Everyone wants things done yesterday. Just as they start a new fitness regimen they expect to see the pounds melt off. We all know change takes time yet somehow expect something different and more miraculous. Change the course of a ship by only a few degrees and you end up in a totally different location. The initial shift may be imperceivable but over time the effect can be seen plainly.
There are plenty of lists out there of what you should and should not eat. The purpose of this post is to encourage the right kind of thinking rather than establish rules for nutrition that some study will inevitable prove false in a weeks time. Learn how to make better evaluations and operate from a structured mental framework and you’ll start to see options open up before you.
Don’t Eat Junk.
Sounds obvious but let’s look at this from the perspective of what junk food really is. For our purposes here junk food is anything that’s overly processed. The immortal Jack LaLanne summed it up best when he said, “If man made it don’t eat it.” We can take that to mean that if you can’t look at your food and discern what it is then don’t bother. A carrot looks like it grew in the ground. I don’t know where you can find a naturally growing doughnut. Meats are the same. You can see how beef, poultry, pork and fish came directly from those animals. Assuming you don’t slaughter you own all you have to do to eat them is cook them over a fire. Vegetables can be cooked or eaten raw. Yup meat and vegetables and unprocessed carbohydrates that’s our advice for the beginner.
Yes there are a million books and articles you can read about what’s good and bad, fattening and thinning, organic or non, responsibly sourced or not. Yes we can actually vote with our dollars and change the world at large with how we choose to eat. That’s a lot of pressure. In truth to be conscious all we have to do is don’t eat junk. Then continually expand the definition of what that means. Today you cut out processed carbohydrates, tomorrow you can work on eating more locally sourced food. In a year everything you touch may be humanely raised, fair trade and make a donation to charity but you won’t get there without taking the first most simple step.
