First some background. I’ve spent most of my life being overweight. As a kid, I was always chubby. I wasn’t good at any sports, so I didn’t stay very active. My family didn’t eat very nutritiously. Not to say they’re to blame for my being overweight, there was a lot of bad information going around at that time, and nutrition just wasn’t something we thought about. Sugary cereal in the morning, school pizza and french fries for lunch, meat plus some variation of potato for dinner, and soda/candy as snacks in between. In that world, if you wanted to get thinner, you exercised more, and I just wasn’t good at that. I had a very poor self-image, and spent a lot of my time alone.
So at 232 lbs, I went off to college, and it was a reset to my lifestyle. I was forced to be active, walking all over campus, up and down nonsense hills to get to my classes. I found sports and activities I liked: I was a long distance runner, I was on the JMU Tae Kwon Do and Table Tennis Teams. Weight melted off. In my first year of school I lost 60 lbs. I finally learned how to exercise and stay active, and I loved it. A miracle had occurred, the answer to all my problems had been found.
..for a few years.
As any distance runners will tell you, when you’re running a lot, you can eat pretty much anything. I was outrunning my bad diet, but I could only sustain it for for so long. Eventually all my running took its toll, and I started getting regular injuries. I’d get injured, take time off, balloon up in weight, run it off, repeat. Then one day I said to hell with it, and started to look for better answers. I started studying.
I’ve read, watched, and compared as many reputable nutrition sources as possible over the past 4 years. I read The China Study, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Living Lean, Born to Run, Fast Food Nation, Guns Germs and Steel, Food Inc. I watched documentaries and listened to podcasts. I found things that smart people agreed on, and tried putting them in action; here’s what I learned works for me:
1. MAKE IT SUSTAINABLE
My first mistake was that I didn’t live a balanced lifestyle. As a kid I ate bad and never exercised. As a young adult I relied on cardio exercise to make up for a poor diet. Both approaches were missing critical elements. You know how much the human body burns doing nothing? About 2,000 calories. How much does it burn in an hour of moderate activity? 300-400 calories. What that tells you is, the body takes a lot of energy just to exist, but is very efficient when it comes to physical activity. Sure you can burn more calories than that through exercise, but the more intense your activities are, the greater the chance of injury. Making up for a bad diet with cardiovascular exercise is unsustainable, you’ll get injured, or your willpower will fail.
I find that I need a balance between three aspects of health:
- Managing food intake through mindful food choices, satiation, and increased frequency/portion control
- Reasonable cardiovascular activity at intensities that won’t cause stress related injuries
- Strength training to increase functional, energy-burning muscle, as a down payment on a more active metabolism in the future
2. MANAGING WILLPOWER
Lunch.
So how do you manage food intake? How do you commit to a fitness regimen? You have to be motivated, and apply willpower. But how? The first step is to get to know yourself. When do you make unhealthy decisions? When do you make healthy ones? I’m great at setting future-Jonathan up to make healthy decisions, but I’m bad at getting present-Jonathan to do the same. If there’s junk food around the house, I’ll eat it. But if I’m at the grocery store buying food, I can pass on the junk food and keep it out of the house. That’s when I have my willpower; when I’m not hungry, and when I’m thinking about my food. The same goes for packing my lunch for work. If I pack my lunch, I can pack something very nutritious and healthy, but I may slip if I go out and get something at work. Sometimes at night I’ll get caught in a cycle of constant snacking. So how do I get myself to stop? I’ll floss. I hate flossing, and if I do it after my final snack, I know I won’t want to have to floss again just to eat more. You have to know those moments when you have willpower, and take advantage of them, and it starts with an honest assessment of yourself.
3. SATIATION
These are actual photographs of the inside of my stomach.
If you’re like me, it’s very hard to control your diet by going hungry, and it’s not healthy; your metabolism slows down, your energy and blood sugar levels drops, and you’re more likely to lose your willpower and snack on crap. So how do you manage your food intake while staying satiated, energized, and happy? Nutrition and strength coach Mike Dolce has four easy principles that make it possible for me:
- Eat only earth-grown nutrients
- Eat until you’re satisfied, not until you’re full
- Eat every 2-4 hours
- Eat based on what you just did, and what you’re about to do
Simple right? Eating earth-grown nutrients means consuming high fiber, filling, nutrient dense food that will fill your stomach and trigger satiation. Eating until you’re satisfied (not until you’re full) keeps your portions smaller, but your energy level raised. Can you go for a 5 mile run after your meal? You should never feel like you have a brick in your stomach. Eating every 2-4 hours means you’re satisfied more of the day, and your blood sugar level is more stable. Eating a macro nutrient combination based on what you just did and what you’re about to do means you can apply this philosophy to any activity level. It adapts to the lifestyle of an office worker or a professional athlete.
4. MINDFUL EATING
Myfitnesspal is my wingman.
Do you think about what you eat? Think about what foods make you feel like garbage, and which foods make you feel like you can run through a brick wall? Paying attention to what you eat, how much you ate, and when you ate it is super valuable information when identifying your tastes and optimal diet. I’ve logged everything I’ve eaten for the past 4+ years (go ahead, ask me about what I ate at any meal in that time span), and from that I know that when I started rotating chia seeds into my breakfast last year my energy level skyrocketed. I know I sleep better when I eat a low sugar/high fiber snack an hour or so before bed. I know I eat salmon way too much (still working on that one). I’m not saying you have to be a calorie counter (and I don’t think that’s an effective practice anyway), but the more you think about the food you eat, and the more you know its effects, the better your decisions are going to be.
5. TASTES CHANGE
Current model of Jonathan, and Mom.
At first, eating natural foods may seem bland. Give it time. The cleaner you eat, and the longer you go without refined sweeteners, the more sensitive your taste buds will become; I know from experience. I used to not be able to choke down oatmeal without dumping some brown sugar in it. But over time, I put in less and less. I grew to appreciate the flavor of the oatmeal and the sweetness of the fruit on top of it, and before long the sugar was gone; and I didn’t miss it. Mix in the good stuff, cycle out the bad stuff, and your cravings will melt away. You’ll enjoy what you’re eating, you’ll have more energy, and you’ll feel better about yourself.