Of course eating healthy doesn’t make life harder, it makes life easier. I'm in the business of making peoples lives easier and more enjoyable but I’ve fielded this topic enough that I was compelled to write about it.
When talking about the perks of eating real food and giving a shit about your nutritional intake, I often hear:
- “I just love food to much.”
- “I can’t give up ‘fill in the blank’ food, thats impossible.”
I hear these two protests a lot when someone is asking me about my class The Real Food Experiment. I get it: before I understood what it meant to eat healthy, I had no urge to eat healthy. I had no desire to be thin or “healthy”, especially if to do so meant giving up the food I loved.
I had grown up competing in wrestling from 7th grade to the collegiate level. Through wrestling I had developed a learned helplessness with nutrition. During my wrestling career I tested so many diets and tactics all without success. Tactics tried and discarded included putting the fork down between bites; eating smaller meals every few hours; not eating before bed; only eating prepackaged food so I could read the food lable. I remember that while I was in college looking forward to a time after wrestling when I could have a beer belly and only eat the food that I enjoyed. To never have to think about eating healthy because it just wasn’t worth it. I dreamed about this because I had learnt that eating healthy tasted awful and took impossible amounts of willpower. Eating health food meant their was no possibility of feeling satisfied. Or that healthy living involved so much work only the incredible vain would go through and no sane person would.
That was me. So I get it: eating healthy sounds shitty. So lets take a look at what someone is really trying to say with those protests from earlier.
- Healthy food doesn’t taste good and I don’t care enough about my health and well being to eat food that tastes like shit.
- I would rather eat food thats unhealthy for me and can’t be bothered to take ‘whatever bad food’ out of my diet; for even a short time.
I get it people, change is scary. Lets face it: your relationship with food is one you started at birth and who am I to come in and tell you how you should change it? This is why I designed The Real Food Experiment. People can learn the how and why about healthy eating at the same time gently improve habits. These fears are not without merit so let me explain my side now that live an enlightened nutritional life.
1. Your taste buds and body evolved to let you know when food is good for you. So when you feed your body “Real Food” that nourishes, fuels and satisfies, you should not be left wanting. If your healthy meal leaves you wanting more that is a sign/symptom that something is missing.
Tomas R, Personal Trainer
“Holidays threw me for a loop, got off track. Woke up this morning and chose to use a lettuce leaf on my breakfast wrap, of peppers, spinach, turkey and guacamole. Been through many different eating regimens and I gotta say you made it the easiest to get back on track...simple plan. Eat balanced, eat clean, season to taste.”
2. If someone told you they couldn’t give up drinking/ smoking/ whatever drug for even just a short time, what would you think?... Addiction, right? Addiction is no different when it comes to food. Have you ever seen someone addicted to a substance who’s life wouldn’t improve if they could just break themselves of the addiction. If you can’t cut out something from your diet that is potentially bad for you for just a short time then News Flash! you’re addicted to it. The Good news about food (really sugar and carbohydrate) addictions is that it doesn’t take that long to break the addiction. The really Great news is that once you do, it feels Amazing! Eating healthy will put an end to symptoms, a lot of which you probably have become numb to. When you don’t realize that you are addicted to these foods symptoms pop up that seem like “old age” and are “inevitable”.
Truth is your body doesn’t want to be sick. So when you start eating real food symptoms start to disappear. Symptoms that can include but are not limited to: loss of excess body fat, reduced stress exposure, clearer skin, looking younger, more energy, less energy crashes, better immune system function, easier mornings, improved recovery, actually seeing your all your abs, bye bye love handles, no more “skinny fat”,... Basically what I’m trying to say is, eating healthy doesn’t make life harder. It makes life easier in ways you will never see coming. If you improve your quality of food you will defiantly improve your quality of life.
Amy R.
“The Real Food Experiment program changed my life. I had no idea how addicted to sugar my body was. I no longer have energy crashes and feel very strong with my sustained energy levels.”
Jessica D.
“I had been Struggling with my weight for years, trying to count calories and survive on salads. The Real Food Experiment taught me how to cook satisfying hearty dishes . The pot lucks are so much fun and filled my fridge with small meals to have on hand with tons of yummy healthy fats I didn’t know I should be eating. It surprised me when the lbs. melted away!”
For more information about The Real Food Experiment or to sign-up contact Jerry at OstbJerry@gmail.com