It’s that time of year when taking control of your health and fitness is no longer an afterthought, but is now at the forefront of our minds. Let’s get this year started off right and make sure we have the right information to help us reach our goals. Let’s face it, we have all grown up hearing a variety of “nutritional advice” from different sources in our lives. As kids, we learned the food pyramid – the old example where at the bottom of the pyramid you had your complex carbohydrates, which basically told us that carbs should be the foundations of our diets.
Current dietary models now emphasize a more balanced diet of whole grains, proteins, vegetables and good fats. Other diet suggestions and marketing strategies from the 90’s suggested drinking juice-like beverages as a healthy alternative to soda. Unfortunately for us, they were mostly just tons of high fructose corn syrup with small amounts of juice. Then of course the classic non-fat, high carb, whole grain diet that people were trying out to combat heart conditions and lose weight, but were eating surpluses of pasta. A lot of those tips seem outdated and inaccurate now. Below I have put together a list of tips we need to unlearn starting off in 2018.
You have to be a “gym rat” in order to lose weight.
No, you don’t have to exercise to lose weight, but it can help you get to a deficit and has other benefits.
Cut out all “bad” foods and eat only “healthy” foods.
No, we can have a balanced diet that includes and allows room for treats.
Cut out carbs or fat or sugar.
No, carbs are good, and healthy fats are necessary. An appropriate level of all for your goals will work just fine.
Undereating will put me in starvation mode and make me store fat.
No, but too low of calories can cause other problems.
Certain foods should be eaten in the morning or evening.
No, our bodies are created to make the most of the food we eat at any time.
As long as you eat healthy foods you won’t gain weight.
No, eating a surplus of any calories will cause you to gain weight and there are more caloric dense foods than others.
If you have any questions or need a game plan to get headed in the right direction, feel free to send us a message!
Simple Adulting // Emily M.