Are you overthinking nutrition? If you think it’s about deprivation and green juice, then, yes. It’s so easy to get caught up in all the fads. Been there, done that. Carbs are bad. Fat is bad. Breathing air is bad. Like, WTF?! Once I actually read some books and studies—you know, educated myself instead of listening to the media—I discovered that good nutrition is simple. REALLY SIMPLE.
Your body needs proteins, fats, and carbs. Carbs turn into energy, proteins build and maintain muscle, and fat helps your body absorb nutrients. Don’t be afraid of fats and don’t be afraid of carbs. Understanding that you need proteins, fats, and carbs daily, should automatically help you think about nutrition and your personal diet differently. The breakdown makes life and eating… simple.
There are many ways to eat—low carb, high fat, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, paleo, timing out what you eat when… I mean, seriously, it makes my head spin. Once you have a foundation of good nutrition, you can experiment with what works best for you. Personally, I switched to pescatarian a couple months ago and I love it, but it’s not for everyone.
I believe that the two worst things you can do is deprive yourself of the foods you love and count calories. Life is too short to pass up a cupcake and if you’re eating real, properly portioned whole foods, you won’t have to worry about calories. You also have to learn to eat according to your lifestyle. Are you not active? Then you shouldn’t be eating like you’re an Olympian. Are you super active? Then stop eating like a Polly Pocket; you need fuel. (No shade to Polly Pocket, though!)
Simply, I look at my personal nutrition like this: try to get a protein, fat, and carb in every meal, eat most of my carbs in the beginning of the day (this is so your body uses them as energy and doesn’t store it as fat), get 5 servings each of fruits and veggies, drink a gallon of water (I include unsweetened tea), and eat the damn cookie if I want it. When I’m less active, I eat 3-4 times a day. When I’m really active and training, I eat 4-6 times a day. I listen to my body. If I’m hungry, I eat… but that doesn’t mean shoving a deep-dish pizza in my mouth. It’s more like carrots and hummus or a smoothie.
I’ll have a nutrition plan coming out in a couple months that I can’t wait for you all to try. So, in the interim, I figured I’d share a “Day In The Life†of my nutrition. I eat super healthy and I eat awesome things. You can have nutrition and flavor and you can have dessert. So here it is… what I eat in a day!
We all like to eat fancy dishes, but keeping it simple keeps the waistline small. Besides, who has time to cook Bouillabaisse during the week? Save fancy for date night and make your life easier by eating simply. Also, seasoning changes lives… well maybe not lives, but definitely your food. Go crazy! Curry, Thyme, Adobo?! Food should taste good and I don’t believe in boiled chicken and plain brown rice. Gag me. Unless you’re prepping for a bodybuilding contest, spare yourself the agony of eating bland food.
Remember, it’s not as tough as you think it is to change your diet and eat nutritiously without sacrificing flavor. Fresh is best. Go organic if and when you can. And NEVER PASS UP A CUPCAKE!
