Ep 55: Health Is a Skill, Not a Protocol – Why Knowing What to Eat Isn’t the Problem With Precision Nutrition Coach Dominic Matteo

Episode Summary

Dominic Matteo joins the show to discuss why most people don't need another diet plan. They need skills. Drawing from his own 125-pound weight loss and over a decade coaching thousands of clients, Dominic breaks down the difference between knowing what to eat and actually being able to do it consistently. We talk about the continuum mindset versus all-or-nothing thinking, why external structure often needs to come before intuitive eating, and how to build sustainable change by doing the best you can where you are with what you have.

 

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Guest Bio

Inspired by his own journey back from obesity, Matteo holds various certifications. For the last decade plus, Dominic has coached thousands of students and clients about and through the change process. Dominic is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a NASM-certified Personal Trainer, a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), a Mayo Clinic-trained health and wellness coach, a PN2 Master health coach, and a certified member of the NBHWC. Personally, Dominic still plays some men's rugby, competes actively in submission grappling/BJJ tournaments, coaches and advocates for girls' wrestling, and volunteers time to a local non-profit that helps the homeless. All of this while staying active with his wife and two kids.

 

 

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Links

• Dominic Matteo on Instagram: @dmatteo77

• Precision Nutrition: precisionnutrition.com

• Goals to Action Worksheet

 

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Three Actionable Takeaways

1. Ask yourself what is the best you can do right now where you are with what you have. You don't need to revamp everything or be perfect. If a 10-minute walk is what you've got capacity for, that's 10 minutes more than you were doing before.
   
   

2. Take action on whatever that one small thing is. It's not about finding the perfect plan or waiting until conditions are ideal. Start with what you can actually do in your current life context and build from there.
   
   

3. Practice self-compassion, which doesn't mean letting yourself off the hook. It means being excellent in your own space and not beating yourself up because you're not following some influencer's two-hour daily grinder workout. Keep doing the best you can with the capacity you have, and you will make progress even if it takes more time.
   
   

 

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10 Bulleted Takeaways

• Most people know what healthier choices are (grapes versus French fries), but the real challenge is developing the skills and capacity in their lives to consistently make those better choices.
  
  

• Nutrition and fitness should be approached as skill acquisition and long-term learning, not as protocols you're either on or off.
  
  

• Breaking binary thinking of good/bad or on/off helps you see health behaviors on a continuum of things you want to do more frequently versus less frequently.
  
  

• When life gets hectic and you can't do everything you typically would, turn the volume down rather than stopping completely. Reset your expectations based on your current context.
  
  

• Time and attention are finite resources just like money. If you have 100 dollars in your pocket, you can only spend 100 dollars. The same applies to your daily capacity.
  
  

• For many people, external structure and parameters need to come first before they can successfully work on internal skills like intuitive eating or hunger awareness.
  
  

• Eating slowly is a foundational skill that creates space for other skills like recognizing hunger cues, satiety signals, and enjoying your food.
  
  

• Planning and preparation are essential skills that enable you to execute on nutrition goals. Without them, you're constantly making decisions in the moment when willpower and capacity are lowest.
  
  

• Self-compassion in the context of health and fitness means understanding your current capacity and being okay with doing what you can, not comparing yourself to unrealistic standards.
  
  

• The goal isn't perfection. It's consistency over time. Small actions repeated frequently will create more progress than perfect actions done inconsistently.