Category Archives: Diet
Diet Analysis – Two Diet Approaches
So today I don’t want to discuss what diet is best or what foods you should be eating. Instead I want to discuss HOW to start making changes toward a healthier diet.
I also want to make note that when I say “diet” I don’t mean a fad or a restricted eating program. By diet I mean “The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”
When you want to change your lifestyle, there isn’t just one way to do it. Every person has to make healthy lifestyle changes in their own way.
But I have found that there are two basic diet approaches that work best for most people.
The ALL OR NOTHING APPROACH:
With this approach, you create a meal plan with everything planned out so that you know exactly what you are eating and when you are eating it. You may even cook and/or prep everything for the week on Sunday so that it is all ready to go.
This is great for people who don’t like having to make decisions. For many, having to figure out what to eat at the end of a long day, or when they are hungry, leads to disaster and binging. Having everything set out ahead of time helps alleviate the stress of making decisions and allows them to more easily instill new habits.
They also don’t mind eating the same thing numerous times a week and do better when they don’t have a ton of different options around the house.
I’ve found this works best for people who are triggered to binge by having “a little” of a food that tempts them or reminds them of old eating habits – this works best for people who think about their new diet as the foods that they CAN HAVE not the foods that they now CAN’T or SHOULDN’T HAVE.
This may also be a great option for someone who is trying to lose weight fairly aggressively for a specific event (while I don’t like when people crash diet for events, sometimes a big push to get the momentum going can help lead to a long-term commitment).
THE TORTOISE APPROACH:
The all or nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone though. Many feel very RESTRICTED when they have a set meal plan because all they can think about is the foods that AREN’T on the schedule.
So the other approach that I often recommend to clients is what I call the Tortoise approach.
This is honestly my favorite way to make diet changes when dealing with clients who are trying to make an overall lifestyle change.
I call it the TORTOISE approach because it reminds me of the story of The Tortoise and The Hare. Slow and steady wins the race. For these people, sprinting ahead on a meal plan or with very strict guidelines, leads to binging and ultimately to failure. They can’t keep up the pace or feel like they are so ahead that they can rest for awhile…just like the Hare. They do much better with a slow steady pace that allows them to adapt to each change before making the next one. The slow steady pace helps them stay on course the entire time and achieve their ultimate goal…just like the Tortoise.
For people like this, having basic guidelines to follow while being able to eat technically whatever they want allows them to never feel deprived (even if they never actually indulge) because they have the OPTION of eating something if they really want it.
So now the question is…Which way will work best for you?
Unfortunately, no one can answer that but you. And maybe you even need to give both a shot for a month or two to figure out which works best.
But before you choose an approach ask yourself two important questions:
- Do you feel deprived and only think about the foods you CAN’T eat? (YES, then you are a Tortoise because meal plans make Tortoise feel restricted. They like to feel like they can eat anything while staying within basic guidelines.)
- Do you get completely derailed by even just a bit of a food you don’t want to consume on a regular basis? (YES, then you are an All or Nothing. All or Nothings can’t have just a little of something and stay within guidelines. Just a little leads to binges that won’t stay within guidelines.)
Made a successful lifestyle change? Which approach did you use? Or did you maybe even combine them?
(I have had people do meal plans to get things going and then ease off to guidelines once they’ve gained some momentum.)
Summer time – Farm fresh food
So I love the start of summer and all of the delicious fruit that starts being in season.
I don’t really eat much fruit during the winter so when summer comes around and the farmers market is loaded with fruit, I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation that sees a berry bush and just devours the entire thing…and then lays out in the sun just relaxing…(Not really sure if this analogy even makes sense…Didn’t look up if bears eat berries….)
But anyway, I love when certain fruits are “in season.” And I love it even more when those fruits are local and organic.
So I won’t go on about fruit and I won’t even spend a long time RAVING about farmers markets and how much I love them, BUT I do just want to clear up a few misconceptions about farmers markets that I’ve encountered when talking to clients about them.
