My goal the past year was to save money, know how to efficiently shop at the store, make food that was both nutritious and delicious, and simplify my eating routine in hopes of being an intuitive eater that can both enjoy food and achieve fitness goals.
When I started my journey with my personal trainer in June 2019, the first things I was told was I was definitely under eating for how much I exercise, wasting money on foods I don't need, letting food go bad because I didn't know what to cook, cutting out foods I didn't have to, and that I have a skewed perspective on what "healthy" eating means.
Where do I even begin! Let me first start off with all the different schools of thought that I have learned from, picked what was most helpful, and created the mentality that I have today! I think its healthiest to have a combination of it all rather than all or nothing.
Make sure you keep an open mind and understand that this is a life long learning process!
Different schools of thought
1. Personal Trainer/Body builder: A majority of personal trainers/body builders focus on strict and regimented counting of calorie balance and macronutrients because of the science based evidence that these are the key drivers of weight loss and muscle gain.
At the end of the day, regardless if its through diet or working out, weight loss is driven by caloric deficit. Meaning that you must be exerting more calories than you are consuming. Weight gain is through caloric surplus - people trying to gain muscle often purposely eat at a surplus.
Keep in mind that people often confuse weight loss goals with physique change goals (like I did). Do I really care what the scale says? Or do I want to look different and recomposition my body to be muscles rather than fat? Sometimes the answer is both and thats okay too! Remember that muscle is more dense than fat so the scale only means so much.
Weight is often not the key measurement you should be prioritizing. The key measurement is often body fat percentage which involves a combination of muscle gain and fat loss. 2 people can weight the same and look completely different due to their body composition. There's so much more to say here but I'll leave it at that!
Additionally, weighing of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) are the keys to muscle growth/maintenance. Protein being the most important macronutrient because of its role in maintaining lean body mass, being the most satiating of macronutrients, and its increased thermic effect of food.
Although this science-based approach is truly proven to be effective for physique change, the intense regimented counting and weighing is not always mentally healthy for everyone. As it can drive obsession, food guilt, be life consuming, create an unhealthy relationship with food, and potentially lead to eating disorders such as orthorexia (see below).
Personally, it was great for me to practice counting calories and macronutrients for 2 months so that I can learn how to "eyeball" my foods and understand the impact of the foods I make and eat. Because of this training, I can now eat more "intuitively". However, I was sure to always monitor my mental health to make sure I never became obsessive. I would recommend this method only if you are not prone to eating disorders. There are other options that I talk about below.
Some personal trainers that I love to follow are: @soheefit, @syattfitness, @susanniebergallfitness, @cartergood, and @bdccarpenter
2. Body Positivity/Intuitive Eating: Being passionate about combating diet culture in general. The commercialization and capitalization of our fitness and health has made us all feel as if we need to look a certain way to be happy and we need to purchase fancy foods/products/workout classes to look like our favorite influencer or celebrity. Our health and fitness is not a trend or fad!
Often times the influencers and celebrities not only have good genetics on their side, but also have personal trainers/nutritionists and spend their entire day focusing on their appearance. However, because of sponsorships they promote products that they clearly did not use to achieve the body that they have. Consumers only see the products they promote and not the work they do behind the scenes and end up buying these products in hopes that they will look like them. Don't fall for it! Listen to experienced and successful health professionals. And no, just because someone's IG bio say's nutritionist - it doesn't mean they actually are one hahah. I personally hate false "female empowerment" disguised as "buy all this stuff with illegal health claims" so you can be as pretty, pure and clean as me except I didn't actually use this so jokes on you.
Body positivity groups say that instead of following fad diets that aren't sustainable, buying falsely advertised products, and idolizing workout class 'it girls'; you should love yourself as you are, not feel pressured to look perfect, and to eat what you want when you want. I'm all for this and do believe that change starts with loving yourself as you are now and at every step of your journey.
But I think this school of thought is not helpful especially for so many people that do want change and just want to feel stronger, happier, healthier and more confident. It adds an additional layer of shame to people who are trying their best to change their lives. It okay to want better for yourself (you should!), but I do agree being hyper focused on your image for the wrong reasons can be unhealthy.
