05 Jun The 3 Key Tips To Eating Healthy — Without Hating Your Life
Many fitness professionals push this hardcore, no-pain-no-gain, crazy strict diet, exercise-’till-you-puke approach to fitness. For many people, this approach is not only unnecessary, it’s counterproductive.
First, let’s explain why the hardcore approach is so popular — it sells. People love pictures of ripped fitness models with sweat and tears dripping down their perfectly chiseled abs. Add in a “motivational” quote about “feeling the burn” or something, and you’re looking at thousands of likes on Facebook. Nice. Throw in a “Join my killer boot camp and drop 30 lbs in 4 weeks!” and you can say hello to pumped up clients, as well as wide open wallets.
The only problem with this approach is that it benefits no one other than the trainer/business offering the program. Once the excitement wears off (this happens very, very quickly), the participant discontinues the insane workout/diet regimen (obviously) and is then right back where he/she started.
Actually, that’s not quite accurate. The person is not right back where he/she started. In addition to returning to his/her old habits (often with a vengeance), the unsuccessful participant:
- Feels terribly discouraged, thinking he/she is a failure for not sticking with the program
- Gains back more weight due to a wrecked metabolism (have you seen the “Biggest Loser” study?)
- Joins another extreme fitness program 6 months later, telling him/herself “this time I won’t quit!”
And the cycle repeats. A never-ending, self-destructive, downward spiral.
Sure, after reading this, you’re probably realizing how ineffective these extreme fitness programs are, but it’s so easy to be enticed by one of these programs, and you may have even tried one yourself in the past.
Why? Because we often make fitness decisions based on emotion, not logic.
That’s why Dr. Oz can sell viewers on magical Green Coffee Beans that will inexplicably burn off 16% of their body fat. That’s why people attach their self-worth to how many cookies they ate over the weekend. And yes, that’s why we’re tempted by extreme, hardcore diet & exercise programs, even though we know that logically they are a very bad idea.
To be clear, I am by no means against people putting in hard work, nor am I against personal trainers encouraging it. What I am very against is the “go-hard-or-go-home” mentality that some fitness businesses preach to the entire general population. If someone genuinely enjoys going all out in the gym and following a super-strict diet, then he/she should do that. Yet the idea that every single person needs to live such a lifestyle, or else that person is wasting his/her time is asinine.
The truth is, if there were less of an elitist, “my-way-or-the-highway” message put out by the bulk of the fitness industry, we wouldn’t have so many people utterly discouraged and uninterested in fitness, as well as a resulting 34.9% obesity rate in the country. I think the majority of people would benefit significantly more from finding a way to make nutrition & exercise simple and enjoyable, instead of finding a way to make themselves mentally strong enough to cope with the misery of an intense fitness program.
So what is the alternative?
What is the alternative to putting yourself in a chronic state of misery in the name of health & fitness?
Take the path of least resistance.
That’s right. Make health & fitness as easy as possible for yourself.
Ha, I can just picture myself getting physically thrown out of a hardcore fitness boot camp for suggesting such an idea. But let’s face it, it’s the only logical approach.
Your body doesn’t lose weight in accordance with how much effort you put in. Frankly, your body doesn’t give a damn about how much effort you’re putting in. When it comes to health & fitness, all your body cares about is what you got done.
At the end of the day, there are plenty of different ways to get fit. Personally, I’m a huge advocate of working smarter, not harder, whether it comes to fitness, business, or life in general. So with that in mind, here are the 3 key tips that I’ve used to help hundreds of people just like you establish smart, easy, and effective nutrition plans.
The 3 Key Tips for Easy Healthy Eating
Tip #1: Establish a routine.
Habits are a funny thing. If you plan them, they can be your key to success. If you let them develop on their own, they can be your undoing. For better or worse, our habits are the best indicators of what our long-term outcomes will be.
So you don’t have to eat the same thing every day (nor should you), but if you proactively establish a routine for your eating habits, you’ll avoid all the mini mental battles that occur when hunger hits.
