It’s that time again–the start of a new year. January is a great opportunity to reflect on on your last year, understand your priorities, and set goals to keep improving.
If you’re not careful, though, it’s really easy to come up with a bunch of goals and then not be able to follow through with some–or even all–of them. To help you come up with better goals that you can actually achieve, I wanted to share a few tips I’ve come up with over the years.
Pick Some Goals You Don’t Share With Anyone Else
There’s a big culture, at least in the United States, of sharing your New Years’ resolutions with friends and family, but this can actually be detrimental to your ability to accomplish them. The simple act of sharing a goal can make you feel some sense of accomplishment, making you feel like you’ve already made steps toward your goal.
If you write down your goals and do not share them with anybody, then the gap between where you are and where you want to be is quite apparent, motivating you to take action, but as soon as you tell someone, that gap shrinks.
You should only share goals publicly that you know are easily achievable. Reach goals that are going to take a lot more hard work are best kept to yourself if you want to maximize your probability of success.
[Don’t be these people! At least not with ALL your goals]
Write SMART Goals
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound. The acronym originated from companies who were attempting to help their employees write quarterly or annual goals for development, but the idea can apply to any type of goal, not just one at the office.
A SMART goal achieves each of the five features mentioned above, which I’ll discuss in more detail below.
Let’s say you start with the generic goal “I’d like to eat healthier this year”. This is a good goal, but it’s not yet SMART. It’s somewhat vague, and doesn’t clarify exactly what “healthier” means or how much healthier you are planning on being, or how that is going to be achieved. By making some small adjustments, we can turn this into a better, more achievable goal.
S: Specific
A goal that is specific should answer the following questions.
What do I want to accomplish?
What steps do I need to get there?
To make “I’d like to eat healthier this year” into a specific goal, you might define what healthy means to you. It might mean reducing the amount of red meat you eat. Or, it could mean cooking more meals at home. Or it could mean eating multiple servings of fruits/vegetables each day. You can decide which direction to go, but you should be as specific as possible and include a clear explanation of how you will get there. For the purposes of this example, we’ll go with the last option and set our goal as: “I will increase the number of servings of fruits and vegetables I eat.”
M: Measurable
It’s important to be able to make your goals quantifiable so that you can track your progress. If you just say “I will increase the number of servings of fruits and vegetables I eat,” then there’s a whole lot of variation that’s possible. How many more fruits/vegetables? How often? Is this something you do every day?
You can make your goal measurable by adding some sort of number to it that you can track, often on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For example, we can improve “”I will increase the number of servings of fruits and vegetables I eat” by changing it to “I will eat a minimum 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every week.” That way, each week you can check off the servings as you eat them and know whether you are on track for eating your goals.
[Make sure every goal you have can have its progress measured in some way]
A: Achievable
When setting your goal, you need to really take some time to think about what you can actually achieve in the real world, and not in the perfect world. Ideally, we would all love vegetables, have a ton of time to cook at home, and be healthy as can be, but that’s just not realistic. You need to make sure to set your goals around your lifestyle and abilities. For example, if you work a job where you have to bring a lunch that sits out in the sun, it might not really be reasonable to bring fresh fruit or vegetables, so you can’t expect to get any servings of those during lunch on weekdays. You might also have limited access to quality fruits and vegetables due to cost reasons. If you can only afford 3 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the rest has to be frozen, that is totally okay! Just make sure your goal is not that you’ll eat 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.
When setting a goal that’s achievable, you should make sure that it is a challenge–meaning you will not just coast to the finish, and you’ll have to work for it–but also that it’s not completely beyond your means.
R: Relevant
Relevance is about why you’re setting this goal. Thinking about this can help give you motivation to push through when things are difficult.
Why is getting healthy important to you? Is it so you can go on more adventures and experience new things? So you can keep up with your kids? So you can spend less money on doctor’s bills? So you can live a longer life?
Make sure you understand why you are setting your goals and have a meaningful reason for each one. If you aren’t internally motivated by something, it’s going to be really hard to care about achieving them.
T: Time Bound
It’s helpful to set some sort of time limit on when your goal has been reached. Sometimes, if you try to set a goal for too long a period of time, it can be easy to fall behind and then just give up. For example, saying that you’ll eat at least 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every week for an entire year is a long time to commit to something. If it’s only week six and you already fail, it can feel like you just have no hope to finish! Instead, try to pick something that’s more manageable. For example, the next month/four weeks. Then, once you’ve made it through one month, you can set a similar goal for the next month, or change it based on what felt like it was possible in the month before! For example, if you find that eating 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables was super easy your first month, and you averaged 8 per week, you might really challenge yourself for a second month and set a goal of 10 servings per week.
[Consider writing the start and end date of your smaller goal sections on a calendar to keep you motivated to get there!]
Setting goals can be hard, and can feel especially overwhelming at the start of the new year when you hear about all these huge goals people have and wonder “how the heck am I ever going to come even close to that??” If you just focus on these principles, though, ignoring everyone else and just thinking about yourself, you’ll be set with some goals you can actually accomplish, and you’ll be a badass in no time!
I’ve been actively exercising for about four years now. It’s been a long–and sometimes difficult–journey, full of rough periods of plateau, injury, and frustration. But I’ve made it through, and come out at lot stronger on the other side (both figuratively and literally).
Along the way I’ve picked up quite a few lessons that have really helped me and that I wish I’d known more about before getting too far into my journey.
Today, I’m sharing my wisdom with you in the hopes that it will prevent you from making some of the same unpleasant mistakes that I went through.
