Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Diaz and Antonio Castillo.
Nathan and Antonio, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We (Tony and I) both had very similar journeys. We both struggled with weight and body image from an early age. Being athletes, we felt that we needed to look a certain way to perform at our best. We had a very distorted relationship with food, that lead to us binge eating and other unhealthy behavior. We tried every diet, supplement, and meal plan out there. We were desperate to figure out the winning formula. After hitting our rock bottom with our nutrition, health, and fitness, we decided to be the experts we so desperately needed.
We both attended FIU, where we received our Master’s in Nutrition and Dietetics, and then did an internship at the University of Florida, where we finally developed our own food philosophy: food is fuel. We went on to establish Nutrition For Performance as the premier sport/performance nutrition coaching service that has helped hundreds of people go from frustrated and unhappy to hitting new personal records and looking good while doing it. Today, we teach the same guiding principles that has helped some of the world’s most elite athletes. We show them how to do this without diets, supplementation, or overhauling their entire life. So to bring this full story circle, we are now able to help people that were just like us find fuel their performance and find their competitive edge.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. We have failed multiple times. In the beginning, all we knew was that we wanted to help this specific class of people, the “everyday athlete.” We had no idea where to start. We spent countless hours putting up a website, creating a logo, and generating a name for our company. We did all this, only to realize that people don’t care about these things. They only cared about how we could help them. So time wasted and not knowing where to focus our energy, in the beginning, was a huge challenge.
We both worked full-time jobs, which took a lot of time away from what we really wanted to build, Nutrition For Performance. We were working our regular 10-12 hours days and then came home to put in another five hours on our business. We did this for over a year, which, as you can imagine, can be taxing on the body. We were constantly sick because of the stress and late nights, but we had a powerful enough why to keep us going.
Nutrition For Performance – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Nutrition For Performance, as the premiere virtual sport/performance nutrition coaching service that has helped hundred of people go from frustrated and unhappy to hitting new personal records and looking good while doing it. Today, we teach the same guiding principles that has helped some of the world’s most elite athletes. We show them how to do this without diets, supplementation, or overhauling their entire life.
Tony and I are registered dietitians who have dedicated our lives to changing the way people view food and nutrition. We want to show people that restrictive, low-calorie diets and supplementation, which is what media pushes these days, is not the answer to life long happiness with their nutrition and fitness goals.
We are most proud of not only the physical transformations we’ve helped people attain but also the mental transformations. People have referred to our teaching as life-changing. Anytime we impact someone’s life in a positive way will always be our proudest moments.
At Nutrition For Performance, we are two males collaborating to provide the best service to our clients. We realize we aren’t the masters of all things nutrition, but when we joined forces, we are able to provide our clients with the total package. Tony and I complement one another very well, both in expertise and personality, which our clients find new and refreshing.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The ability to learn and adapt. Being a business owner, without prior experience, means you learn a lot of lessons and get tons of feedback. Someone who thinks they are always right and it’s their way or the highway will surely lose in this game. Our ability to accept criticism and use our failures to learn and adapt has allowed us to build a successful practice.
Contact Info:
- Website: nutritionfp.com
- Email: coaching@nutritionfp.com
- Instagram: @team.nfp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2236788706543378
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