9.25.17// Calories// Part 3// Whole Foods

MetCon//

Bring your Running Shoes!

In Part 1, we talked about realistic/sustainable/healthy fat loss expectations. In Part 2 we came to the hard truth that we can't win the battle with our body over energy balance and it's drive for calories.

So what gives? It all sounds very hopeless.

Lets start by applauding how our bodies were created! Whenever you're feeling a little thicker than you would like, remind yourself that your body packed on that weight for resiliency in a famine!...Not helping the situation? Yah, didn't think so. Obesity is a really new epidemic, and you could say it's caused by humans moving less and/or processed foods. It really is both, but our perfectly efficient bodies are mainly to blame. 

The ancestral school of eating (paleo) really does nail down the way we should be eating if we want a lean and healthy body. Eating whole or minimally processed foods, no matter what it is, meat, veggies, fruit and yes even grains, beans, and dairy is the magic ticket to eating the correct amounts. You don't need a special hack or trick to eat the right amount of broccoli. Ever tried over-eating roasted Brussels sprouts? Not possible. Even the paleo-forbidden Steel-cut-oats are hard to over-eat so long as they aren't doused in brown sugar and cream. 

There has always been a huge push in fitness and nutrition for some sort of math. Zone and Blocks, Weight Watchers and points, calorie counting, macros, etc. It always calls for some really big change, but when was the last time you were able to make an abrupt and permanent life change by your own efforts? We often try because we want fast results and think they can come from big efforts. The reality is that positive results take a lot longer than we expect, but the changes we need to make are much smaller and easier as well. 

Would you rather closely monitor and restrict the amount of food you're eating at each meal and have to hold back? Or would you rather eat as much as you want until your satisfied without consequences?

I really hope you chose the second option! When your meals are processed food, it's really hard to stop. It's been engineered to taste really really good. And actually a lot of additives make you even hungrier when you eat them. Not only that, but we digest them much faster, messing with our hormones and metabolisms. Sure a lot of the time we choose processed options because of the taste, but sometimes we're afraid of not being satisfied by whole foods. That's a logical fear since we all grew up smashing a whole Chinese dinner combo only to get home from the restaurant already hungry again. Where's the ice cream? The fear is becasue we're used to being unsatisfied by hyper-palatable foods (super tasty), so how in the heck is this whole food stuff going to satisfy?

Your food doesn't need be raw and flavorless. Learn how to cook with fats and spices, and whole foods won't only satisfy, but they fill us up for a really long time! The fiber, nutrients, proteins, fats, carbohydrates are just the perfect storm for optimal health. 

Don't stress the big stuff like lining up your macros to the 1/2 gram or whether or not your beets are local and humanely harvested. Just eat a lot of whole foods. Eat them slow until satisfied. Don't shoot for loosing more than 1 lb of fat per week. And don't freak out, quit, and fly off the rails because you had a couple pieces of pizza at the church volunteer training!