The first place we often start with Fit2Go clients is meal frequency/timing. How many meals will you eat per day? What time will you eat them? Where will you be at that time?
Since most of our clients are busy working professionals, these are questions that they’ve sometimes never even contemplated before. However, once we establish some level of consistency with their meal frequency and timing, nutritional adherence becomes less of a challenge.
The next step is to develop some consistency with your food choices. But remember, this doesn’t have to mean eating the exact same thing every day. For example, you might decide that breakfast is going to be 1 serving of fruit.
“1 serving of fruit”. Think about that.
If you were to decide that breakfast is always going to be an apple, you’d eventually get sick of apples and you’d stop following your plan. By establishing a consistent routine, but keeping it general enough to still allow for variety, you’ll keep your calorie and nutrient intake relatively constant while allowing yourself to enjoy your meals — thus setting yourself up for long-term adherence and success.
See the difference?
Tip #2: Pack lunch the night before.
This goes along with establishing a routine, and it is often the first weekly goal we’ll set with Fit2Go clients. Sometimes, this change alone is enough for people to start losing weight.
Packing lunch makes people lose weight? What are you making them pack? Kale smoothies?
Nope. We actually don’t even give any guidelines about what they should/shouldn’t eat at this stage. So why does such a simple action like packing lunch the night before cause people to lose weight? Here are some possible contributors:
- No matter what you make at home, it’s usually much less calorically dense than whatever you’d grab last minute at work (probably main contributor)
- Lunch is being planned when you’re satiated, rather than when you’re hungry (ever heard the advice “don’t go food shopping when you’re hungry?”) (possibly plays a role)
- It’s a simple step towards taking control of your health & fitness that empowers you to make other smart and healthy choices throughout the day (possibly plays a role)
So why not give it a shot for a few weeks and see what happens?
Tip #3: Have your cake and eat it too — just be smart about it.
Pizza, doughnuts, ice cream, snickers…here’s the truth: you can eat all of these foods and still maintain a healthy weight. Is it the healthiest way to eat? Of course not. But my job isn’t to take an elitist approach and tell you how you should/shouldn’t be eating. My job is to explain to you the science and offer you the advice that has helped hundreds of our personal training clients in Baltimore use the science to their advantage.
So here’s the science with regard to weight loss: as long as you create and maintain a caloric deficit, you will lose weight.
It’s a simple math problem. Consume more calories than you burn = weight gain. Consume less calories than you burn = weight loss. Whether those calories come from pizza or spinach doesn’t change the equation.
Now, eating healthier foods will often help you consume less overall calories. So healthier food choices do usually make it easier to achieve an ideal body weight. Plus, there are countless other benefits to eating healthy that have nothing to do with weight at all.
So when it comes to healthy eating, here is the advice: Always try to be better, but never try to be perfect.
If you try to cut out all of your favorite foods indefinitely, you’re simply setting yourself up for failure. Don’t do that. Try to minimize the amount of junk food you’re eating, but don’t attempt to cut it out entirely.
What is the best way to accomplish this? If you can keep all junk food out of the house, great. If not, then simply keep it out of sight.
This isn’t about babying yourself, it’s about smart and proactive planning. If you keep a pack of Oreos sitting on the kitchen counter, then you’re forcing yourself to go through a mental battle every time you walk through the kitchen. Don’t waste your willpower on a challenge that can so easily be avoided.
So there you have it — the 3 most important tips that have helped hundreds of Baltimore residents enjoy their nutrition plans and stay fit & healthy for the long-run. What you do with this information is 100% up to you. And I mean that genuinely — I have no problem with someone deciding that they aren’t interested in living a fit & healthy lifestyle right now (though I do think that more people would be interested if fitness were promoted in a more positive and less elitist light).
Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have found this article to be helpful and informative. Just please remember — your level of health & fitness is a decision that should be made by you, and you alone. Fitness can be a truly amazing means of enhancing your quality of life, but only you can decide whether or not it is worth the effort.
That said, if this approach makes sense to you and you’re ready to make a serious change, click here to apply for in-home personal training in Baltimore. (We currently have 3 spots left.)
