Before talking about nutrition strategies, it’s useful to ask where they’re supposed to take us. Traditionally, this becomes a conversation about health or body composition. More recently, I feel like we have been moving toward a meaning-driven focus. On that note, I think it’s often useful to ask what will have you feeling your best. This includes supporting anything that improves your quality of life — from mood and focus to hikes with your besties or athletic performance.
When it comes to feeling good, there is some correlation with body composition. I should get that out of the way. Strength, general performance, and metabolic flexibility (the ability to smoothly switch back and forth between fat or carbs as a fuel source) all happen within a certain bandwidth. But that bandwidth is far, far broader than fitness marketers would have you believe. Maybe more than you would personally expect.
Let’s get to the how. To do this, I often think of our food sources as living in three circles:
Circle 1: your immediate environment
What is within arm’s reach? And, even there, what is most convenient to consume? We could all be a little more accepting of the fact that we tasty, prepared food has its thumb on the scale when compared to anything else.
Circle 2: your most frequent spaces
What is accessible to you wherever you spend the bulk of your time? Home, work, Starbucks (they hope). Maybe all three if you work from home for Starbucks. These environments might include what you bring or store. They might include vending machines. Or farmers markets. Or influencers hawking supplements on your favourite podcasts.
This circle might also include anywhere you go out of your way to visit. Or break your piggy bank to pay for.
Untangling My Thoughts Elena Myasnikova
3 stages of change
1. Work to create new habits
Rather than trying to brute force your way into victory, go further upstream and build new habits that do one of the following:
• Positively affect your mood and energy before you deal with the habit you’re trying to untangle
• Help you shift your identity. There’s a big energetic difference between a person who says, “I’m trying to stop screaming at my coworkers” and one who says, “Kindness is a top priority for me.”
2. Work to stop old habits
You can make it harder to do the old habit through one of the following methods:
• Think about the specific contexts your habit exists in. There may be specific physical locations, for example. Or prompts from your phone. Or social/environmental triggers. Then? Take away the prompts if you’re able.
• Make the old habits harder. This isn’t about restriction; it’s about friction. Add another step. Another bit of decision-making. More effort. Less convenience.
Many of our bad habits come out of a need to manage tough emotions. So, it’s easier to remove the emotional triggers than to negotiate with yourself while you’re in in full gremlin mode.
• Create simple rules. Don’t eat after midnight; avoid bright light; don’t get wet. Whoops. That’s gremlins again. Time-restricted eating, which is what I meant to tell you about, is still an incredibly popular strategy for snacking and overconsumption habits — not because it’s easy but because it is so simple.
Circle 3: the food ecosystem you live in
This is a big one. It contains everything from the farms that food is grown on to shipping, processing, packaging, and marketing. It includes policies about what can be sold, how things get labelled, and even what is safe to consume. This is the invisible hand of the market. And it often holds garbage.
The hunter and the hunted
Within these circles, we also have things that are worth chasing — and the things that chase us.
Things worth chasing: Unsaturated fats; fibre; lean protein; varied micronutrients. Eating mindfully — and with joy in your heart.
Practically speaking, this looks like a whole whack of veggies and fruit; nuts; legumes; anything from soy and tempeh to chicken and fish—depending on how you roll. Guys, please note that the male hysteria (prosteria?) about soy is utterly unnecessary and largely counterproductive.
Things that chase you: Convenience; Ultra-processed foods; a lack of variety; a bias toward saturated fats and simple carbs; greater quantities than you need; anything with an egregious environmental footprint.
Practically speaking, this looks like any food that might have been designed by committee. It could also be anything that you consume mindlessly — regardless of quality.
Putting it all together
We need to ask what systems or rules make it easier for you to catch the good stuff. Maybe it’s simply having the ingredients at home. Maybe it’s having a tool, like a great chef’s knife. And maybe it’s using a hack like a good quality protein supplement. This is all about decreasing friction (via decision-making, time, or effort) between you and the actions you want to take.
And the stuff that’s chasing you? Invert, always invert. Add friction where you can and easy-to-follow rules where you can’t.
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