For one, THEY ARE CHEAPER THAN REGULAR STORES especially if you were to try to get the same quality product. Everyone seems to think that farmers markets are super expensive, but they aren’t. And what you get at the farmers market is extremely fresh and naturally raised. (Shoot we even get way cheaper fish at the farmers market than we do at any other market and it is caught fresh that day!)
Two, I’ve encountered people who say they only buy ORGANIC and therefore won’t buy from the stands without the label.
UHM…ORGANIC is a label you have to BUY! Many small farms can’t afford to do that but follow all organic processes! So at a farmers market, don’t worry about the label unless you are going to a super commercial one.
Three, local matters most. If things are local that means everything was picked at the peak of freshness. It is honestly better to buy something local and fresh than it is to buy organic from a foreign country. That organic produce has to be picked and shipped a far distance, which means it can’t be picked at the peak of ripeness – AKA it isn’t going to have near the nutrients that a local piece of produce has!
Doesn’t get any more local than that! Like 5 minutes away!
So honestly, if you can, support your local farms and get the best possible quality food for a very reasonable price! Your body will thank you!
Do you shop at a farmers market? What is your favorite food in-season right now!?!
Protein Powder Recipes – Coconut Mocha Protein Shake
While I love to get all my nutrition from whole natural foods, I do love the ease of protein powder.
You can make a ton of pretty healthy snacks and treats like bars and cookies and shakes and smoothies.
It is a great if you are on the go as long as you still make whole natural foods your top priority.
Anyway, today, I made a little caffeinated shake with coffee. Let me just say right now, I really don’t like coffee.
I love the idea of coffee – that morning beverage to get you going. To drink while you do your morning work.
But the only way I drink coffee, or espresso, is with a ton of sugar and lots of cream. It is more like cream and sugar with a hint of coffee, but whatever. So because I only like horrible-for-you coffee, I try to restrict it to only cheat days.
BUT I sort of miss the “treat” of coffee in the morning on the days when I don’t feel like consuming a ton of sugar. Because even though I don’t like coffee, I like coffee-flavored things.
So today I decided to try to satisfy my non-coffee, coffee cravings with a coffee protein shake.
So while Ryan sat at his desk drinking the most disgusting black coffee (I don’t understand how anyone likes it that way), I got to indulge in this…And yea…ok it doesn’t look that great but it was GOOD!
So the recipe…
Coconut Mocha Protein Shake
Ingredients:
1 scoop Chocolate Whey Protein (I used Gold Standard Whey for this)
1/2 cup chilled coffee
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp heavy cream (I used the organic cream from Trader Joe’s)
1 tbsp coconut butter (We actually found this for a great price at TJ Maxx home goods store!)
So brew your coffee however you normally do. Ryan makes french press for himself so he just made some extra for me. Chill that until nice and cold.
Then mix coffee, protein powder, water, cream and coconut butter in a protein shaker. My shaker has a little strainer like thing at the top which really helps break up the coconut butter and protein powder chunks.
Then pour into another glass and enjoy!
You can also make this into an iced beverage by pouring it over ice OR you can make the changes below to turn it into a “frappuccino/blended ice beverage.”
CHANGES FOR FRAPPUCCINO PROTEIN SHAKE: Sub in whole milk for cream and water…So instead of the 1/2 cup water and 1 tbsp cream, use a little over a half cup of whole milk. ALSO, add ice to the mixture in a blender instead of using the shaker and pulse till the ice cubes are broken down and the mixture is combined. I would use anywhere from a 1/2 cup to a full cup of ice depending on the size of your ice cubes.
Enjoy!
P.S. Everyone gets freaked out when they see HEAVY CREAM. They think “Oh no! So much fat and so many calories!” So below is the basic nutritional breakdown for the shake.
Coconut Mocha Protein Shake nutritional facts:
Calories: 273
Fat: 16g
Carbs: 6.5g
Protein: 25g
AND…Soon to come Ryan’s amazing deconstructed Shepard’s pie!
