The Single Most Effective First Change You Can Make To The Way You Eat

9.05.2019
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Last week we looked at three habits you could put in place in order to get your fat loss, but what if you found yourself feeling like you needed a smaller step to get you started?

If I could only give one nutrition tip to someone right at the beginning of their journey with no particular knowledge of the fitness world, it would be this:

Eliminate all processed food.

That’s it.

Why?

Well, aside from the fact that processed food is basically not very healthy, it is actually designed to override your bodies natural satiety signals. This means, that 1000 calories of real food is very different to 1000 calories of processed food – you’re likely very full after eating the real food, but could keep going for hours with the processed food. It is designed to be highly palatable – think about the tag line used by Pringles crisps – processed foods are designed specifically to make you want to eat them even when you’re full.

Think about how you feel satisfied after your dinner and turn down a second helping. Then, someone opens a packet of biscuits, and suddenly your ‘pudding stomach’ opens for business and you find you have space for most of the packet!

Processed foods are things usually found in packets – biscuits, crisps, ready meals – food which has been turned into something several steps away from their natural state.

Now, of course, getting these foods out of your diet will not be the only thing you ever need to do in order to get in shape, but it makes for a damn good start if you need a truly simple place to begin. You’ll find your appetite starts to return to normal now your bodies cues aren’t being over taken by engineered food, and simply because you have to eat something, you are going to find yourself naturally making healthier choices.

And while this is a very simple idea; it is not going to be easy. Your brain is used to feeling the immense ‘hit’ of satisfaction from processed food, and breaking away from this is going to be pretty difficult both because of the change it necessitates to the way you plan your meals, and because you’re likely to experience some side effects like headaches or tiredness as your body gets used to its new way of eating.

Persevere – what will come out on the other side after a month or so will be completely worth it.

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