Game-Changing Nutrition Advice
Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday đ Today Iâll be sharing some of the most simple-to-implement and game changing (honestly, life changing) nutrition advice I have. It is all encompassed in one clear concept⌠âNo food is off limits to youâ. From just reading that sentence Iâm sure it isnât completely transparent how exactly that is so important and âlife changingâ. Let me explainâŚ
When you start on a journey to live a healthier life, or lose fat, or gain muscle, or build your physique, most of us start by figuring out which âbadâ things to remove from our life. And Iâm sure youâve found that doing so is incredibly difficult; easy at first, but to sustain leaving so many things out of our lives becomes nearly impossible after a while. After training hundreds of clients and teaching hundreds of students, one thing has become clear: Eliminating things you like from your life doesnât work in the long-term. When transitioning into living a healthier life or achieving a fitness goal, the most crucial part is MAINTAINING that progress. What is the point of building your physique into something you love and feeling your absolute best if it is short lived? Why not learn to keep it forever? (Yes, that IS possible). The trick is to learn to be perfectly content and understanding with these changes taking time, and then allowing yourself to do so in a sustainable way. One major concept that opens the field to achieving sustainability is changing how you perceive things through shifting your word choice. Now let me explain THATâŚ
When we decide to (foolishly) eliminate foods from our lives, we create these internal rules in which we tell ourselves we CANâT have something. Or that a particular food is OFF LIMITS. This puts a ton of unnecessary weight and importance on a food that doesnât need to be there. When we tell ourselves we CANâT have something, it makes that something seem much more enticing than it actually is. And most of the time, we end up having that âoff limitsâ food, and since it seems so much more tempting than it actually is, we usually end up having WAY more of it than we normally would; we end up severely overeating. And what happens once we break our made up rule? We spiral. We think, âOh my god I canât believe I ate that. I broke my streak. Iâm going to lose all my progress now. What the hell, whatâs even the point? Now I feel horrible. I might as well just finish the whole box. And screw it, I might as well just skip the gym tonight too.â This is a VERY common âall or nothingâ mindset to have, and we tend to adopt it at some point on our journey to becoming healthier (it can be helpful to remember that progress doesnât mean perfection). This mindset is not only logically incorrect (you wonât lose all of your progress going over your calories for one day, you wonât lose all of your progress going over your calories for two days either, or even three!) but it also doesnât serve or help you get to your goal of living a healthier life. Along with living a healthier life includes adopting a healthier mindset, and that starts with how we allow ourselves to perceive things.
In reality, the healthy food you ate and the strength workouts youâve done the months leading up to this moment to give you the progress youâve EARNED, do not just disappear in a day. Or a week. Or even a month (unless you literally just lay there and donât move at all). So when our brain tells us that these things will inevitably happen after eating a box of oreos, it is LYING to you. If you break down what exactly food is to us, it is FUEL. Our body breaks down our food into its fundamental parts; protein, carbs, and fat. It then uses them how it sees fit (carbs are used for energy, protein assists in . structural support, act as building blocks, and as catalysts, and fats help with absorption and energy storage). There is no difference between a broken down carb from an oreo, and a broken down carb from a vegetable. Your body doesnât see a difference. The reason we believe eating a whole box of oreos will lead to us going downhill is because when we do that we tend to overeat calories for the day. Overeating calories is what leads to fat gain overall. BUT, that doesnât happen after overeating one day, or two, or three. It takes a long time of going over our necessary calorie number to start storing fat.
Now that you know this, that box of oreos no longer seems so scary, right? And they might even seem less tempting, knowing that thereâs no harm in having a few. See how easily a mindset shift can change our daily nutrition choices for the better? You now understand that eating oreos every now and then (or any snack that isnât necessarily healthy) isnât going to ruin your progress, and so you can now allow yourself to have them whenever youâd like, in a smart way! Iâm sure at this point some of you are thinking about how to ensure you wonât go overboard (which can affect your progress if this happens long-term), so letâs talk about that nextâŚ
A way to get the best of both worlds (overall health and yummy treats at the same time) includes prioritizing healthier parts of your meal before you eat a treat, by making a deal with yourself that if youâre craving something less healthy, you can have it as long as you eat 2 servings of protein and a serving of veggies first. For example: You want a few cookies. Great! You can have them. And FIRST, letâs eat 2 servings of protein and a serving of veggies. NOW, you can have those few cookies, and allow yourself to be guilt-free. This works well because we start our meal/snack with two super important and healthy things: protein and veggies. Protein helps you rebuild muscle after tearing them during your training and keeps you full (since protein takes longer to digest). Veggies have a TON of beneficial nutrients to help your body perform the many processes it needs to, which then helps you feel your absolute best, AND has fiber which also helps you stay full, and assists with smooth digestion. You might find that after you eat the protein and veggies, you might be too full to even have room for the cookies. So, you may not eat any at all, or you may eat less. And either way, you paired a super healthy habit with a healthy mental habit, and progressed tremendously in that moment alone!
There are many other tactics you can use to eliminate the unhealthy and illogical mental âruleâ around less healthy treats, and teach yourself to balance health in every way. The one I detailed above is one of my favorites, and using the âadditionâ method rather than the âeliminationâ method, which tends to be easier to sustain in the long term, which means you get to keep all of your progress for as long as youâd like! No hard work put to waste đ
I hope this article helps you become more mindful of an unhealthy and illogical mental pattern many of us have, change it in a healthy and sustainable way, and help you skyrocket towards your goals both mentally and physically. Remember, progress isnât perfection. There is no food that is âoff limitsâ to you; you are free to eat any food youâd like. Fat gain doesnât come from a few days of overeating calories, it comes from a long, consistent time period of overeating calories. Try out the method I listed above! If youâd like a treat, promise yourself (and keep it, this is important when building our belief and trust in ourselves; you wouldnât break a promise to a friend, so donât break a promise to yourself either!) to eat 2 servings of protein and a serving of veggies first, then enjoy your treat!
As always, if you have any questions you are more than welcome to reach out to me through email at [email protected] and I would love to help you out for free! Have a wonderful rest of your day, letâs create some healthy and sustainable patterns!!