Deconstructed shepard’s pie with grass-fed beef and cauliflower mash!
Dieting – The Binge Eating Cycle
Let’s face it…Self control isn’t infinite and if you feel deprived on a regular basis, eventually you are going to binge. And then that binge usually leads to guilt, which in turn leads to another binge and then guilt….and then potentially another binge until you finally go back to restricting what you eat.
But you can’t eat healthily and eat exactly what you want all the time. You simply can’t eat burritos and frozen yogurt every night no matter how good it tastes.
But you also can’t DEPRIVE yourself of the food you love for too long because if you do, at some point you are going to give into deprivation and go and eat it anyway. You also most definitely can’t starve yourself because not eating enough is also going to lead to binging and won’t get you results any faster (For all you women that eat only like 500 calories a day, I wrote a post for you about how you may actually be HINDERING your progress because you are STARVING yourself!)
So if you can’t eat exactly what you want any time you want it, but you also can’t deprive yourself of the food you love, what the heck do you do if you want to be healthy?
You don’t restrict yourself…Or at least you do so as little as possible.
I’ve mentioned this before, but when making diet changes, you really have two options – go all in or make small changes.
Which one you do is really dependent on you.
For some people, it is best to go all in at the beginning because any temptation at the beginning away from the clean eating habits they want to instill will lead to a binge.
For others, “going all in” leads to feelings of deprivation, which in turn leads to binging.
So when starting to make healthier choices, you need to decide which one will work best for you.
Then you also need to figure out what triggers your feelings of deprivation. What makes you feel like you are restricted and can’t indulge?
Is it not having dessert at night? Is it that you miss that salty snack in the afternoon? Is it when you get stressed and just want to eat?
Once you figure out your triggers, you can PLAN for them.
You can have healthy alternatives on hand when you know you may need them.
Like for me…I grew up eating dessert every night so when I’m stressed or tired or just not in the right frame of mind, I start craving dessert.
But instead of completely depriving myself, I’ve found healthy alternatives that satisfy me. Like a piece of dark chocolate or some delicious fresh fruit. And honestly for me this works because I physically feel way better and SATISFIED.
It’s not that a pint of ice cream doesn’t still sometimes sound good, but for me most of the time it just isn’t worth it. I would rather my chocolate bar.
Basically what you need to do is nip the craving in the bud. If you let that craving fester, you are doing to feel deprived and eventually not care what you eat and binge.
If you just deal with the craving, you are going to be way better off.
And right now your probably thinking…”Ok well sometimes a healthy alternative isn’t good enough.”
This is where I say…”Well it’s not about perfect…It’s about eating well 80% of the time and indulging 20%. Dealing with the craving could be indulging occasionally when you really really want something or it could be planning in a cheat.”
There are definitely times when you just really really want that cookie, that bag of chips, that snack that everyone else at the office is indulging in.
And sometimes it is ok to give in.
But if you indulge in that thing that you truly want, don’t allow it to be an excuse to binge.
Indulging and enjoying things you love isn’t bad!
You shouldn’t freak out if you eat a calorie that isn’t on your “diet program!” (Shoot you shouldn’t freak out if you go on vacation and indulge for a week because you’ve got to enjoy life!)
It isn’t a big deal!
If you stress about not being perfect with your diet, that stress is what will TRULY lead to binging. Because that stress is what makes you feel restricted and turns one little indulgence into a year-long binge.
If you really want to eat well, you’ve got to realize healthy living is a LIFE-LONG PROCESS. It isn’t about perfection day in and day out. It is about trying to simply eat whole natural foods as often as you can while STILL enjoying life!
So don’t stress yourself out about dieting. Don’t make yourself feel deprived and completely restricted.