There are ways to achieve your goals like learning the fundamentals of weight training and the basics of nutrition. Without spending the time to learn what I did, if you told me to "do what your body wants", my body would be telling me to stay in bed all day and eat fast food for every meal. My key takeaway from this group is - work on your self love at all stages and focus on obtaining knowledge rather than products.
Follow @break.binge.eating for more information on eating disorders
Follow @lucymountain and @emmasymth.nutrition for more food and nutrition positivity
3. Fad Dieter - Fad dieters focus on short-term extreme diets to see results fast by following a clear set of dos and don'ts. They use fad diets such as intermittent fasting, keto, vegan, gluten free, paleo, whole 30 etc as the end-all-be-all solution to achieving weight loss. At the end of the day, fad diets DO work in the short term because the foods that each of these fad diets cut out are inherently higher calorie/less efficient foods. However the reason they don't work long term are because they are not sustainable and don't actually teach you about the fundamentals of nutrition. Instead, it creates a unhealthy relationship with entire food groups by labeling them as bad/demonizing them. This often leads to binge eating or "cheat meals" that involve overeating that exact type of food group because your brain now sees it as a scarce resource. In reality, no food (unless you're allergic or its molding) is bad for you especially if you eat it in moderation.
Yes, fad diets are a easier way for you to quickly cut out less efficient foods and yes they do work for some people! But they don't work long term for most. Many personal trainers still may recommend a fad diet because it helps train our brains to categorize foods and clients always want to see FAST results. A great personal trainer will never tell you that its the magic solution.
*this doesn't apply to people who use diets for animal cruelty and food intolerance purposes
4. Clean eating/Detox culture/Othorexia: This will be pretty controversial or triggering to read! But as you read, think about why that is, and where you got that belief from. This was a shocking school of thought for me to come to terms with, especially living in LA where a lot of the health pseudoscience is born and trendy super food elitism thrives. This school of thought has lead to a new eating disorder called "Othorexia" which is an obsession with clean eating, fad diets, ingredient lists, and food planning.
- Marketing: Companies use specific wording as a way to fear monger and shame you into buying their products. Conversely, since demand is driven by misinformed/terrified consumers, companies are forced add these labels in order to stay competitive. It's a vicious cycle, which has created the extremely unethical health and fitness industries that we see today. Commonly used labels these days are - non-GMO, free-form, preservative-free, cancer-free, organic, gluten free, clean, non-toxic, paraben-free, sugar-free, chemical-free, glyphosate free, etc. Does this mean that all of these labels are 100% misleading? No. But is it usually misleading in how ethical and healthy it actually is? Yes.
Yes, this is triggering and controversial so if you have strong beliefs otherwise, feel free to continue following them. It doesn't hurt to follow them, they're just not always healthy/superior as they promise. The key is to have some professional skepticism and know when you are being sold misinformation. It also reduces the amount of food anxiety and stress we get when we believe all of these fear mongering techniques!
Honestly, I have SO much passion about combating false advertisement in the health, fitness and beauty industries. There's so much more to say but I'll stop here! Follow @foodsciencebabe , @pixienutrition, @vitaminphd, @theecowell and @thealanaragon for more details.
- Anecdotal Experiences/Food sensitivity/Food Intolerance: You often come across influencers with food intolerances/sensitivity promoting a product while telling an anecdotal experience about how cutting out a food group helped with all of their issues. At the end of the day you do not have that food intolerance so you don't need to do that same (i.e. you don't avoid peanuts because your friend is allergic). The new popular fear around food sensitivities and food intolerances right now were created by companies used to sell test kits.
Additionally, there is new craze of fitness influencers and online bootcamp classes. I think its awesome that influencers and affordable/easy-to-follow options are now so readily available to the general public. The downside is you should be aware of product placement and understand that a one-size-fits-all diet plan or workout plan is not going to work for everyone. Often times these programs can be made to keep you reliant on them rather than educating you to be self-sufficient. This was very conflicting for me because I think these are great ways for beginners to be motivated and have a sense of community when starting their fitness journey.
There is also a group of sell-out doctors and "best selling" authors that are sponsored to sell products or are motivated by selling books and products they represent. Consumers are likely to take all their words as truth simply because they have a MD suffix or have a best selling book. Understanding that only specialists in nutrition and diet who have gone through rigorous training, use evidence-based methods, have had successful long-term results in clients, and don't have ulterior motives should be trusted immediately! You don't go to a dentist for your eye problems, right?
