This series of articles has been focused around choosing minimally processed foods over the typical American diet of foods with an ingredient list longer than a new car sticker window. That said, it’s impossible to avoid processed foods completely in the modern world we find ourselves trapped in…I mean…blissfully existing in both wonder and excitement.
So on behalf of the Department of Redundancy Department, I’d like to dive into the process of choosing processed foods on a limited processed foods lifestyle. Try saying that three times in a row.
It is possible to make every single item you consume yourself and avoid 99% of pre-made items from the mega-mart, but no one has that kind of time. There are plenty of brands out there now that are making quality products with ingredients limited only to what is necessary. You just need to take the time to read the ingredients before you buy.
Take this one piece of advice when shopping…trust no one. That reliable brand of your favorite jar of whatever could be hiding all sorts of unnecessary or even questionable ingredients adding extra calories, fats, or sugars. And once you get it home, even with the good stuff, pay attention to what a serving is, and weigh out said servings until you get familiar with what that looks like.
Take salad dressings as an example. Most “diet” advice people will tell you to avoid dressings altogether. I say that’s crazy talk. I eat home made salads all the time, and doing it without dressings is too depressing to consider.
Eating a dry salad sounds about as appealing as dry swallowing a 800 mg chalk pill. I use Primal Kitchen dressings instead of making my own, or eating the major brands that are full of cheap oils and weird preservatives.
Even as healthy as these are compared to “normal’ brands, dressings are a high density food, meaning fats and calories. So instead of choking down a dry salad, measure out a serving. That means 30ml for these bad boys, and if you’ve never measured that before, trust me when I say your normal pour ain’t that.
If you or anyone you know says “I eat salads all the time, but I never lose weight” then you are probably pouring your dressing like John Hamm poured a shot of bourbon in a Mad Men episode.
The first time you actually measure out 30 ml, you will think I’m crazy, but trust me, it gets the job done. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to know about what that is without weighing it out, and if you ever get a normal pour, it will immediately be clear it is way too heavy.
Just be consistent, and that will become a habit, and small, healthy habits that you do daily lead to consistent, progressive change. Big swings in habit change usually lead to failure.
That’s why New Year’s resolutions are usually the same ones every year. You can’t go from slamming every decadent dessert and drink you see for months on end to eating one celery stick and plain can of tuna, and expect to stick with that for more than a few days before becoming a mass murderer.
How are those resolutions going, anyway? Really? With swim season right around the corner?
I can speak from experience. I put myself in a slight calorie surplus of around 500 to 750 extra calories a day from October to March in order to gain as much lean muscle mass and strength as I can. That means carrying a bit more overall body fat than the baseline I like to walk around in during the rest of the year.
So starting in March, I go to a deficit of that same number of calories, in order to cut that body mass and reveal the hard earned gains. That means a swing of 1000 calories a day. The first couple of weeks are not easy, because I’ve built daily habits that scream at me and demand to keep going, even if I’m not actually hungry. So I do a step down gradually to train myself on new habits.
Instead of weighing out 30 grams of nuts twice a day, I’ll weigh out 10 grams of nuts twice a day. It tricks my brain into thinking I’m giving it what it wants, while gradually getting it used to getting less calories. If I just quit eating them all at once, I’d probably go nuts – see what I did there – and eat the whole damn jar.
I know I’ve said it before, but weighing food is critical, and will be shocking at first. You know how people say you can see The Great Wall of China from Space? Well, weighing out a daily serving of nuts is just like that…only completely opposite.
Just make small, daily changes and consistently hit them. It’s the key to stopping the yearly body mass from creeping up, especially as you age.
Need a sweet, crunchy treat? Try swapping the cookies those lying, evil tree elves mass produce full of processed sugars and try something like this instead. Just be mindful of the serving size, and try to shoot for half or less. You might find that’s all you need to satisfy the cravings:
If you need a wrap for lunch or dinner, swap these in for traditional flour tortillas and it immediately drops calories and simple carbs by about 90%:
Don’t let the “Just one won’t kill you” crowd mess with your consistency. If I ate something every time I was told that, my daily habits would be shot. It also is not about what will kill you.
Eating habits, no matter what they are, take time to show up. No one should approach diets from a position of living longer. There are too many variables in life to worry about that anyway.
What should be on your mind is not how long you live, but how long you live well. I don’t think of death as the day I get stuck in the ground, I think of it as the day I can’t pedal a bike up a hillside, tackle a grandkid in a game of lawn football, or move a piece of heavy furniture when needed.
I see plenty of the living dead every day. They can’t walk one flight of stairs, pick up even a fraction of their bodyweight, or will drive around a parking lot ten times to avoid walking more than a few feet to the store.
Making small, consistent, daily choices to eat healthy, and making a choice to move and get a little stronger every day improves life now, not theoretical days years from now that aren’t promised to anyone. Eat a little better and a little less, and do a few more pushups and squats, and pretty soon those small daily habits will add up to big changes.
Just show up every day, and every day gets a little easier.
See the list of all the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.