Take On The Next Habit... in Your Nutrition

Do you eat healthy?

Do you eat healthy?

If you're like most of my clients, you struggle to answer that question.  If you're like most of America... the answer might be "no".

Understandably so!  It's a sad truth of the American "food culture" that while we pack our grocery shelves with processed foods (and our advertising with mental tricks to get you to buy that food) we also pop out a new fad diet every 6 months. Somewhere in the mess we lose our connection to our bodies, our vast and varied heritages, and our intuition when it comes to food.  

Tie in a healthy dose of shame and what are we to do?

The (multi) Billion Dollar Question

What we do about our food has become big bucks!  In 2016 food corporations spent over $191 Billion on advertising alone.  That's money spent just to get their food in front of you.  It's also a "known secret" that the food industry pays lobbyists to manipulate our Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

I mean, come on!  If you can't trust the US Government, who can you trust!?  Am I right?

Anyway...

Think about it - Big Food (meaning the food industries in America) wont make a lot of money if they can't sell you more coke, chips, factory farmed meat, fast food, and processed stuff.  So it's in their best interest to keep the guidelines vague, easily misinterpreted, and keep their advertisement dollars tempting you off your path.

So the question "What are we to do?" is complicated...

Now add in the fact that change is HARD.  Like, really hard.  Only half of all New Years resolutions make it past the first month and only about 20% of overweight people are successful with long term weight loss. 

So we're confused, we're manipulated, it's hard...now what!?

This is the first post in a series about the "Now What?" question.  In my years as a coach I've found there are two paths to success when it comes to nutrition:

1. Quick and Dirty

You've got an event (like a wedding or a race or a fight or whatever) and you need to drop weight.  Fast!  So you do whatever it takes for a while, cleaning up every ounce of your nutrition for a defined period of time.  This doesn't last because as soon as your event is over you go back to what you did before - sometimes worse.  Depending on who you are and your unique life, maybe you keep some of your hard fought gains, maybe you regress back to where you started, or maybe you end up a couch potato for a year.  

Typically Quick and Dirty does not last

2. Long Term Habit Change

Real talk: in my years as a coach, no one thinks of this as the sexy way.  Everyone wants the new, big, flashy fad diet.  They try Quick and Dirty a few times, get frustrated, and eventually come around to a difficult conversation with themselves (and me) and we start working on their habits.  

This series of posts is on Long Term Habit Change

The two big secrets about fad diets:

Here it is... you ready?  Are you sure?  Cause I'm going to tell you the big dirties right now:

1. If you do them, fad diets work. 

2. Because they're "Quick and Dirty" diets
you'll go right back to where you started before you did them.

So if you want a quick and dirty, go pick up your favorite fad diet.

If you want longer term results, some self reflective work, and to heal a bit of your relationship with your food and your soul, read on:

Next Habit Nutrition

In the coming weeks I'll be posting regularly about habit change, how nutrition change works, and then week to week I'll be writing on the "Next Habit".  

The idea here is simple: learn about habit change, pick the habit you need to work on, and work on it.  No gimmick, no bullshit, no paid endorsements or hidden motivations.  (OK, my secret motivation is to help people through my writing.  Happy now?  Maybe I'll turn it into an eBook someday...)

You're a Scientist - Run Some Experiments

I believe all of us are the scientists of our own bodies.  Watch a little kid play long enough and you'll realize they're experimenting in their world.  They're learning by doing.  And you should to.

The only person who knows how things feel inside your body is you.  Don't like anyone tell you that your experience isn't real or valid (unless you have a psych condition that distorts your reality...that's a different story).  So if I tell you to try something and it feels bad, don't do it.  Run the experiment on yourself, learn what's real for your body/mind/spirit, and move on.

The next post will be on Habit Change, coming mid June.  Stay Tuned.