Eating for Success

Hi folks:

If you are looking to change your body composition, reduce your weight or just feel better and improve your health, you will want to review your food habits. After the air we breathe, the food we eat is the biggest input we have into our body and has a large impact on how we feel, look and perform.

It can be very confusing to figure out what to eat these days with so much information about “the right way to eat.” The truth of the matter is your body is unique and what works for someone else might not work for you. We have found that there are some general principles that have helped the women in our programs feel strong and healthy.

1. Focus on whole foods. Food that is created in a factory has been designed to be super-tasty so that you will eat and buy more of it. To make these food shelf-stable, there are added ingredients that you don’t want or need.

2. Eat nutrient-dense food. These days, people are eating more food but getting less nutrients. Eating foods that have lots of vitamins and minerals will help you support your workouts and your active lifestyle. An easy way to do this is to try and “eat the rainbow”—eating every color of the rainbow throughout the day.

3. Limit alcohol—not only is alcohol calories dense with no nutritional value, but alcohol can decrease your inhibitions making it easier to binge or making poor food choices. There is also research that drinking alcohol will inhibit your ability to grow muscle—which is something we do not want to do, especially as we age.

4. Experiment. What works for everyone is different so the key to this process is to experiment. You can try a savory breakfast with 30 grams of protein and decide that it keeps you feeling full and avoid snacking. Or you may not like it. Try out different methods for a few weeks and see if it is something to keep. In our program, we have different challenges to allow you to try on these different choices and see how you feel.

5. There are no “bad foods.” Moderation is the key to enjoying a healthy lifestyle. Eat the cake on your birthday, have the chips. When you have boundaries about what is healthy for you, you can also break those rules in a thoughtful way that allows you to enjoy life.

6. Do not be overly restrictive. After reviewing the diaries of lots of women, we observe two habits quite often. 1) not eating enough early in the day and binging at night or 2) not eating enough during the week and binging on the weekends or when they simply get too hungry. Both of these strategies backfire and can cause overeating.

7. Start small. Changing how and what you eat is a big project that does not need to be undertaken all at once. Pick one thing to change and see how it goes. Women that have sustainable change in M-Power have often made small changes over time that have lead to big results.