I often get asked this question: “What should i be eating in order to lose wight?” Ummm that’s a huge question that can take days to answer since it is specific to the individual person’s diet history, hormones, age, sleep habits, workout levels, and soooo many other factors.

BUTTTT there are 3 principles that are pretty much standard for everyone AND are important to revisit every once in a while.

1) EACH MEAL: about 500-600 quality, nutrient dense, and fiber dense calories. 50% of the plate should contain veggies, 1 serving of protein (animal or plant based), 1 serving of a complex carb (quinoa, sweat potato, brown rice, barley, buckwheat etc.), and 1 serving of good fat (avocado, nuts or nut butter, hummus etc.)  Your portions must be on point!

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My biggest weight loss/maintenance secret? EAT. MORE. VEGETABLES.  Even if you think you are eating a lot now, double it. And watch the magic happen.

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This includes “diet” foods that sell you the story of being healthy, but actually contain metabolism crushing chemicals. Opt for foods with the least ingredients as possible; the closer it looks to how they came out of the ground or off of the tree, the better it will be for you. EVEN IF the #’s on the package say that it’s low in calories, fat, or sugar…if you can not pronounce the ingredients in the ingredients list, you are setting yourself up for failure.

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You DO NOT need a juice cleanse or anything drastic like that in order to eliminate sugar, simple/white carbs, and chemicals from your diet. In fact, I DO NOT recommend this craziness. All you need is to a) PLEDGE to yourself that you will start weaning down from these addictive substances. b)  PLAN (yes, in advance) your meals with the formula from #1. c) Work on improving every day, realizing that this is NOT a black and white effort. We are looking for daily incremental changes, not perfectionistic success.

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You can’t expect to change your shortcomings if you run away from them or can’t identify them in the first place.
a) Write a list of the 3 things you are struggling with and that are causing you to veer off track from your intended healthy habits.  NO JUDGEMENT, shame or self hate allowed here; just identify the facts.  Is it a time of day, a certain person, restaurant, sleep habits? What are the triggers and events leading up to you falling off the wagon? Write it down.

b) Then ID a Vital Behavior for each of the 3 things you wrote down. A Vital Behavior is the action you will take in order to pre-empt your weak points, or what you will do once you have already fallen victim to your triggers

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The more you become aware of what makes you tick, the better equipped you will be change and improve.  Often our biggest problem is not lack of information. We all pretty much KNOW what to eat in order to be healthy and lose weight. It’s not really too big of a secret.

But KNOWING and DOING are two completely separate things. Ya feel me?

This is why #3 is probably the most important on the list!