymore.

i run because it clears my head and because a strong heart and good aerobic fitness matter enormously for living a long, capable life. but you don’t need to run if you don’t like it. instead, add two or three moderate cardio sessions a week, the kind where you can still hold a conversation, plus maybe one harder effort. walking counts. cycling counts. dancing in your kitchen counts. it’s all movement that makes your body work better.

habits: the part you’re keep skipping (and the part that decides everything)

this is where most plans fall apart, and where i’d put more attention than i used to.

you can have the perfect meal plan and the perfect program, but if you sleep five hours, drink two glasses of water a day, and barely move outside the gym, none of it sticks. the habits around your training matter as much as the training. they’re just less exciting, so nobody sells courses on them.

the mistake i made, and the mistake i see everyone make, is trying to overhaul everything overnight. new diet, new program, 10,000 steps, three liters of water, eight hours of sleep, all starting monday. by thursday you’re exhausted and you quit, and then you decide you’re “just not disciplined.” you are disciplined. you just tried to change ten things at once, which nobody can do.

so i’d build from my real baseline, slowly. that means being honest about where you actually are, not where you think you should be.

if i currently walk 3,000 steps a day, my goal isn’t 10,000. it’s 4,000, then 5,000. water, same approach. if i barely drink any, i’m not going to suddenly chug three liters. i’d put a bottle on my desk and refill it twice. being even slightly dehydrated makes you tired, hungry, and weak in the gym. it’s the cheapest performance upgrade there is.

and sleep, which honestly might be the most important of all and the one i guarded least when i was younger. sleep is when your body actually repairs the muscle you trained and balances the hormones that control hunger and recovery. train hard and sleep badly and you’re pouring water into a leaky bucket. i’d pick one thing, a consistent bedtime, or no screens for the last hour before bed, and protect it like it matters. because it does.

the thread running through all of this is patience with yourself. pick one habit, get it steady, then add the next.

let’s wrap it up

if i had to start over, i wouldn’t try to be impressive. i’d eat enough, with protein and color on every plate. i’d lift full body a few times a week, learn the patterns, get my form right, then slowly add weight. i’d walk more, drink water, sleep like it’s part of the program, and i’d change one thing at a time instead of burning out trying to change all of them.

i already know someone is thinking, “how am i supposed to lift three times a week, add cardio, sleep eight hours, and get my steps in while having a job, kids, and an actual life?” i hear you, and i mean it. life gets hard, time is the one thing none of us have enough of, but hear me out.

if something matters to you, it’s worth giving it whatever you can, even when that isn’t much. if you don’t have the time to go all in right now, that’s completely fine. do what you can with what you have. you might not get the results you were hoping for, at least not as fast, but you’ll be building something anyway. i’m not going to pretend two workouts a week is the same as four. it isn’t. but two is a world away from zero.

see you in the next one 💌

before you go…

what's the hardest part of your fitness journey right now? not the beginning, not the end goal. right now, where you are today. hit reply and tell me. i read every single one.

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