Remember to always be skeptical and aware of conflict of interest. Is the person you following really trying to help you or are they selling a product? You should be wary of anyone that say's its their way is the absolute truth because the answer is always - it depends.
- Detox: Our livers will do all of the detoxing that we need, do we even know what we're trying to detox from our body? Likely you just need water and vegetables (because you know you haven't had enough lately~). Following food scientists over the past year has helped me understand the the dose makes a toxin not the ingredient. Anything can be toxic at a high enough dose and likely most things we are consuming are not causing us problems. At the end of the day its up the individual to decide what risks they are willing to take because we're not the scientists, but the overwhelming consensus from scientists is there is no evidence that the majority of our foods are toxic or that any of our "detoxes" are actually doing what it says.
- Clean/free of xyz: The problem I have with "clean" is that it inherently labels all other foods as dirty. Everything is made of chemicals, just because you can't pronounce an ingredient or its a man made doesn't make it bad for you; just because its naturally occurring, it doesn't mean its good for you. Just let that simmer for a bit. These terms are likely used by companies to convince us their product is better and other products are toxic - this is fear-based marketing. Most companies that work with food scientists to create their product don't even know "clean" or "chemical-free" entails - again its the vicious cycle of consumer demand that now make "clean" a trend all companies need to follow. I think letting go of this idea relieved me of a lot of food anxiety I had.
Realizing that real science comes from meta-analyses and scientific journals, not from the cherry-picked studies with skewed samples sizes used fit the narrative of a product being sold, anecdotal story from influencers, magazine, online articles, or Netflix documentaries. Yes Netflix documentaries are not based on science guys, its fear mongering entertainment used to get views *face palm*. All we need are basic whole foods, if you eat a varied diet - you will a majority of the micronutrients you need. If you're actually deficient in something, take a vitamin LOL. But if you're still not convinced, continue to do what you're comfortable with. This is only to provide comfort that scientists don't necessarily agree with this school of thought. Let go of your food anxiety!
How to build a diet that works for you
With all of the above schools of thought in mind, lets now dive into the key methods that I used to eat healthier, save money and heal my relationship with food!
1. Throw away all of your current ideas of what a healthy meal and diet is. NO YOU DON'T HAVE TO: to eat kale salads, plain chicken breast, unflavored broccoli, superfood smoothies, acai bowls, juice cleanses, cut out all sugars and carbs, drink celery juice, shots of cayenne pepper, use expensive supplements, brown rice, intermittent fasting, be keto, vegan and dairy free, shop at Whole Foods/Erewhon and eat food with every label under the sun. Healthy eating does not look like or cost what you think it does, so leave all those behind ya. Byeee~~~ lets start fresh!
*if you felt attacked reading this, don't worry, I felt attacked too LOL. And if you do these things and it worked for you, that GREAT! But its just not the magic solution that will work for everyone and the marketed reasons for why they work aren't transparent. I still eat some of those fancy sounding foods just because its fun and tasty!
2. What do you like to eat? The best way to have the sustainable diet is one that you can use for the rest of your life. The key to life long lifestyle change is finding food that you LOVE to eat so that you adhere to it consistently and hopefully forever! Not a diet filled with foods you hate so much that you binge eat on the weekends and quit the program after1 month. Stop trying to see results in 1 month - aim for 6 months or a year! Make a list of foods that you could eat every day and not get sick of.
For me, that list is mostly any and all asian cuisines. Breaking that down even further - I can eat white rice, eggs, noodles, chinese/korean style protein and tofu, garlic bok choy/napa , miso soup, asian stews and soup, avocado toast, apples, apricots, and chocolate everyday.
Make a list of proteins, carbs, veggies, desserts, fruits, snacks and breakfast foods you enjoy eating so you can slowly learn how to make those yourself! The answer to a sustainable diet shouldn't be mirroring someone else's diet, including mine!
Left: Garlic Pork Belly, Char Siu Pork, Garlic Peas, Garlic Taiwanese Cabbage, White rice with Pokekake seasoning
Right: Multigrain Bread, half avocado, scrambled egg, Tapatio, everything but bagel seasoning, lime juice, greek yogurt
4. Calories. Even if you aren't going to be counting calories and weighting your macronutrients exactly due to risks of orthorexia, I think its good to understand what is going into your food as you make it at a high level. If you want, you can calculate your target calorie intake using apps like Myfitnesspal.
