The Truth About Food
This is a topic that many of us need to get real about. If you’re exercising and not seeing results, you might be one those people. The truth is, our bodies are made up of 10% genetics, 10% training, and 80% nutrition. That is to say, we work for our bodies in the gym, but they’re made in the kitchen. If you’re like the majority of the population, this is probably where you struggle. It’s easy to stay motivated for the hour and a half that you’re working it at the gym but carrying that forward for the remaining 22 hours of the day can be a real challenge. Especially when we’re faced with so much temptation, work luncheons, friendly get togethers, weddings and nightly cravings. Food has become a real focal point as to how we interact with one another. Here, I’m going to break it down into some real life problems and offer up some real life solutions that I’ve found rather effective over the years.
But, before we delve any further into the solution, we must first go to the heart of the problem. The diet industry is a multi billion dollar industry that has everyone believing, if you buy their pre-packaged foods that are full of preservatives, or if you take their pills, or if you restrict so many calories and deprive yourself, you’re going to lose weight and feel great, just like the people smiling at you in the ads. I’m telling you now, to save your money because that’s not true. The diet industry has survived so long and is a billion dollar industry because they know one thing for sure- that you are going to fail. Diets are designed to fail and to keep you coming back. If they weren’t, people wouldn’t need to keep going on them. The diet industry has the population so confused about how, what and when we should be consuming food, when in fact, these were natural abilities that we were born with.
Let’s look at a common problem, the person who can’t control their nightly cravings to over indulge. Most often, this is caused by not consuming enough calories during the day when we should be consuming them. People struggle with thoughts of “how much should I eat, did I already eat too much, is this enough, how do I know”? My answer to that is pretty simple, do you feel hungry? Because if you do, that’s your bodies natural way of telling you that you should probably eat something. However, it’s more about what we’re eating to fuel our body. We know we should be eating 3 meals a day, eat a snack in between if you feel hungry, most of us have learned that since early childhood, but somehow we ignore this simple information in an attempt to loose weight. Some of us have our bodies so confused by the constant stream of endless dieting that our body no longer recognizes its own cues and prompts that tells us when we are full and when we are actually hungry.
Most of us are guilty of having skipped a meal or two thinking this would only get us to our goal faster, right? Wrong! Eating regular meals throughout the day keeps our metabolism burning evenly and keeps those calories burning. When we skip meals, it slows down the metabolism, putting it in a state of depression and your body will inevitably hold on to calories going into a sort of “survival mode”. The body is an amazing thing and it will do what it needs to do to protect itself. If it senses that you are starving it, essentially, it will store calories for later. Even many body builders will have a “refeed” day where they load up on calories for the week, spiking the body’s sugars but then helping them to continue to loose weight after.
Here is what I know about starving yourself in an attempt to loose weight. If you starve yourself now, you WILL binge later. I am 100% certain of it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow or the next day but eventually the day will come that your body will not be able to withstand it any longer and you will binge. Eventually, you will have to repay that debt. Our bodies have a hard time adjusting to these large fluctuations in calories and what generally tends to happen is the person involved ends up gaining weight instead of losing it. How depressing. We tend to think that people with disordered eating don’t think or pay little attention to food but the exact opposite is true. If you starve yourself from food, you will begin to obsess about it.
The answer of how to eat and what to eat and how much varies from person to person but here are some very practical tips for healthy, sustainable weight loss
1) Meal Prep- being prepared is key! You need to treat it like a job if you want to look and feel your best. Along with that, you need to accept that there are going to be days (a lot of them if you’re like me ) where you’re going to come home and not want to cook. It’s easy to avoid drive thru’s if the meals are already at home waiting for you.
2) Keep your metabolism burning- Starting with breakfast. Don’t wait until you’re starving to eat something. That’s when we’re more likely to make unhealthy decisions because they’re fast and easily accessible. Pack healthy snacks to avoid that kind of situation. I’ve even been known to stick a banana in my purse while heading to the mall.
3) Cut out sugary drinks- This might be one of the easiest most efficient lifestyle changes you can make. I cut out juice and switched to only water 10 years ago. I don’t drink pop and I limit my coffee intake to 1 a day. There are 150 calories in a medium double double, so if you drink several coffee’s or tea a day, that number starts to add up.
4) Food Journal- If you feel like your doing all the right things and still not loosing weight, start a food log, some people are surprised to see how much they actually eat when it’s written down on paper
5) Don’t deprive yourself- I’d be pretty dam depressed if I thought to myself “I can never have cookies again or I can never have ____ insert favourite dessert here”. I don’t deprive myself of anything. If I really want pizza, I’ll go out and have a slice or two of pizza. However, I’m honest with myself about how much junk I’m consuming and I make a conscious decision to limit that amount. So yes, there are times when I say no to the cake at work in favour of my fruit and yogurt.
6) Keep it out of the Kitchen- I secretly have no willpower. If It’s in my house, I’ll eat it until it’s gone or until I sometimes don’t feel good. So to avoid the situation all together, I simply don’t keep treats in my home. That doesn’t mean that I don’t consume them on occasion, it just means they aren’t visible and easily accessible to me. This also acts as a great deterrent. If I want something sugary and tasty, I have to really want it to get dressed and get in my car and make a special trip for it.
7) Make healthier choices- I could eat bread at every meal, I love it. However I cut it out for at least one meal a day in favour of a healthier carb source (rice, sweet potato, oatmeal). Also, try getting a salad in at least once a day.
8) Progress not perfection- Nobody is perfect and neither are you. I don’t believe in diets, I believe in healthy lifestyle changes. Sometimes, that requires a change to our old ways of thinking as well. That means, if you go off and over indulge in a half a bag of potato chips, that doesn’t give you permission to indulge in the other half because you’ve “ruined your diet” or to “start again on Monday”. Believe me, I’ve eaten cookies a row at a time every now and again because…. well because I wanted too. No excuses, no diets, just because I said so. What’s important is that I’m mindful of the amount of junk and sugary foods I’m eating and that when the next day rolled around, I was right back at it, meal prepping, working out and being accountable. Accept that you will have days where you are less than perfect but continue to be consistent.
9) Be Kind to your Body- The last thing I want to share with you is to be kind to your body. Your body is amazing, its yours and its capable of so many amazing things. It’s important that we treat it well and with respect. But also, be mindful of the fact, that your body is going to go through so many different phases as you go through this life. I have been in the fitness industry for 10 years now and I have watched my own body go through so many different seasons already. There have been times when I have been more fit and times when I have been less fit but at all those times, I have continued to work out, eat healthy and at no point did I ever feel like I was less deserving of respect. I have lost and gained the same 20 pounds more times then I can count on one hand but I can tell you that I love my body when it’s very lean, a little curvy and at all stages in between. As long as I’m doing what I need to do to stay active and nourish my body, I know I’m going to succeed!