If you LOVE Thanksgiving food or Christmas food or have one restaurant you go to occasionally on a Friday night, indulge on that day! Don’t deprive yourself of things that you love! That one day, one meal isn’t going to destroy all your hard work! What will destroy your healthy lifestyle is stressing about the indulgence and NOT enjoying to the fullest! Feel satisfied when you indulge, not guilty, because satisfaction leads to adherence in the long run, which is what truly matters!
So now the question is…Are you caught in the binge eating cycle? What do you do so that you ENJOY eating well and don’t feel deprived?
A quick guide to healthy eating
So a huge part of being healthy, looking great, feeling great and performing well is eating the RIGHT foods.
If you don’t fuel properly, your body isn’t going to run properly – it’s as simple as that.
And while I’m most definitely not a car aficionado (and I’m sure anyone who really knows anything about cars will roll their eyes at how I use the analogy) I do believe that one of the best ways to describe eating healthily is by comparing it to fueling a car.
If you use bad fuel, your car won’t run properly. You will get bad gas mileage and your car will probably break down. However, if you give your car the proper fuel, your car will run great and you most likely won’t have near as many problems with it.
Same goes for your body…Eat crap food and your body will run, but not near as well as it could. Eat healthy food and you will be able to perform a lot better (not to mention you will FEEL a lot better!).
And you may be thinking right now…I haven’t had problems so why should I change my diet.
Let me just say this..Just because you aren’t having problems doesn’t mean your body feels or functions as well as it could.
You might not even realize you aren’t running as well as you could until you fuel properly and see just how great your “mileage” could actually be. And once you do fuel properly, trust me, you won’t want to go back!
Ok so let’s say you buy it and know that you need to fuel properly.
How do you then decide what you should eat?
I live by these two simple rules:
- Eat whole, natural foods – Foods raised or grown in the way they should be. Cage-free chickens, grass-fed beef. Organic fruits and veggies. Unprocessed. Local. Seasonal.
- Eat as little processed food as possible – There is a spectrum of processed. From a veggie you can pick and eat right of the ground to a Twinkie which is so processed it will never ever go bad and doesn’t contain even one ingredient that you can even pronounce. If something lasts longer than it should, like the difference between freshly home-made bread and store bought bread that last years, you know that it is highly processed. Your goal is to eat as much as you can from the unprocessed to only slightly processed side while still occasionally indulging in deliciousness from the processed side.
On the image below that sums up this post, you will see that I break down foods with the best options in green and the worst in red. There are a lot of different levels of processing…To keep it simple, I’ve broken it down into four different levels. If you follow the two rules above, the majority of your diet will come from the green list (which is by no means all-inclusive) with some of your daily foods coming from the yellow list. You will also occasionally indulge in foods from both the orange and red lists, which are more highly processed foods that contain little to no nutritional value.
Anyway, take a look at the infographic below for a quick guide to healthy eating!
Your guide to fuel your body!
Cheat Days – The Debate
So I’ve always known days or meals where you indulge in foods that aren’t necessarily healthy as cheat days or cheat meals.
But recently there has been a lot of talk about whether or not “cheat” is really the proper word to describe the meal or day.
CHEAT implies that you are doing something wrong…something bad…something breaking from what you shouldn’t be doing.
There can be a negative connotation to calling a day or meal a “CHEAT.”
So I’ve heard some people call it a TREAT meal instead.
But personally, TREAT almost bothers me even more. You aren’t a dog…You don’t need a treat for eating well. Eating well is what you should be doing.
Both can really imply, in a way, that eating well isn’t really all that fun, tasty or enjoyable.
Which honestly really isn’t the case.
Healthy food can be delicious. And it not only makes you feel good but helps your body and mind truly run well.
BUT as good as healthy food is and as great as you really do feel when you eat well…there are just times you want to indulge even if that means your belly is going to grumble a bit the next day.
Like for me, a vacation isn’t a vacation if I’m worried about finding something healthy on the menu – If I’m more worried about eating well than on trying new things.
