#HEALTHTIPTUESDAY
Eating Food to THRIVE vs. Looking at Food Poorly
Most people when starting the gym (including myself), want to lose weight, want to build muscle, or want to fit in their clothes better. So when we hear about food or nutrition, we start to hear “DON’T EAT THIS!”… “YOU HAVE TO STOP EATING AT THIS TIME!”… “THIS FOOD IS TOXIC!”…. Etc! And this is how media gets your attention.
But what if we looked at food with the intention of making our bodies THRIVE?? What if we looked for foods that made us feel good, move well, and look good all while enjoying food? What if instead of calling them “cheat meals”, we called them “treat meals”? And we understood WHY we want to eat these foods? Well I’m here to give you some insight on how I view most food choices, and how I started developing a positive relationship with food over the years!
Step 1: Experiment and Learn
I knew that over the years, I had to experiment on myself to understand what makes me feel good. Meal plans, flashy diets, shinny supplements… these are all very hard to push on the general public because everyone has their own pallet (some like salty, some like sweet, others like helllllla spicy), everyone has their own schedule (some people work night, others work very, very early), everyone has different backgrounds (some people grew up never eating dairy with their family, and others grew up Italian and that’s all they eat), and then you add different cultures (people from different parts of the world eating different foods)… you get my point! Not everyone is going to love or feel good eating chicken broccoli and rice. Yet, bodybuilders THRIVE off this diet. So you have to begin to experiment. Cook new recipes. Use different ingredients. Add new foods on grocery lists. Eat more in the morning. Eat more at night. Eat 3 meals a day… or heck, eat 6 smaller meals a day. But start to learn what feels good while experimenting. Those days or workouts where you’re like “DAM, I CRUSHED THAT”… it wasn’t by chance
Step 2: QUALITY
Instead of looking for the BAD. Look for the good! We know that minimally processed, whole foods are packed with NUTRIENTS. And I knew that if I wanted my body to feel good, I had to eat foods with loads of nutrients. And there’s a common saying in CrossFit to “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no added sugars”. So I used this as a frame work. We know that plants are extremely rich in micronutrients. Plants give us amazing energy, have fiber that allows for a healthy digestive tract, has vitamins and minerals for a strong immune system, can reduce inflammation in the body, and can be great for fighting off disease. We know that our bodies are walking blobs of protein! Our entire muscular-skeletal system including every organ in our body is made up of protein. And we know that there isn’t a better source of protein than from whole food animal products. It contains every essential amino acid our body needs to function. So once I knew that, I started building my meals around quality! And WOW was this the biggest change.
Step 3: Building a Meal
Once you start to experiment and learn what you like, and you start getting accustomed to eating higher quality foods… well how do u put them together? Oversimplifying is not a bad thing here. I love the 5 ingredient rule. This is just a rough guide and does not need to be strict, but it’s a nice and easy checklist!
• 1st: Start with a protein
• 2nd: Pick a fruit
• 3rd: include a veggie
• 4th: choose a starch
• 5th: Add a fat
Step 4: Knowing How Much?
This is very dependent on your goals. If your goal is to have good energy throughout your day, recover from your workouts, be mentally sharp at work, and control bodyweight… then you are going to learn a lot about yourself from steps 1-3. And the best advice I got was to stop eating when I'm satisfied, not when I am FULL. BUT If you are truly hitting steps 1-3 and something feels off, and maybe intuition might not be working..? Then you simply need to make adjustments on the quantity of your food! Not losing weight? You are just eating too much. Feeling really low energy? You are not eating enough! Go back to step 1, and continue to experiment & learn. NO, your hormones are not stopping you. NO, you don’t need a shiny new pill. You just need to start experiment on quantities of foods.
Final Step, 5: Balance
Understanding that living your life following a celebrity diet who is getting paid millions of dollars to have that body, is unrealistic and not sustainable. And knowing that having a pizza on the weekend is not gonna kill your gains. Or having some drinks. Or eating that birthday cake. Or going on vacation and being less conscious is OK. Treating yourself with foods 10-20% of the time is extremely normal. And remind yourself the positives from eating this! "I worked so hard this week and I would love a treat!" "I know that celebrating this birthday cake with my cousin is going to make me feel really happy." Understand that being good MOST of the time, is all we are looking for. Balance is key.
