Nutrition Advice That Doesn’t Overwhelm Or Confuse You

I've been having lots of meaningful conversations with my Lifestyle Coaching clients lately about the good, the bad, and the ugly of nutrition.

Conversations that, like a slow stream making its way to its final body of water, point towards the essence of our struggles with nutrition.

That essence, for many, is concentration.

What many people fall victim to is focusing on too many actions or problem areas at a time, which really comes down to not focusing at all. We more or less gloss over the areas of our nutrition that need attention and then continue with the status quo.

And I sympathize, I've struggled many times in the past with getting things right nutritionally and I understand firsthand the concentration that is required to make a significant shift in just one facet of the nutritional landscape.

In light of these struggles, I point my clients in the right direction towards finding one facet to approach at a time and to concentrate on making one small improvement at a time.

The changes over the long haul speak for themselves, but the small actions that lead to these breakthroughs are really what deserve the attention.

Here are 3 areas to focus your actions on to improve your nutrition (without feeling overwhelmed and lost).

1. Follow The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule is simple.

80% of the time, you want to eat good or great foods. These are foods that are real, whole, and nutritious.

By eating 5 out of every 7 meals this way, you're dramatically shifting your inner biological environment. This means more energy, better recovery, and better physical and mental performance for work, family, and life tasks.

The following 20% is reserved for foods that might not be the best for you, but you enjoy them every now and again for their own sake.

For me, I enjoy having my girlfriend's homemade chicken cutlet, pasta, and garlic bread or grabbing some authentic Mexican tacos at Tacos Mi Nachos, to name a few.

Where I have my clients concentrate first is on having their breakfast and lunch meeting their their 80% needs, with dinner, when necessary, falling into the 20%.

The great thing about this approach is that when you eat well earlier in the day, it leads to more satisfaction and higher energy, which leads to a far less likely occurrence that you want to eat something poor for dinner.

A win-win.

2. Increase Your Protein Intake

We've all heard this one, and for good reason.

The average American is undereating protein by a long shot!

The NIH still uses 80% of your weight in kilograms for their recommended daily intake - which I believe sets the bar astronomically low, just 56g per day for the average male, and 46g per day for the average female (yikes!).

The healthiest, most fit, most lean people you see and know eat LOTS of protein. I recommend my clients start with 80% of their goal bodyweight, then moving closer to 100%. For example:

• For a male wanting to weigh 180lbs., he'd start with 144g per day, then move towards 180g.

• For a female wanting to weigh 130lbs., she'd begin with 104g per day, then aim for 130g.

These are a far shot from what is being recommended to some, sadly.

I don't want you to think protein is a cure-all remedy for poor nutrition either. It's not.

However, by eating a higher protein diet, you're by affect eating more whole, nutritious foods (fish, poultry, eggs, beef, dairy, etc.) if you source them well, which contain many essential vitamins and minerals for better health.

Also, with an increase in protein intake, you must adapt your carb and fat intake to ensure you don't increase your total calorie consumption. This is also a huge benefit as many of us overconsume one of these macronutrients or both.

Your concentration here would go to hitting your protein intake needs on a meal-to-meal basis.

You do this by taking your total daily intake requirement (let's use the 180g target from our male above), and dividing it by your meal frequency, let's say 3 meals per day.

On average, this male would want to eat around 60g of protein per meal - which is equal to about a 1/2 pound of most protein sources plus some, which is more than attainable.

Often, I recommend a protein supplement to make it easier to reach the daily target (a two-scoop mentality of course!).

3. Swap Out The Highly-Processed, Refined, And Low-Quality Foods For Better Alternatives

There's a lot of noise in the food and nutrition space.

I like to keep things simple. There is no right and wrong, or eat just this or just that.

What it comes down to is...

• Eating more real, whole, nutrient-dense foods

• Which means eating less of the highly-processed and refined foods.

For some, they are eating from such poorly sourced foods that this is where they will see the most benefit out of the gate.

This looks like:

• Ditching the work lunch and bringing your own.

• Eating out less and cooking more from home.

• Stop drinking the sugary and fatty coffees each morning (this is big!)

• Having an updated grocery list to shop for better foods each week

Ridding your body of processed sugars, refined oils, and refined grains can do wonders for your health and energy.

The concentration here is starting small, with just one meal at a time. DO NOT try to overhaul your entire diet overnight. It doesn't work.

Instead, you could start with breakfast every day for a week - exchange poor(er) foods for great(er) foods.

The real nick with this approach is that - it makes sense. All the other confusing accusations and finger-pointing are meant to confuse you.

With that, I want to take you back to the body of water we found ourselves at to start.

Concentration.

This was all great information, however, you need to concentrate. Which one of these do you need to address first?

Start there.