Like for me…I would feel like I’m missing out if I didn’t get to try cookie dough fudge at a cute local candy shop. Grocery store candy I could pass on because it really isn’t worth the indulgence…but homemade fudge!?!
Cheat days, treat days, whatever you call them, are about more than eating bad food. They aren’t even about indulging in things you are “deprived off” otherwise.
They are more about a mental release and enjoying something in life that you don’t necessarily get to do every day.
Maybe a more apt description of cheat days is VACATION.
I mean think about it…Why do you take vacation?
Because you need a break. You need a break from routine. A break from exercising self-control day in and day out. Because you need both a mental and physical rest.
A VACATION is a chance to recharge!
For me…a “cheat day” is exactly that…a chance to re-charge.
It is a mini vacation from self-control and it can mean a ton of different things.
It isn’t always about eating food that is bad for me. I mean sometimes it is…Sometimes it is indulging in those nachos because they just take so good and I really really love food. Sometimes it is getting to try new foods when I’m on vacation and really let go.
But most importantly it is about relaxing and enjoying be it nachos or simply a glass of wine. It is about enjoying something and taking a mini vacation from the normal routine.
It is about “cheating” for the sake of cheating. It isn’t about eating something bad just because it is there or because I’ve had a bad day or because someone else pressures me.
It is about doing something, eating something, that I enjoy because I WANT it.
A big part of making a healthy diet into a lifestyle is about also realizing that you don’t have to be perfect all the time.
You need vacations from work…from family…from daily life…
So why wouldn’t you need a vacation from eating well or working out every once in a while?
We need chances to recharge and indulge be it a glass of wine and dark chocolate, a piece of bread with butter or a whole pizza and pint of ice cream. Shoot maybe it isn’t even eating something unhealthy…Sometimes it is just about telling yourself that you can do WHATEVER that day IF you end up really craving something.
Sometimes you just need a break from your daily habits because those daily habits do wear down your self-control no matter how ingrained they seemed to be.
So whatever your cheat/treat/indulgence/splurge/break/vacation/(whatever you call the snack, meal or day) is, make sure it is something you are going to enjoy to the fullest without guilt.
Do you include a “cheat” something into your daily, weekly or monthly diet plan? What do you prefer to call that “treat?”
Feed the Beast – Roasted Chicken and Broccoli Slaw
While I’m sure “Roasted Chicken and Broccoli Slaw” doesn’t sound utterly delicious, it really really was.
But while I meant today to be a simple recipe post, I feel the need to comment on a lot of what I’ve read this morning..and well…this week in general actually.
A lot of you have probably seen, or heard about by now, Bob Harper’s new dieting tips…Jumpstart to Skinny and the recommendation that women eat 800 calories a day.
Can I just pause to comment and say, “And people call me crazy because I do intermittent fasting and skip breakfast sometimes!?!”
At least I’m not starving myself! I’m just eating when I’m hungry. Whereas 800 calories a day is simply NOT eating! It is LITERALLY starving yourself!
I’m sorry but if you have to eat 800 calories a day to make his diet work on time, it isn’t a diet you should be doing!
Why?
Because it isn’t realistic! That isn’t something you can maintain for longer than the three weeks if even that long!
Yes…yes…I get that it is a JUMPSTART…And yes I do see the benefit sometimes of going stricter or working harder to break a plateau or get the momentum going, but honestly 800 calories a day is just ridiculous.
And so many of his 13 rules just sound like the same old bull crap. I mean come on don’t eat carbs after lunch?
I mean I even promote going low carb but believe that statement is utterly ridiculous! If your body needs the carbs, protein, fat…WHATEVER…it is going to use it no matter what time you eat them.
And really go to bed hungry!?! COME ON! No wonder everyone thinks that a healthy lifestyle is impossible. Who the heck wants to go to bed hungry!?!
AH!
Also, did anyone notice that his list says “Eat protein with every meal” and then also says “Make one day a week meatless”?