In general, being at a caloric maintenance is 12 x (Your Body Weight), but this is obviously varies based on your genetics and each individual's non-exercise activity thermogenesis (calories you burn in your normal day while not exercising). You will have to experiment to see what your true levels are but you should be gaining and losing weight accordingly if you are accurately tracking your calories (and not cheating!!). Don't rely on calorie exertion from your fitness trackers on your apple watch, iphone, and cardio equipment either, they're proven to be inaccurate. When I count calories, I don't count the calories I exert during exercise, only what I consume while keeping in mind I have some cushion since I worked out (generally 200-500 calories depending on workout intensity). At the end of the day, calories are king when it comes to weight gain and weight loss. But also understand if your goal actually weight loss. Or is it physique change? in which case weight training and protein intake may be more important than being in a caloric deficit.
Things that calorie counting for 2 months helped me do:
1. I learned how to read nutrition labels and know how much servings were in a package
2. Recognize that I was consuming more calories than I thought I was because of misread serving sizes, too much cooking oils, unnecessary sauces, too much rice, not enough veggies/protein in meals, and eating out too often because I was lazy to cook and didn't know what to cook.
3. Eventually learn to find alternatives to foods that I love to eat that have lower calories or more nutrition - such as 0 calorie konjac noodles, 0 calorie cooking sprays, pastas and pancake mixes with added protein, superfoods that actually are really calorie dense, etc. This doesn't mean you cut out the original options entirely, just that you can have healthier options when you want!
4. How to objectively look at calories and their affect on my energy levels and physique when simultaneously weight training and exercising daily. I was able to see how much more energy and muscle gain I had when I ate more and how to see calories as something my body NEEDS.
Again, I don't recommend calorie counting and weighing macronutrients if you are prone to eating disorders. There are other ways such as using the plate method to eyeball your foods.
5. Macronutrients - Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat. The concept of weighting your macronutrients is key for many weight lifters trying to gain muscle. To put it simply, you should be consuming 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh on a daily basis. So if you weigh 130lbs you should be consuming 130 grams of protein in a day. The carb and fats are less important unless you're really serious about body building, but as long as these 2 fall within your calorie goals you should see sufficient fitness progress if protein intake is high.
This was very challenging for me because I don't have a huge appetite and don't enjoy eating large portions of meat. My solution was adding more protein shakes, greek yogurt, nuts, and eggs to my diet. Its also okay to not hit these goals and just focus on increasing your protein intake overall - its not all or nothing! An excuse I hear a lot from people is that they are vegan or vegetarian. But there are so many protein alternatives that you just have to look into adding to your diet (click here)! There are SO many vegetarian/vegan body builders!
To give you a rough idea of how much protein is in a different foods:
-1 whole boneless skinless chicken breast is 54g protein
-1 steak has 64g protein
-1 scoop of protein powder is 30g protein
-1 chobani greek yogurt is 12g protein
-1 box of tofu is 7g protein
-1 avocado is 4g protein
-1 cup lentils is 18g protein
-1 cup chickpeas/beans is 15g protein
-1 cup of milk is 8g protein
-1 egg is 8g protein
-23 almonds is 6g protein
What weighing my macro nutrients for 2 months taught me was:
1. How to know at a high level if I am hitting my protein goals or if I am overeating less efficient foods.
2. Stop overcomplicating nutrition and recognizing that with a varied diet of whole foods consisting of protein, veggies, and carbs I can get all the micronutrients that I need. I have never felt stronger, happier and healthier!
3. By studying my body's response to varying my protein and calorie intake while weight training heavily, I was able to study my body's response to varying levels over time. I was able to see change in energy, physique change, and recovery time. This helped me separate the negative connotations behind calories, carbs and fats and see them more as tools to help me achieve my goals.
6. Grocery shopping. Once you realize you don't need to spend a lot on super foods and expensive labels, you save a TON of money "eating healthy". With the above in mind, all that you need to do when you grocery shop is buy 1-2 proteins, 1-2 veggie options, large batch carb option like rice which doesn't need to be purchased every time, a couple salty snacks and sweet snacks, and a couple of ready made meals for when you get lazy. Always have on hand seasonings and herbs that you know you love and can make any meal tasty.
