Eggs. Eggs are good…probably 🙂
Atkins
Slow-Carb
Paleo
Intermittent Fasting
Vegan
Vegetarian
Jared’s “Subway Diet”
Juice Cleanse…
Need I go on?
How many DIETS will we possibly try before we give up?
No matter how you eat right now and no matter what your BELIEFS are about nutrition, here is the ACTUAL truth:
There is no consensus yet among scientists on what the BEST diet ACTUALLY is and there is not nearly enough data on the subject.
Strange, right? You’d think we would study this subject a lot.
Well, corporate and government promotion of particular food industries and agricultural sectors is where most of our nutritional information comes from.
It’s not about your HEALTH at all. It’s about economics…
(See the USA Today article: “Study: How the Sugar Industry Lied About Heart Disease” for a good example).
Even people who graduated from Harvard Medical School have been saying that their training in the nutrition area is medieval.
It’s hard to find good information about how we should be eating without running into someone’s AGENDA.
So, I’m going to give you everything I know about this right now AGENDA-FREE.
My Background
First, I should tell you that I’m not an “official” nutrition expert and this information is “for entertainment purposes only.”
Follow anything you read here at your own risk.
However, I did counsel people about this as a Customer Service Rep at Bodybuilding.com for a while and I got excellent nutrition training when I was there. I also care about health A LOT.
I used to lift weights so much I could essentially eat whatever I wanted.
Now I realize the way we eat is MORE important than exercise when it comes to health and I’ve really focused on it over the past few years.
What we eat impacts everything.
How we feel hours later. How we look. How confident we are. How we feel about ourselves.
So, here’s what I know right now (this could change as we learn more. We truly DON’T KNOW yet and anyone who says they know 100% is LYING):
Sugar is bad.
And not just sugary donuts and cake. This means bread, corn, etc.
Simple sugars spike your insulin and lead to weight gain and unnecessary fat storage.
Just cutting as much sugar as you can from your diet will lead to a huge increase in health.
If you eat fruit, eat them WHOLE instead of blending them up, so you get FIBER with the sugar, which helps regulate your insulin response.
Cutting sugar is where I’d start if you haven’t done this already…
I ALWAYS look at how many grams of sugar are in something before I buy it (and how many servings…they can trick you with that). This is the #1 thing I look for when buying food.
Check how much sugar is in your “healthy” drinks or juice, etc. You might be surprised…
I only drink water, sparkling water, and black coffee for that reason alone.
Greens are good.
You can probably eat as many green leafy vegetables as you want and never get fat or harm your health. Add as many of these as you can stand.
Fasting sometimes is probably really good for you.
That’s all I have to say about that right now…I encourage you to research intermittent fasting for yourself.
Instead of following whatever CRAZE DIET is popular right now, here’s what I recommend:
Make part of your self-image, “I’m just the kind of person who’s healthy and fit.”
That way, as we learn more about health and YOU become more aware, you can adjust your behavior over time.
We don’t go on diets on Team Impact. We adjust our lifestyle over time to reflect our ideal self-image.
The changes we make are permanent because of that.
I recommend focusing on changing one meal at a time. Once that change “sticks,” change the next one.
I started with breakfast. Then I changed my lunches. Then my snack. Then I cut soda completely out of my diet. I’m refining my dinners right now.<===This SLOW process of change works really well.
I’m the leanest I’ve ever been because of the way I eat now (and I eat a whole small pizza once a week as a “cheat meal…”).
Here is what I currently eat if you want to use any of this:
Breakfast:
Butter coffee or butter tea. The caffeine/UNSALTED grass-fed butter combo makes me feel great in the morning and doesn’t cause me to crash later.
Get more animal fat in your diet if you can. It keeps you lean.
Doctors advised to cut fat for a long time, but really SUGAR is the main enemy. But, the FDA loves to promote CORN and BREAD, so…
Lunch:
2 Grass fed eggs. Studies show that grass-fed eggs have 10x the nutritional value of “regular” eggs…
FATTY, grass-fed, uncured meat. <===I encourage you to let go of a “low-fat” obsession when you buy food if you have one…It’s incredibly misleading and most “low-fat” foods have TONS of SUGAR.
One square of 85% dark chocolate…yummm!
Dinner:
I am working on this right now…stay tuned. It varies at the moment.
Snack:
I have a banana at around 9 PM every night.
I also take Vitamin D every day…
Here are a couple things we used to PROMOTE (even I did when I gave advice about this), but now we know are NOT TRUE:
- Eating more, smaller meals throughout the day ACTUALLY DOES NOT make a difference. The latest studies show this, which is why we keep an open mind on Team Impact. I used to LOVE talking about this method…sigh. I was WRONG.
- Eating at certain times is better than others (before bed, etc.). Again, the CURRENT RESEARCH is showing that this wonderful truth is ALSO FALSE.
What seems to matter most, according to what we know right now, is what you eat (not all calories are created equal…), how much sugar you eat, and how much you eat on a given day versus your level of activity.
And of course, we want to exercise regularly too.
And there are a lot of myths about exercise that are also popular.
Two things: walking and resistance training (lifting weights). You should be doing those in my opinion. Everything else is up to you.
(Our bodies are designed to WALK 12 miles every day…that’s when we operate at peak efficiency, even our brains. I only walk for 30-60 minutes every day, but walk a little bit more no matter what you do now).
I hope this helped at least a little bit.
Make sure you think of yourself as a healthy, fit person, adjust the way you eat (do not go on a diet) in small amounts over time, and keep your mind open to new information.
The way you NORMALLY eat every day, 80% of the time, is what counts the most. Not what you do for 3 weeks and give up. Not the one piece of cake you had last month.
What do you do on a daily basis when it comes to how you eat? Are you doing it consciously? I hope so…
We will learn A LOT more about this over this next century. I’m probably wrong about something I said in this article, so DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
You sir, are the man.
Cheers,
Jim