Yes I do realize that you don’t need to eat meat to get protein, but do you know how much harder it is to get all the essential amino acids if you don’t? Do you also know what most people turn to when they try to get protein without eating meat and aren’t supposed to drink their calories so protein shakes are out!?!
PROCESSED CRAP!
Most people don’t go eat beans and rice and do all the research to find out what foods pair together to give you a complete protein. Instead they eat some processed veggie burger….or a whole jar of Jiffy Peanut Butter…that has some protein right!?!
AH!
Anyway, I was utterly annoyed by his list, but really not surprised. It is the same old conventional wisdom crap spewed out over and over again.
Shoot if people really sold the truth, they wouldn’t get to keep churning out book after book!
And you want to know what the truth is!?! I can sum it up in four basic, and slightly redundant, rules….
1. Eat WHOLE NATURAL FOODS!
2. Cut out PROCESSED CRAP!
3. Eat when you are HUNGRY! (Not bored, or stressed or tired, but when you are hungry…be that one meal a day or 20).
4. Don’t starve yourself. (Not eating enough can stall fat loss and hinder performance and make you feel like CRAP)
But those rules wouldn’t sell. There is no secret there. No super specific directions to make you drop weight instantly.
But guess what?
Those are the truth!
Anyway, I’m done rambling about this. If you want a blog post that tears apart these rules much better than my rant above just did, check out Nia Shanks’ post.
Back to my original posting topic…FEEDING THE BEAST…aka feeding myself!
Recently, Ryan and I have become very into “Asian inspired” dishes. I use the term “Asian-inspired” rather loosely…basically meaning we used some sesame seed oil, rice vinegar and Tamari in our dish.
Anyway, Ryan made a great roasted chicken dish the other night and I wanted to share it!
Ingredients:
1.5lbs chicken legs
2 cups Broccoli Slaw
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Tamari
1 tbsp Jalapeno-Kiwi relish
1 tsp Siracha
1 tsp garlic
3 green onions
1 tbsp Rice vinegar
Preheat oven to 375.
Combine oil, tamari, relish, siracha, garlic and onions. Remove a few tablespoons and combine with rice vinegar to mix into the broccoli slaw.
Brush a bit of sauce onto the chicken and bake for 20 minutes before applying more sauce. Total baking time will be about 45 minutes.
In the last five minutes dump on the rest of the sauce. Mix broccoli slaw with the sauce/vinegar mixture.
Then enjoy the roasted chicken legs and broccoli slaw!
Is eating well really difficult? Or are you just lazy?
So yesterday I got a text from a friend asking me if a certain pre-made smoothie was healthy.
And my response was…”Well…not really.”
She then replied with, “Ugh. Nothing that tastes good is healthy.”
Is that really truly? Or is it the excuse we use to stop our diet?
And when I told her to make her own delicious smoothie, she said, “Okay fine. I’m lazy.”
I hear all the time that “nothing healthy tastes that good,” but is that really true? (And actually few ever really admit that they are just being lazy!)
Yes, there are bad foods that I love because of the way they taste and I do indulge in them on cheat days but they don’t really taste BETTER than all the delicious whole foods I eat on a daily basis. And they also make me feel WAY WORSE than all of the whole foods do!
I actually believe that most people would agree with me that meals cooked with whole natural foods can be extremely delicious and that TASTE isn’t really the reason why they don’t eat healthily.
It is laziness.
And yes…maybe that laziness is brought on by the fact that we are emotionally drained or stressed or dealing with lots of other things in life, but it is still laziness.
And our LAZINESS is what makes eating healthily seem super difficult.
Laziness makes us pick fad diets and stray away from cooking.
Everyday we make choices about how we are going to spend our time. And many people decide that cooking whole natural foods isn’t worth the effort.
So they start some diet where they don’t have to cook. They try a short cut. Pre-made foods. Juice diets. Special K cereal (Sorry Special K but you bother me).
And then they wonder why they aren’t losing weight or feeling healthier.
Why aren’t they getting results?!?
