This is usually the face people make when they hear so many different experts talking about nutrition. There are so many different opinions about what’s good for you and what isn’t. There are so many people saying, “No, you’ve gotta avoid the fats! Just go low-fat diet.” That was all the craze back in the 1970’s I believe. Or more recently, “Avoid the carbs! Don’t eat the carbs!” And then others are like, “No, carbs are your friend, just avoid the proteins! Too much protein is not gonna be good for you.” 

A lot of people are trying to be healthy. Let’s get real, most people are wanting to be more healthy, and take better care of themselves. They want to feel better, look better, and be more confident. And they keep seeing these conflicting reports about what’s healthy and what isn’t. 

Other people say you have to eat little meals throughout the day. Other people love intermittent fasting, “Just fast for 16 hours a day, and there is an 8-hour window and just eat whatever you want during that feeding window.” Again, so many people are frustrated, saying, “I don’t get what I need to do!” 

Today we hope to debunk just a little bit of that. In my experience over the last year, there is no “One size fits all” nutrition plan for everyone. A lot of people are trying to promote different “fad diets,” and some of them are quite legit. Some of them work wonders for some people. For example, some people do really, really great with the Ketogenic diet. Ketogenic diet is where you get 70% of your calories from fat, 25% from protein, and 5% from carbs. And some people do really well that, and they drop a whole bunch of weight, and they get off their blood-pressure medication, and they do really well with that. 

Other people have the exact opposite experience, so one of the things I have found, even with nutrition, is the importance of incorporating all three pillars of growth, Body, Mind, and Soul. Incorporate these even with what you are eating. What I mean by that is, some people eat totally on one extreme or the other. For example, some people that say you have to be raw-vegan, zero animal products, zero added oils, zero nuts, and that’s all they eat. Fantastic, power to them, and I’m sure that’s extremely healthy in a lot of ways.

Unfortunately for most people, we don’t get a whole lot of satisfaction out of eating that way. And it’s unfortunate because wouldn’t it be great if we got just as much satisfaction out of a bowl of broccoli as we did from a bowl of ice cream. Wouldn’t that be amazing? 

Now, there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, and some people will eat 100% emotional-based eating. This is the “Southern” cooking, like the deep fried stuff, a lot of sugars, tons of extra fats, and it makes them (emotionally) feel really good, right? This is the “soul food,” the “comfort food,” stuff that most of us really like, but it’s not so good for our bodies. 

Where is the happy medium? For me personally, it’s been finding a way to eat 80-90% clean, while still enjoying all of my favorite flavors. I’m still enjoying my chocolate every day; I found some amazing chocolate that’s made with stevia (Russell Stovers sugar-free), and you can’t even tell it’s sugar-free. So that’s how I enjoy chocolate every day.

Would my body be a little bit better if I totally eliminated chocolate? Maybe, I don’t know. One of the mistakes people make when it comes to trying to reduce their weight or eat healthy, is they try to deprive themselves of all their favorite things, and they say, “Well, I would be a lot healthier if I gave this all up.” Maybe so, physically they would be a little bit better off. Maybe they could eliminate dairy because dairy for a lot of people can cause inflammation in the body. However, other people would not find eating dairy-free enjoyable whatsoever. 

The purpose of this video is saying, find what works best for you. Find what you can enjoy the most that still allows you to give your body all the nutrition and nourishment that it needs, not going over your calories for the day, and still getting the right macronutrient breakdown (fats, carbohydrates, & proteins).

The rule of thumb, one of the things I’ve learned from one of my mentors is for most people that want to reduce their weight is you take your goal weight, multiply it 11, and that’s how many calories you consume per day.

Now, if you consume it in 4 meals, awesome, just break it up into 4 meals and consume that many number of calories per day. If you’re like me, and you actually do better with intermittent fasting, then you can consume most of those calories in a single, large enjoyable, really satisfying meal. Then sometimes there’s still some calories left over for chocolate, right?

Again, it’s finding what works best for you. Do eat as clean and healthy as you possibly can. At the same time, if you feel deprived, if you feel emotionally drained because all you’re thinking about is everything that you can’t eat, then pull back just a little bit. Don’t go crazy. Don’t go back to the other end of the spectrum where you’re eating nothing but comfort food, ice cream, cookies, cakes and everything. Allow just a little bit of your favorite foods in. Find a way to fit everything in, so that you can stick with it for a lifetime.

That’s the biggest difference between people that have permanent results and those that only have temporary results. Over 80% of people that do drop weight, get it all back because, again, they deprive themselves for a certain period of time, and no one wants to do that long-term, instead of finding a really enjoyable, even more enjoyable lifestyle that they can stick with.

Now, a lot of people ask, “How do I even find out what my body needs? How do I find out what those ideals are?” That’s why we do our Metabolism and Weight Reduction Assessments. That is why we have them because it literally takes all the guesswork out of it for you. Why would you want to spend another several months or even several years just trying through trial and error. That’s what I did for years and years, and that’s what kept me looking so overweight for so long long because I kept trying all these different diets, and I didn’t find what actually worked for me until I finally did an assessment.

If you haven’t scheduled an assessment already, it’s $499. However, there is no charge at all for members of our Enjoy Yourself Thin Facebook group, so if you haven’t joined that group already, make sure to do so. Search, “Enjoy Yourself Thin” on Facebook and request to join, then the assessment will be totally free for you. Take all the guesswork out of it for you , that way you know exactly what your body needs, and you can then fit all your favorite things in there. One more time, find what your body needs, have a balance between totally physical and the emotional, you want to have both. You’ve gotta have what’s good for you of course, and you also get to have some of that emotionally satisfying stuff. And of course you’ve gotta eat foods that are good for you mentally as well. 

If you want to take all the guesswork out of it for you and find out exactly what your body needs, join our Enjoy Yourself Thin Facebook group, and then get an assessment at no charge at all; it’s free for members of that group. Thank you so much. Love you! 

Watch “This is Why There’s So Much Confusion in the Nutrition Industry!” on YouTube.