For me these key flavoring items are combinations of garlic, salt/pepper, asian hot sauces, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime/lemon, trader joe's everything bagel seasoning, chili flakes, cilantro, onion, green onion. Another pro-tip is freezing leftover herbs, prepped garlic and onions so you always have something on hand to throw into your meals!
Figure out what your favorite seasoning are for your favorite types of food!
7. Meal Prepping/Large Batch cooking. Once you figure out what your favorite foods are and what your calorie and macronutrient targets are (if you want), the best way to save money and time is to make large batches of food that can be divided into meals or prep foods that can be easily made into different types of foods quickly during the week. When you cook in batches its easier to track calories/macronutrients too.
What that ended up looking like for me is cooking 2 large batches of different proteins, 1-2 different veggies, white rice and making that a meal for a few days in a row. Or it could be preparing a large batches of meat that can be turned into a variation of rice bowl, a burrito, a taco, a soup or soup during the week. One you have an idea about how to estimate calories and macronutrients you will know how to better manage your portion sizes.
8. 80/20 Rule. A sustainable diet is the opposite of having a perfect diet all the time. As a rule of thumb that many personal trainers use is that you should be eating "healthy" 80% of the time and eating whatever makes you happy the other 20% of the time. This means that I deliberately added daily snacks, desserts and few meals a week to eat out. Once you stop restricting yourself, you'll realized that you actually crave "bad" foods less often than you think you would. Stop labeling foods with the words clean and bad and start calling them more/less nutrition dense or efficient. Follow @emmasmyth.nutrition for some awesome food positivity from a nutritionist/dietician.
People are often shocked that never cut out fast food, boba, dessert or chips at ALL during my fitness journey. If fact I had them every week! I realized that when I was being too restrictive, it would lead to binging, quitting the diet, or craving that food even more! So it's important to always add your favorite foods in moderation, recognize your eating patterns and understand why you binge ate.
Of course if you cut things our entirely you will see results faster, thats a given! But do you want fast results that revert back immediately after you "fall off track" OR do you want life-long sustainable results? It's going to be the latter for me! Food is meant to be enjoyed! And if you learn to cook your favorite meals in a healthy way, its ALL enjoyable~
My overall conclusion:
Know that the solution to your nutrition and healthy eating goals does not lie in over-complicated meal plans, sexy-sounding supplements, and over-priced super foods. You don't need to buy into new trends to be healthy, you just need to eat whole foods that you enjoy 80% of the time and anything else you love 20% of the time. Start healing your relationship with the foods you're currently labeling as "bad" at recognize that nothing is bad for you in moderation.
The key to a sustainable diet is figuring out what you love to eat and learning how to make those foods in a healthier way, while also understanding the affect of caloric balance on your goals, and increase your protein intake needed to maintain lead body mass. Because the key to sustainability is your enjoyment of it. If you love it, you will stick to it.
What upsets me the most about all of this is how inaccessible the information is and how the general public stuck with body dysmorphia from being mislead on how to be healthy and fit. Nutrition is so much simpler than you think and there is no magic solution. You're much safer/healthier than you think you are, don't let marketing tell you otherwise!
Stop copying other people, focus on increasing your fitness and nutrition knowledge, stop paying for products with false promises, and do what works for you! If you're going to pay for anything, pay for education so that you can better equip yourself with the important life skill of how to eat nutritiously and exercise safely. Skills that you will actually use for the rest of your life, reduce your anxiety around fitness and nutrition, and improve your quality of life.
Thank you so much for reading this post! There so much to learn about nutrition and I can't say with 100% certainty that you should believe any which way. But I am very passionate about having a healthy relationship with food, enjoying food, and not letting food get in a way of your happiness!
Let me know if this was helpful or what your favorite takeaway was! If you want to learn more about my weight lifting journey, check out my post here! Let me know if there is anything else you want to learn about or anything you want me to elaborate on!
With love,
Cindy
*Please note that I am not a dietician or nutritionist. This is knowledge that I have obtained by being around many personal trainers, paying for nutrition training and closely following nutritionists, dietitians, experienced personal trainers, food scientists. If you have serious health issues, eating disorders, food intolerances/allergies, you should see a professional dietician for advice so that it can be tailored to you*