So they end up giving up on the diet…”It is just too hard eating well and I’m not getting results,” they say.
HA!
If you are TRULY eating well, you WILL get results.
Yes, you WILL have to be patient. Yes, you will have to spend time cooking. But YES, you will get results.
Sorry…there are no IFs, ANDs or BUTs about it…If you eat well, you WILL get results.
If you are lazy and take short cuts, yea you won’t get results and “eating well” WILL seem impossible because who can stick to a juice diet!?!
I mean when you really break it all down, is cooking whole natural foods really that much more difficult or truly time-consuming?
Is it really more difficult or time-consuming than bouncing around from fad diet to fad diet never getting results?
In the end, you waste way more time doing all the failed fad diets than you do spending a little time each week prepping and cooking meals.
Shoot with the Crock-pot you can basically throw everything in at once and just go about your day and come home and have a week of meals cooked for you!
I mean on a Sunday morning while you are eating breakfast, you can easily throw a whole chicken into the oven and cook it for the next few hours while you go about your chores or spend all that time you supposedly don’t have watching TV.
Is that really more difficult than going out and buying prepackaged foods that you throw in the microwave and that leave you always feeling hungry and never get you results?
Is eating crap really less difficult and truly more tasty if you aren’t happy with how you feel?
What matters more?
When it comes right down to it and you dig through all the crap excuses, is eating well really that difficult or are you really just being lazy?
Bad workout? Maybe it’s your fuel!
So on Sunday, I had an EPIC cheat day.
And Monday morning, I was paying for it.
I felt like crap. Congested. Bloated. Upset stomach. And that wasn’t even when I was working out.
But I decided to do a hard metabolic workout any way, hoping it would get my system somewhat back on track – knowing that this workout had brought many a strong woman and man to their knees…and their heads into the bushes.
I’d never had that issue before. The workout was always hard, but it had never made me want to puke before. Honestly, I didn’t fully understand how it made anyone puke…until yesterday.
While I didn’t literally throw up, my cheat day was up in my throat after one round. And it did take about 20 minutes laying on the mats after my workout to begin to feel somewhat human again.
Apparently this isn’t the first time I’ve rolled out and looked completely dead…although I’m pretty sure this one was from an overdose of cardio not food haha
To my credit at least I did more weight than usual and the two-inch rope instead of the inch and a half one, but still….my whole body felt way more ill than it should have.
And really, I don’t think it was the workout. Yea it was a bit harder, but nothing completely ridiculous. And my body was technically fresh and ready to go.
What I think…actually what I KNOW…was the HUGE difference, was the way I FUELED!
We think about our eating habits when it comes to weight loss, weight gain or health but I think all too often we forget to think about how eating affects how we feel during our workouts and even in day-to-day life.
The reason most people either want to puke or not puke for that matter during the workout I did yesterday, has a lot more to do with how they fuel than anything else.
Yes how hard they push themselves is a factor, but fueling can’t be ignored.
Notice….I’ve called it FUELING….
Our body is a machine that needs fuel and if you don’t fuel a machine properly, IT WON’T RUN…
Therefore, how do you expect your body to run properly if you aren’t fueling it properly!?!
HA! YOU CAN’T!
Yet so many people do!
So if you aren’t feeling so great during your workouts…and if you even feel like you’ve plateaued or gone backwards, you may want to take a look at what you are eating.
The wrong type of fuel, or too much or not enough fuel, may be hindering progress during your workouts (not to mention you may not feel near as great as you could, or have near as much energy as you should, during day-to-day life!).
P.S. Note that I also mentioned UNDER FUELING. It isn’t only over fueling or incorrect fuel that is the problem. If you don’t eat enough, YOU ARE GOING TO HINDER YOUR PROGRESS AND FEEL LIKE CRAP!
Why do people love cleanse diets?
So recently I’ve had a few of my female clients ask me about cleanse diets.
