How to Eat Healthy Without Tracking Calories
We all know we need to eat healthy. It’s great for your health, helps you stay lean & fit, and it just feels better. But if you listen to most fitness professionals, you’d think the only way to do that is by counting calories.
But calorie counting is an extremely flawed system.
Food labels are ALLOWED to be up to 20% off in their calorie estimation.
Certain foods (like soup, pasta, etc) are hard to get an exact calorie amount.
It’s just not a long term healthy way to approach food.
Should you have a good feel for how many calories are in your go to foods? Absolutely. But just for awareness, not to become a food mathematician during every meal.
Some of our top clients were able to get amazing results, without ever calculating or tracking calories.
Both Deidra & Kevin were able to drop 30+lbs of body fat over just 4 months, utilizing the “No Calorie Tracking” Methods I’m about to give you below.
Let’s dive in.
Whole Foods First
When you eat processed foods (cakes, cookies, fried foods, chips, etc), it’s HARD to moderate yourself & very easy to overeat. This is why calorie tracking REALLY exists. You don’t see a nutrition label on a steak, or a kiwi, right?
The labels are on processed foods. So if we want to get healthy without tracking calories, we have to get away from foods that require you to know their caloric intake.
Whole foods (lean proteins, fruits, veggies) are almost impossible to over eat. Once you get the nutrients you need, you’ll naturally push the plate away & be satiated for HOURS.
You should be aiming for 2-3 balanced meals a day, COMPLETELY comprised of whole foods.
No vegan crap. No packaged mess. Only foods that you could grow / cultivate yourself without the use of sophisticated machinery.
2. Proper Portions
If you want to always feel hungry & be a slave to your cravings, eat way more carbs & fat than you do protein.
I know you don’t WANT this, but this is what so many do when building out their “healthy” plate. Way too many carbs, not enough protein.
Protein is by far the most satiating & satisfying nutrient you can have. I’d aim to have 30-50% of my plate specifically dedicated to protein. Then the other 20-30% filled with a fruit or veggie, and the last 20-30 filled with a slow burning, nutrient dense carb (like oats, rice, sweet potatoes).
3. Present Eating
This might sound kind of ‘woo-woo’ & hippy; but it’s true. It’s MUCH easier to stay on track with your nurition if you’re present, and focused on what you’re putting in your body.
Have you ever grabbed something from a drive through during a lunch break, and scarfed it down while you were on 2 wheels back to the office? How did you feel when you got back?
Chances are, no matter WHAT you ate, you were hungry again within 30 minutes.
We have to slow down & pay attention to what we’re eating. LOOK at the food, think through if it’s a good nutritional decision or not.
Stop eating in the car.
Stop using your phone while eating.
Stop working while eating.
I challenge you for the next 2 days; every meal you eat, do this:
Set a timer for 15 minutes, and sit down uninterrupted with your food. Use the ENTIRE 15 minutes to eat the meal. Not only is this gonna slow you down & lower your stress, it’s also going to improve your digestion & make you dramatically more cognizant of what you’re eating.
Recap:
Whole foods only
Properly portioned plates
Present, mindful eating
Obesity (at large scale) is a relatively new phenomenon. We haven’t always had to count our calories & obsess over our diets. We naturally got in the nutrients we needed, and nothing more.
But we weren’t having processed foods either. If you want healthy eating to come natural to you, start weeding out the unnatural foods. Use the 3 rules I gave you up top, consistently for 90 days & watch what happens to your body & health.
See you next Friday.
