Tips to Keep in Mind When Starting A New Health Kick

It Must Be A New Year, The Gyms Are Packed

Ah, can you smell it? The gyms are filling up. It must be January. It would be silly for me to say that there are secrets to losing weight. If there were, I probably would have found them by now. That being said, I think I have come up with a few tips for losing weight, keeping it off, and understanding that any one philosophy is only as good as the one you are not doing. That being said, look over some of these thoughts and see how they might be able to help shine some light on your health improving journey.

Don’t Eliminate Your Favorite Foods

I see this all the time with clients. I struggled with it myself. You want to eat better. You want to be healthier. So you stop eating out, you start buying vegetables, and in three weeks you want to kill everyone. This is never going to get you to lose weight, its only going to make you more frustrated.

The Solution: There are just about 21 meals in a week, baring snacks, that most people live by. If you can make half of those better meals, i.e protein, vegetables, fruits, etc, you are going to see a big change without making a big change. When you feel you want to up or lower the amount of “good” food you are eating, do it. The goal is to make progress of any kind. And if you fall off the horse and go to Taco Bell, try again tomorrow. Eating better isn’t about being miserable, it is about staying in your means
All Diets Do The Same Thing, Pick One:

You might think that because the Paleo diet worked for you last time that it will again. And it will. But then your best friend, who tried a vegetarian diet, lost a lot of weight too. Then you find out that someone in your office building only ate peanut butter, cottage cheese, cinnamon, carrots, and cheese wiz for 6 weeks and lost 20 pounds. You rethink all you ever knew about diets, and feel bad. Well guess what, don’t. All diets basically have the same premise, by eliminating some kind of food group, you are eliminating calories. When you eliminate calories, you, because of science, are going to lose weight. It is really that simple. So it doesn’t matter what diet you choose. If you have something to loose, pick a diet, do it until you get bored, and then do another one. It is that simple

Cheat Meals Are Good, Use Them:

A phrase semi coined by the broscience/bodybuilding community has real merit to keeping your sanity while trying to also eat better. Cheat meals, if you don’t know, are essential meals where you eat whatever you want. Foods you don’t usually eat because if you did, you’d live on the toilet. It is Friday night. You and the guys want to get a few beers, have some sliders, and watch some sporting event, maybe even talk to some girls. Cool. But there is always that one guy who is like, “Na, I can’t go out tonight. Beers won’t fit in my macros this week.” Don’t be that guy. Any time you have to sacrifice your social life because of your diet, you are doing it wrong. If you need motivation to feel good about cheat meals, be stricter during the week when you really aren’t doing anything fun anyway.
The Master of Tupperware is the King of Meal Planning:

When you are out at the grocery store and you are amped up about starting your new diet of string cheese and gluten free, semi salty bark crackers, pick yourself up some Tupperware. Get the kinds that are three compartments. Get at least 7 of them. Learn to cook and pack food enough for 3 days. Repeat. Do this enough and you won’t even think about it. The person who can plan meals and use Tupperware will have eliminated the hardest part of any health change, consistency, and you will feel badass as hell for learning to cook.

Don’t Eat The Same Thing for Too Long

If you are crazy like me and don’t mind eating cold, day old Brussel sprouts throughout the week, skip this tip. If you aren’t a nut job, keep reading. Variety is the spice to life, and to your food. Switch up your meals every now and again to keep your interest in your health goals exciting. Nothing can be worse than waking up after four weeks of oatmeal and black coffee and wondering why you are even alive. Whatever it is you want to change, change it. You are better off “cheating” a little bit on your own “restrictions” than quitting your program all together all because you couldn’t put a little sugar in your coffee. Remember, in this case, big goals are more important than small setbacks.

Health Changes are Marathons, Not Sprints

Not going to lie, this is probably the most boring tip I will write in this piece. Why? Because just about everyone has heard this one.  This is more for beginners who have never tried to lose weight, get in shape, or just want to feel better from an energy stand point. If you fall short of your goals, don’t think of it as much as a setback as a chance to change and start over. Even having that level of self-awareness, where you recognize you are falling behind, is a great amount of progress. When it gets tough, remember that your health is a long term goal, and that every day is a change to start over if you fall behind on your main goal.

Tender Sweet and Spicy Chicken

This is my new favorite chicken dish. That mostly stems from not having to do much prep work. Nothing too attention hoarding. But I am crazy and add like 7 steps to this that you could naturally skip. Here is the recipe all spelled out.

2 whole chicken breasts

1 carton of chicken or beef broth (mixing your animals is delicious).

1/2 cup of honey

and a sprinkle of red chili flakes, salt, curry, and some garlic

    First step is pretty simple. It is the actually more simple than I usually prescribe for my recipes. You take your two whole chicken breasts, and put them in a big two handle pot. Fill the pot with water, at least 1 inch over the top of your chicken, and place it on the stove on high. Let the boil for awhile. When I say awhile, I mean enough time to go do something else without worrying about burning your food. Once some time has gone by, drain the chicken and place the cooked chicken back in the pot (or you can cut it up on a cutting board however you like). Once in the pot, I shred the chicken up. This method is more laborious than just cutting it up, so if you want to cut it up, be my guest. Soon I wont want to shred it up anymore, and you'll be the smarter one.
    Next you put in about 1 cup of chicken broth to help cook it in some flavor. We boiled it with water because we needed a lot of liquid and its cheaper than using broth. Now you can use the money you saved on drugs or whatever else you'd like to do for fun. Now this is where you add the spices. After we stir in the spices we  are going to let that simmer for about 10 minutes.
    So you've checked your clash of clans village, played a few rounds of soccer stars, lets go see how the chicken is doing. At this point everything smells amazing, and you would have been hard pressed to have messed up. Reduce heat to low. Now comes that 1/2 cup of honey you've been dipping your finger in for the last 30 minutes. If there is any of that left, put it in the pot and stir it up. You will want to let that cook in for about 5 minutes. Then go back, cover the lid, and turn off the heat. We want to just let that sit in there until before bed, or the next morning if you are gross like me.
    The other great way you can make it spicy is add some sriracha. I didn't do it this time because I ran out and Sprouts doesn't carry it. I'm not sure I want to go there anymore. Who doesn't carry sriracha at this point?