After nearly 15 years in this industry, I’ve read a lot of research reports.
Tonnes of books.
Pored through a lot of ‘latest findings’.
Which seemingly, have said pretty much anything you can think of.
“Carbs are bad.”
“Carbs are good.”
“Fat is bad.”
“Fat is good.”
“Fruit makes you fat.”
“Animal meat gives you cancer.”
“Fiber is bad for you.”
“Grapefruit detoxes your body.”
“Putting butter in your coffee burns belly fat.”
Etc, etc.
The one thing everyone always seems to be in agreement?
Vegetables are good!
With all that in mind, we understand why people are confused.
You try something for a few weeks……..
And you may lose a bit of weight………
As pretty much any change will cause short term weight loss at least.
But, it’s not as much as you were hoping for.
And it was hard work.
So, without really consciously deciding to, you kinda just stop.
I think there are two things about any way of eating that most people would agree on;
1. It’s got to be maintainable and enjoyable – you should be able to imagine yourself doing this most days for the rest of your life and be, at least, reasonably happy with that
2. It’s got to take you in the ‘right direction’ over time – your weight, health, etc should improve whilst eating that way
Everything else is, kinda, ‘negotiable’.
We have our way of eating that we recommend.
Balanced diet and natural foods most of the time pretty much covers it.
That definitely does Point 2 (in conjunction with the exercise, sleep and stress management, etc).
We genuinely don’t see why it can’t cover Point 1.
There’s so much variety and so many options that you should be able to enjoy it long term.
It might involved (re) learning how to cook.
Or trying a few new things.
Or changing the way you approach food sourcing and prep (planning ahead, batch cooking, etc).
We often find people who struggle with it are doing so, in part, because they are falsely limiting themselves.
“I’d be bored just eating chicken and broccoli all the time” they might say.
When no one has every suggested they do that.
Or “I don’t have time to cook a full, fresh meal every night.”
When no one has suggested they do that either.
Or there’ll be stuck in a mindset that causes them to “fall off the wagon.”
One less healthy meal / day free falls into going back into eating crap all the time.
When it doesn’t have to.
They could just as easily return to balanced, proper meals at the next occasion.
Anyway, we get it.
If you’re not ‘enjoying’ the way you’re eating………
It does need to change.
Or it won’t last.
Experiment.
Try new things.
Find a way you’re happy with.
What you’re doing not taking you in the direction you’d like to go?
It’s probably because the things you’ve done that did weren’t enjoyable.
So, same answer really (and check this out, if you haven’t already –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting).
And let us know if you need some ideas 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Maintainable and enjoyable’ Hall and Matt ‘Right direction’ Nicholson
P.S. I’ve got an audition for Ninja Warrior UK this afternoon. I’ll let you know on Monday how it went 🙂
