Nutrition Foundations First

I have a group of friends who are, how shall we say, less than health-minded.

• They’re all very overweight.
• Many of them smoke.
• Lots and lots of fast food and alcohol.
• Exercise = getting up to answer the door for the pizza delivery.

You get the idea, right? Don’t get me wrong, they’re great guys and some of my best friends, but they don’t exactly put effort into taking care of themselves.

Unless they get on a health or weight loss kick.

Then they’ll start asking me questions about nutrition, exercise, and health. Which is great, I’m thrilled to help.

But they’re seeking solutions in the tiny details.

“Should I use whey protein concentrate or whey protein isolate?”

“What do you think about intermittent fasting — Which is better, the 16:8 or the 12:12?”

“Does carb cycling really work?”

Dude, you smoked a pack of cigarettes today and you haven’t had a vegetable since Sunday. You are missing the nutrition foundations — the big, crucial stuff.

The Details Don’t Matter Unless You Have The Nutrition Foundations In Place

The big health and nutrition foundations are simple:

• Don’t smoke.
• Enough with the 2 liter Mountain Dew every day.
• Eat real food — vegetables, protein, and healthy fats — and stop filling your house and office with processed junk.
• Look at each meal and make it 50% veggies, 25% protein, and 25% fat.
• Eat breakfast every day, and make sure it’s got protein.
• Pick your cheats and indulgences ON PURPOSE instead of stress eating reactively or impulsively.
• Quit jumping around from diet to diet, yo-yo-ing your weight every 6 months. This really damages your metabolism and hurts your ability to stay lean long-term.

Consistency is the key — eat right most of the time and you’ll be fine.

So if you find yourself getting hung up on the details and minutia, re-focus on the important nutrition foundation points above.

Get those right and you’ll be well on your way!

Your friend and Coach,
Dan

P.S. If you have questions or need my help getting your own nutrition foundations in place, shoot me a message and we can set a time to chat.