Is Getting Healthy And Staying Healthy Possible?

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If you’re an American you know how dismal our collective health looks. It’s easy to feel like you’re stuck with your current set of health circumstances. Looking around we’ve made unhealthy the norm. I wonder how many still believe it’s possible to get healthy and stay healthy. Traditional diets have a 95% failure rate long term and most people have tried one diet or more. When you repeatedly try to get healthy but always end up back at square one it makes sense that people would lose faith. To make matters worse, people adopt the belief there’s something wrong with them, they inherited it, it’s genetic. Then a doctor puts the final nail in the coffin telling them food doesn’t matter that much. Stay with me though, you’re not broken, things can get better, and most diets don’t work simply because the information is wrong. When you learn what works it will make it easy to stay motivated to eat healthy.

What Is Healthy Food?

In order to get healthy it might be time to let go of your current beliefs about what healthy is. I mean, if it’s not working for you today odds are it’s not right for you. Your ancestors were able to get their genetic material to 2022. If they were prone to illness that wouldn’t have happened. The beauty is that the human body is wired to heal itself. You cut your skin or break a bone and it heals. Your responsibility is to give your body the resources it needs to accomplish those tasks.

Over 70% of the American diet comes from processed food. Nearly all diets suggest removing processed food and fast food. It’s why most people feel immediately better when they adopt a new eating strategy. What you’re not eating sometimes has a bigger impact than what you are eating. But, my goal is to help you uncover a long term solution.

I write about food a lot because honestly it’s likely going to have the biggest impact in your goals. You’re going to eat either way, so make sure it’s something good. What do I mean by good? Make sure your food is real and primarily comes from single ingredients. (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy fats (monounsaturated or saturated), and fruit that is in season.)

How To Stay Motivated

For many of you I’m sure that list above may have you wondering how you’ll stay motivated to eat healthy. I mean, there’s no pizza, pasta, chips, or cookies that are obvious to that list. Let’s be real, not even I make sure every bite is 100% perfect. We all have to die with a smile, otherwise what’s the point of this thing called life?

Your motivation to eat healthy should be a compelling one. It’s common for a person to say they want to lose weight, but that doesn’t really grab your attention. What do I mean? If you said you want to lose weight so you can dance at your daughter’s wedding, play with your grandkids, or hopefully side step the health issues you witnessed a family member struggle through, those things grab your attention in a different way.

motivation to get healthy and stay healthy

What if weight isn’t your issue? What if you’re like me and you’re motivated to eat healthy so you can feel better. For me, chronic stiffness and joint pain were my motivation to change my lifestyle. Before I turned 40 I’d hobble like an elderly person when I stood up from a chair. My elbow felt like it would explode while washing a pan. I couldn’t walk across the floor barefoot because the bottoms of my feet hurt. These things were my motivation. Today I’m 47 and I’ve thankfully been able to keep with a very energetic son. No one tells you little boys are born with their foot on the gas. Lawd…

Either way, sit down with some paper and a pen and write down all the reasons you want to get healthy and stay healthy. When you have your list of reasons, ask yourself why those things are reasons. Why do they matter? What happens if you get the health you want? What happens if everything stays the same? Somewhere in that list of questions is the answer to the motivation you’re looking for.

How To Stay Healthy

Let’s face it, you probably already know what’s healthy and what’s not. You know you should probably eat more vegetables and fewer sweets. That’s an easy one, however when most people overindulge on a food it isn’t typically broccoli.

Some of it has to do with biochemistry. When we unnecessarily demonized saturated fat we paved the way for “low-fat” sugar to be added to nearly everything. Here’s the thing though, saturated fat doesn’t make you fat, nor does it cause heart disease, sugar does. Even worse, we replaced saturated fat with vegetable oil which breaks your metabolism, fat cells, and body, while all the added sugar in our lives is gasoline on the fire.

If you’ve been eating low-fat and sticking to salad dressings and products made with vegetable oil, it’s not your fault. You were only doing what you thought was healthy. The dirty trick is that sugar is just as addictive as cocaine. Food manufacturers have discovered that if they can get you to eat more they can sell more. Even worse, they sometimes add chemicals to processed food that purposely trick your brain into eating more.

This is why the ingredient list I gave you above is made up of single ingredients. No tricks, no gimmicks, no expensive supplements, just real food. The problem is that most kids are picky eaters, teens are picky eaters, college kids can’t afford to eat well, and then we enter adulthood with 2 decades of bad habits. Over time we end up losing our health. When you realize how much flavor you get from real food it’s not hard to stay motivated to eat healthy. As you begin to feel physical effects you’ll realize that nothing tastes better than feeling good.

What about the foods I didn’t mention above? Here is a blog post with 12 reasons to go grain free. Most things ultimately depend on the person, their goals, their level of insulin resistance, and any other underlying health conditions. How about dairy? Again, it depends on your goals but also largely your genetics.

It’s true our government subsidizes the crops that make processed food cheap, but if it costs your your health in the future is it really cheap? Most people have a sticker shock and perhaps a bit of panic at first. When you’re used to buying spaghetti for a few dollars and then you price a pound of beef it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It can make something like the paleo diet feel out of reach for many. What if I told you that when you really get going it isn’t any more expensive.

How To Create A Healthy Lifestyle

Food is the biggest factor. At first you might not know what nutrients you regularly miss. I always recommend Cronometer to my clients because it gives the best nutrition break down. They even give you a weekly average because it’s rare for a person to hit every nutrient perfectly everyday. If you’re plugging along and your intake of vitamins and minerals looks good, don’t forget it could be an absorption problem. Eating something doesn’t guarantee your body absorbs it or uses it well. There are ways around that but that’s another post for another day. Knowing what you’re missing makes it easier to stay motivated to eat healthy.

Track Your Nutrition & Health Data with cronometer.com

The clients I work with make some pretty big changes along the way, many without me having to say much about them. When a person begins focusing on nutrition they find their sleep improves, they feel better, their mental outlook brightens, and people who haven’t exercised in years suddenly start exercising. It’s one of the reasons I’m such an advocate for real food. As a person begins to feel better they’re naturally motivated to continue eating healthy.

While food will get most people a long way, sleep, lifestyle, stress, and sensible fitness are other key factors. To go into each one in this post will make it incredibly long, but I do have a free 4 day masterclass that addresses these issues.