Popular Diet simplified - part 5

Tying It All Together 

Over the last few weeks we have explored some of the common diet trends around, including Gluten Free, Plant based (vegan/Vegetarian), Keto & Intermittent Fasting. If you’ve been through each of the posts you’ll probably have noticed a common trend…

Each of the trends seeks to eliminate a source of nutrition to restrict calories. Wheat, animals, carbohydrates and in the terms of fasting time. 

There are plenty of benefits and downsides to each, ultimately each is governed by the quality of the choices we make. 

Regardless of the method you decide shit food is shit food. If you're consuming high volumes of sugar, refined grain, saturated fats, processed & artificial sweeteners it's highly unlikely that you’ll reach your goals regardless of what they are. 

The next three words might be the most powerful information you will get in terms of diet knowledge… 

EAT. 
REAL.
FOOD. 

This alone is the absolute minimum required to help you move forward toward your goal. If you do absolutely nothing but eat real food you're likely to lead a relatively healthy and enjoyable life. 

Let's put some structure around what a basic day of eating might look like on a Eat, Real, Food nutrition plan: 

• Prioritise Protein. It builds and recovers muscle, reducing aches and pains while controlling weight management by burning calories and allowing us to exercise regularly. 
  
  • Eat at every meal: Fish/Seafood, Poultry, grass fed Beef, Eggs & Legumes (beans)
    
• Unprocessed Carbohydrates. Carbs are the best source of fuel, essential for high intensity training & recovery. The less processed it is the higher the thermic effect and overall calorie burn is. 
  
  • Eat around times of high energy consumption (training). Kumara, Potatoes, Rice, Oats, Quinoa & Fruits 
    
• Fats. Regulate hormones. They are needed to optimise normal body function and ultimately our performance.
  
  • Eat throughout the day (it may be a benefit to avoid fats before exercise, but do not overthink the room).  Fresh Olive Oils, Coconut Oil, Nuts & Nut Butters, Seeds and fats from good protein like grass fed Beef & Eggs.
    
• Vegetables. Vegetables are almost their own separate Macro. They contain so many valuable nutrients while being extremely low in overall calories. So eat as many serves of vegetables a day as possible.
  

Regardless of your choice, if your main reason for entering into a style of dieting is for the purpose of weight management, remember at the end of the day its calories in versus calories out that really matters.

Choices & results will vary wildly from person to person. For every example of a diet success we could find 100 who failed and vice versa. Outside of calorie balance, adherence (your ability to stay focused) to the regime you’ve chosen is what will decide whether you succeed, fail or even regress.

So don’t split hairs on the small stuff. Put your energy into calorie balance and making the right decisions more than you stuff up! Because you will stuff up and that is ok, shake it off and get back on track from the very next meal.

Most people will never truly invest the necessary amount of time or effort into seeing if a particular plan works for them. 

Ultimately leaving their goals on the table. The reality is most people will never reach their desired outcomes. Too often we seek instant gratification, rather than following through with the process. I'm sure you have all tried many different diet regimes, ask yourself:

Q: How strictly did you follow the guidelines?
Q: How long did you stick it out? 
Q: Was it the diet's fault or did you just not try hard enough?

In my opinion the best plan is the one that has the most flexibility, variety while avoiding extreme measures in either direction. You will always get the 1-2% that thrive at either end of a bell curve. Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle. Take the pieces from each that resonate with your lifestyle, ethical beliefs. Start by removing the crap and focusing on real food and finding a plan you can stick to.