Having a 'Clean Plate'

Once again let me say I’m not a doctor. I’m sharing with you the insights I have gained through my own trial and error. This is information I think is practical and easier to digest than the standard information you get in most books. Right from the onset let me state this. You will not succeed in your health and fitness goals if you don’t focus most of your effort on diet.

Take a moment to take that in. Going to the gym three times a week for 1 hour at a time is one hundred times easier than eating well for the rest of the day. The challenge of getting your diet right is the hardest you will have to overcome.  

Most people fail at balancing their nutrition because they try to change too much too soon and then feel guilty when they realise, they make mistakes or don’t immediately get it right. The simple truth is nobody can really make a full change to their diet and instantly be successful.

However, if you give yourself a year to experiment and tinker and implement healthy options you’ll never fall back into your old habits. You’ll solidify new eating habits; you’ll gain immeasurable knowledge, and you’ll see drastic changes in your outward physical appearance and inward in your body’s inherent well-being.

If you’re like me your unhealthy eating habits were built up over time, possibly from a young age then you cannot just change those on a Monday and expect your mind and body to simply get with the program. The way to win this battle is with planning, small incremental changes, and consistency in your efforts. It takes commitment and effort from you.

When it comes down to it most of us know what good food is and what is bad, the problem is we consistently choose the bad food over the good for the taste or comfort of eating that food, that’s a habit that can be changed.

I still eat bad food and I still love it. The only difference between the unhealthy version of me and the person I am today is that today the ratio of good food I eat is much greater than the ration of bad and I consistently eat good food when I plan to. As I’ve mentioned before if you can nail down your Monday – Friday diet it gives you some wiggle room on the weekend to eat some bad food. Think about your shopping trolley, what goes into it will go into you and your loved ones.

The method I use isn’t revolutionary, it’s not anything that’s, ‘never been seen before’ or anything like that, I just basically remove the element of chance by either not buying the food I know is bad for me or if I do buy it make sure I don’t eat it all in one sitting (easier said than done but again this is to be a phased approach over time).

What goes in your Shopping Trolley goes in your Belly

All the food you have in your home is brought there by you. You decide what goes there by the choices you make in your supermarket when you purchase your groceries. Nobody else puts the snacks there; nobody else buys all the pizzas. If you live with your parents or with a spouse who does most of the shopping that’s not an excuse either. Open your mouth and ask them not to buy whatever it is that you know you’ll eat but shouldn’t.

I used to buy what I refer to as ‘oven food’. This is food that you don’t really cook so much as heat up in the oven or microwave. E.g., chicken wings breaded chicken, pizza, breads, pasta bakes, lasagnes, frozen fried foods, chips/fries, and a myriad of other processed foods.

These are all basically bad food. If the food you’re eating wasn’t prepared by you and can be cooked in a microwave or in an oven, then in my opinion as a rule its bad food. Yes, of course there are exceptions to this rule but as we’re all adults I take it you’ll get my point.

So why do we eat them? For me it was all about convenience. They required little or no preparation, they were done in usually twenty-five to forty minutes, and they gave me the feeling of eating a substantial meal for a short time. Also, I had no idea how to cook anything except breakfast, so I really didn’t see any alternative at the time.

The point of this discussion is this. What you put in your trolley goes in your belly. What goes in your belly affects your physical wellbeing and appearance and believe it or not your mental state.  If you can control what goes in your trolley you will control what goes on your plate and in turn your weight and your mental state.

If that seems like it’s overly simplified that’s because it’s a simple concept. Don’t buy bad food and you won’t eat bad food. Don’t eat bad food and you won’t gain excessive weight. Don’t gain excessive weight and you won’t get health complications and you’ll feel better about yourself and be physically more capable (inherent illnesses aside).

You may agree with me but you’re also thinking to yourself, easier said than done. Yes, I totally agree but that’s still not an excuse. Perhaps you need motivation? Well often money is a great motivator. My weekly shop was costing me about €90 – €110 per week for all the rubbish oven food. Now to feed myself for an entire week including before, during and after work is never more than €45 - €65 (that’s including supplements and protein shakes).

I completely disagree with the common conception that eating healthy is expensive. Vegetables, lean meats and fruit are cheap to buy and can be bought in bulk.

What I’m telling you is if you want to be healthier and wealthier you can do so simply by deciding to pick up one thing over another when you’re in the shop so that when you get home you won’t be eat the bad food and instead will eat the good food.

Start small and work your way to the better diet. E.g., for a week replace the fizzy drinks with water and buy a few (very few) cans of fizzy drink for your cravings if you must. After two weeks do another swap and keep doing so every fortnight. After a few months your shopping trolley is going to look very different and you in turn are going to look very different.

Buy yourself something nice (not bad food, perhaps new clothing) with the spare change.

Remember, chin up, chest out and handle it.

Yours,

Stephen