Nobody really wants to become a nutritionist or dietician. Nor do most people want to become a professional chef. And who really wants to count calories or track micronutrients? But anybody in his or her right mind DOES want to avoid the misery of living a life with diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, auto-immune disorders, and the premature death that comes along with poor human nutrition. Besides all that, who really likes walking around with a big butt or muffin top?
“I really regret eating healthy today” – said no-one ever…
Over the past number of years, I’ve continued to make small improvements to my nutrition and healthy eating habits. These changes weren’t made in one big splash. Rather, they were small incremental changes that just kept stacking up one after the other, week after week, year after year. 1% improvements each day add up to huge changes over time. Those are the changes that are easier to make and stick for the long-term.
Have you ever been to a party or an event where people say something like, “Oh, just try some chocolate lava cake with sugar crumbs and crystal meth on top. It’s not going to kill you. Live a little.” They could be lobbying you to eat a cookie, some birthday cake, pizza and beer, or something much worse. They are baiting you to participate in their negative behaviors. How would it make them feel if you had the willpower to say “no” while they wanted to eat the cake? Damn baiters…
One time I fell for it. It was around the holidays. There was a cookie platter that was sort of a holiday’s greatest hits where everybody brought in their favorite homemade cookies (enough for everybody) and it allowed people to sample all these different sugar bombs. Many of them tasted good. Very sweet, but very good. I love chocolate. Some of them had chocolate. I told myself that I deserved them. I told myself that I was a good boy for eating healthy all the time. I deserved to be happy, didn’t I? I was justifying things logically after I already made the decision emotionally (that’s how our brains work you know).
But shortly after participating in this sugar taste test bonanza, I was in the bathroom vomiting my guts out. My body freaked out. It couldn’t handle all that crap and my digestive system did the only thing it knew how to do. It put the entire system in reverse. We are talking full-on back up the bus without looking in the rear view mirror checking for little children… I had cookie mush coming out of my nose. I was miserable. I deserved that for being a huge dumb-@ass.
I used to think about diet in terms of “diets” like the fad types. I wanted to put labels on eating styles.
- Are you on the paleo diet?
- Are you on the Atkins diet?
- Are you on the Carnivore diet?
- Are you on the Whole30 diet?
- Are you on the Weight Watchers diet?
- Are you on the Ketogenic diet?
Are you on the grapefruit/cayenne/gingerbread diet? (That last one I just made up. Don’t try it. It’s not real.)
These fads come and go. They promise quick weight loss or to restore your balding head or give you healthy looking skin in 5 days or your money back. But many are unhealthy and unbalanced. They lie to people. They tell you that you could achieve something without exercise. But they are unsustainable for a variety of reasons. Maybe the food tastes nasty or it deprives you with too few calories. Or it takes you three hours to prepare the meals.
I made the best progress once I committed myself to a life of longevity and personal excellence. It made decision making so much easier from then on. Less choices. Simpler options. Eating healthy is a lot simpler once you learn the basics. It’s about getting the big things right; macro-nutrients (some protein, some carbohydrates, some healthy fats). It’s also about getting as many micro-nutrients as possible (usually from natural sources like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds). It’s also about finding the healthy food that you ENJOY eating. It is possible. Trust me. I know.
Trying to make huge changes all at once usually doesn’t work for people. That should maybe make you feel better and give you more confidence that it is possible for you to make lasting changes. It’s small improvements that matter. It’s doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
It’s about crowding out the bad and substituting with the good.
Things that are bad for you include:
- Processed foods
- Preservatives
- Chemicals like MSG (Mono-sodium glutamate) or aspartame.
- Alcohol (just because you like it doesn’t mean it’s good for you.)
- Gluten
- Trans fats
- Refined carbohydrates (white flour type stuff)
- SUGAR, SUGAR, and SUGAR (HORRIBLE!)
- If you look at the label and it has words on it that only a chemist could understand, don’t eat it.
You have to also keep an open mind that the Forces of Evil (the food industry, media, corporate America, Wall Street, and the Government) have a vested interest in feeding you sh!t. That sets up Phase II of their grand master plan. Once you are so unhealthy, fat, and depressed, the next round of crap that the Evil Forces deliver to you include the modern health care industry and pharmaceutical companies that are more than willing to get you dependent on a lifetime of prescriptions to “help out with all of your negative side effects as a result of eating like sh!t.”
Eating healthy is more important than any other item when it comes to living a healthy and happy life. It impacts everything. We know that if you are a mess financially, you are going to live a hard life. If you have bad relationships, you are going to live a hard life. If you are unhealthy, fat, depressed, sick, and lack energy to do anything, you are going to live a hard life. It all starts with diet. Most of the developed world has been brainwashed into believing what they eat doesn’t matter or that if it tastes good, or is inexpensive, then it is good for you. Or they believe that exercise alone can neutralize the bad effects of poor nutrition. This simply isn’t true.
If you really want to make a huge personal transformation, start eating healthier. You don’t have to be a nutritionist or a dietitian. You don’t have to count calories. You don’t have to commit yourself to going from fad to fad. Stop that nonsense. Just make small improvements and crowd out the bad and replace it with some good. A little a day. A little each week. A little each month. You won’t believe your transformation in all areas of your life.
You will sleep better, have more energy, be more confident, be more creative, have more focus, and have more of a desire to engage in life. You do that by eventually getting on human rocket fuel. You shouldn’t put regular unleaded in a turbo-boost high powered Diesel engine. Your body will eventually crave and become dependent on high-quality foods. You just haven’t experienced this yet personally because you are still eating like sh!t.
What is one food swap/change that you can make today for yourself?
Maybe it is one less soda, one less cookie, berries instead of cake for dessert, or nuts instead of chips.
Do you believe that you can make small incremental changes? Do you know deep down that you are capable of pulling more out of yourself? You can give a little bit more to yourself. You just need to improve upon who you were yesterday and set yourself up to be just a little bit better tomorrow. If you do that, there is no telling how far you can go.