I personally would NEVER ever do one…or for that matter recommend that any of my clients do one.
This is what I think of when I think of cleanse diets (although many of them aren’t low carb).
I know they are the popular thing, but honestly, they are stupid.
Really? Drink juice for a week and your body will be cleansed?!?
Sounds like a week of feeling crappy and overloaded with sugar!
And when I tell most people that I think cleanses are stupid, they say to me, “Well then how do you rid your body of all the toxins that accumulate?”
UHM…I DON’T EAT CRAP FOOD MOST OF THE TIME!
You shouldn’t need to do a cleanse if you are eating a healthy diet 80% of the time. That healthy eating will, itself, make your body healthier and remove all of the “toxins.”
And really you think that one week on a “cleanse” is going to remove all the toxins from your body that you’ve been consuming for months and months and months eating a poor diet!?!
HA!
If you want to make your body healthy, you need to eat healthily most of the time…not for one week!
And the funniest thing is, when I say they should eat healthy 80% of the time if they really want a clean, healthy body, they tell me that only cleanses TRULY remove all of the gunk. That eating healthy doesn’t get it all out.
REALLY!?!
Some cleanse diet is going to remove some hidden gunk that eating only whole natural foods won’t remove!?!
UHM…NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Sometimes I want to ask people obsessed with cleanse diets what this supposed hidden gunk is? I mean really what is so supposedly stuck in us that only a cleanse diet can rid of us?
Also, I would just like to point out that most of these cleanse diets really AREN’T THAT HEALTHY OR GOOD FOR YOU!
You really thinking drinking juice for a week is that great for you? All you are consuming is a ton of carbs in the form of SUGAR!
That isn’t healthy!
But when I tell people that cleanse diets AREN’T healthy, I usually get a response like, “Well I saw a cleanse diet by Dr. Oz!”
Dr. Oz….Usually I would have a rant against him, but in this case…Well I actually kind of like him.
When they say that to me, I usually say, “Have you looked at the difference between your FAD cleanse and Dr. Oz’s?”
The Dr. Oz cleanse is basically like eating just a super clean all natural diet!
It isn’t juice with cayenne pepper! It is chicken and veggies. It is just SUPER CLEAN NATURAL FOODS!
If you want a TRUE cleanse, you don’t need to do some crazy diet that cuts out all but one food group! Just eat whole natural foods that aren’t processed at all!
Or you know what…maybe even add in some intermittent fasting…Now fasting a bit…that IS truly good for your body!
Oh but wait….you aren’t doing a cleanse to be healthy? No…you are doing the cleanse because your friend supposedly lost 10lbs in one week?!?
Oh well then of course do the cleanse! It must be the magic pill for weight loss!
NOT!
Cleanse diets might help you lose a bit of weight, but the second you stop the cleanse, do you really think you are going to maintain the weight loss?
You haven’t changed your normal daily eating habits so how do you think you are going to keep that lost weight off?
YOU AREN’T GOING TO!
So why waste a week of your life on a completely miserable diet only to lose weight that you will probably gain back in less than two days when you return to your old eating habits?
DON’T!
There is no quick weight loss solution. If you want to lose weight, eat clean whole, natural foods. Eat a well-balanced diet of fruits, vegetables and meat. (Shoot I would even say a well-balanced diet of vegetables and meat, which is completely the opposite of some of those fruit and sugar-laden cleanses!)
If you want to truly lose weight, you need to start a diet you can maintain for more than a week.
And if you are completely and utterly set on doing some sort of “cleanse” go super strict the first couple of weeks on your diet. Eat only vegetables and meat.
Then maybe after those two weeks of super clean eating, add back in a few healthy treats…like fruits or maybe a glass of wine or some dark chocolate or a little full-fat dairy here and there.
The point is that these fad cleanses aren’t healthy AND they don’t truly help you lose weight. If you want to be “clean” and lose weight, your only solution is to eat whole natural foods.
Even Dr. Oz says so!
Man Bicep 