Weight Loss Hack #6 Eat Food
This probably sounds strange but bear with me. Using this as a guideline has helped me to eat much more healthily since I first started thinking about it. One of the first ways I heard eating food used as advice was from Michael Pollan's 7 rules for eating, which he sums up by advising us to "eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables." Its sounds so simple but Pollan essentially breaks down what we eat in to "food", which you should be eating and the heavily processed "food-like substances" which should be avoided.
So what is meant by eat food?
Well my first rule of thumb in defining food is that it should look as much like it did in the wild as possible at the time I eat it. For example, sauteed vegetables look a lot like they did when they were living on the vine, tree, or in the ground. pork chops also look a lot like they did when they were still attached to the animal.
On the other hand, twinkies do not look like anything in nature really. Neither in fact does an energy drink. Therefore, these foods are best avoided.
My second rule of thumb
The less processed the better. I do not believe it is necessary to be a raw foodist to be healthy. therefore I do in fact eat some things that do not look like they did in the wild. A great example of this is olive oil. While it doesn't look like olives the process of making olive oil is very simple, pressing olives until the oil is separated from the olive and is then jarred. This is so simple in fact that people have been doing it by hand and with simple machines for thousands of years!
Vegetable oil on the other hand has to undergo a complicated very modern processing process to become the finished product. And guess which oil between vegetable oil and olive oil is more associated with the risk of chronic illness? Yep, Vegetable oil. When given the option, go with the food that required less processing.
You may be thinking, "I have not idea how my food is made,". Well being an educated consumer is a necessity when it comes to being healthy in our modern society. Get on google and start learning!
I find it important to say that I do make notable exceptions. For example I like to take protein powder after my work outs. While it probably wouldn't be wise to supplement all of my protein with a powder I find that one scoop a day is just fine and helps me get in enough protein for my activity level.
My point here is that you should not be regimented and you should be open to exceptions but do not let these exceptions become the rule! Eat food that looks as close to what it looked like in it's wild form and watch your body take on its more natural form. .
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