So, without further ado, the best exercise tips for beginners:
1. You’re going to fail sometimes. It’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up.
When I first started exercising regularly, I would set myself lofty goals: be able to run a mile in a week or two (starting from nothing), or be able to do a pull-up after only 10 gym sessions–when I could barely lift anything.
When I’d fail to reach these goals, I would get frustrated and think that I should be able to do better, which was often not really the case. Then, as a result, I would lose my motivation and fall off the wagon a bit.
Even when you’re trying your best in fitness, at some point you will probably fail to reach a goal.
It’s just part of working out. You might get hit with a bad injury and be forced to rest, you might have a super busy work week that leaves zero time for exercise, or you might have a bad bout of depression and be stuck in bed. Whatever goal you had set–you’ll fail. But that’s okay.
Failure is bound to happen, and the most important thing you can do is control how you react to it. Don’t be like me when I started, and get frustrated (or like the guy below, give up completely). Instead, just realize that setbacks are a part of the fitness lifestyle. Use the opportunity to come back stronger next time.
[Don’t be like this guy!]
2. The biggest thing you can do for yourself is just start.
Overthinking exercise can stop you from doing it. If you’re trying to get into exercise for the first time, you may find yourself doing some of the following:
Trying to research the best workout clothes
Looking up protein shakes and workout supplements that you think you’ll need to succeed
Trying to find the perfect exercises
Setting up a full-on calendar for what your training is going to look like
If you see yourself doing these things, stop.
Trying to do everything in advance will just lead you to being overwhelmed, and if you’re like a lot of people–you might actually never get to the exercise part!
I had this problem early on. I tried to research a training plan and totally change my diet at the same time. There were way too many things doing on, and I ended up failing at both.
The best thing you can do for yourself is stop thinking about all the details and just start exercising.
You’ll have time to figure that stuff out later. It’s more important to just build an exercise habit first.
3. You don’t always have to try your hardest. Sometimes just doing something is enough.
One of the biggest roadblocks that many beginners face is turning exercise into a habit. When you’re just starting and it’s something you’ve never done before, it doesn’t come naturally.
And if you are lacking a strong sense of internal motivation, it’s going to be impossible to keep going unless you can turn exercise into a habit.
However, habits can be super difficult to build if you set an unreasonable goal. For example, if you’re coming from no exercise background and say that you’re now going to exercise every single day for an hour, you’re almost certainly going to fail.
A much better way to start is to set yourself a daily goal of just starting. Rather than say that you’re going to exercise for an hour, say that you’re just going to start. That could mean:
Putting on a pair of running shoes, walking outside, and jogging for a quarter mile,
Driving to a gym,
Pulling out a yoga mat and doing a few stretches,
…or anything else that is a very small goal.
[Just a few sit-ups is enough to get you moving. It doesn’t take much!]
You’ll probably find that once you start, you want to keep going. You’re already at the gym, so why not get in a good workout? You’ve already started jogging–why not go another few miles, even if you walk a lot of it? The great thing about doing this, though, is if you don’t feel like you want to keep going, that’s okay. You still achieved your goal of doing something. And over time, your body will adjust and start to recognize the act of something as a new habit.
Beginning something new this way is much more likely to lead to long term success than setting lofty goals for each day.
To learn more about habit building, I’d recommend reading Atomic Habits.
4. Exercise is one of the best ways of fighting off depression. Don’t let it fall by the wayside.
Exercise plays a huge role in mental health. Just take a look through some of the many studies on exercise and depression [For example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
In my own experience, exercise has been the single biggest help in fighting off depressive episodes. When in periods of struggle, right after I’ve finished a workout, I’ve felt the cloud of sadness lifting away. It’s never magically made things disappear, but it has had a significant and noticeable impact.
Even though I knew about the benefits of exercise and depression early on, and had experienced these improvements in my own mental health as a result of fitness, I still went through periods where I let my fitness fall by the wayside–usually when I had a lot of schoolwork to do or stressful exams/presentations coming up.
It was one of the biggest mistakes I made.
Whenever I let exercise slide, depression found a way to creep back in. And that made it harder and harder to fight it off because the more depressed I was, the harder it was to drag myself to the gym. It would have been so much easier if I had prioritized exercise and not let it slip from my schedule.
If you struggle at all with depression, make an extra effort to ensure that exercise is a priority. It will make such a huge difference on your well being.
5. Lift heavy.
While cardio and light weights are okay–and good in moderation–lifting heavy weights is one of the best ways to improve your fitness.
This is counter to what you see a lot of women doing, so it deserves some explanation.
Heavy weights are typically associated with men in the media, but they are great for everyone. This is for a few different reasons.
If weight loss is your goal, heavy lifting actually helps you lose weight faster. Unlike cardio, building muscle speeds your metabolism. That means that even when you are not working out, you’ll burn more calories (a couple extra per pound of muscle you add)
It can help you get strongerwithout developing extreme muscle definition. Lots of women are scared of the bodybuilder look, but the average woman who does strength training will never look like that. Why? Because women have low testosterone, which plays a big factor in men’s muscle growth.
If you skip the heavy weights, you’ll never see these benefits.
[Aim for a weight where you can complete approximately 7 reps before you’re too tired to keep going. If you can do more than about 12 reps, your weight is too light for maximum strength gain.]
6. Don’t waste time on targeted movements. Instead, focus on compound lifts.
When you’re getting started, it’s easy to get excited about all the different machines at the gym. I know I did!
Ooh, a curl machine! That looks fun! And ooh, a tricep press! Perfect way to build some nice arms…
– My Internal Monologue
But they are not built equal, and some will give you much more benefit for your time than others. You want to focus on machines (or free weights–but those can be scary for beginners) that do compound movements, activating multiple muscle groups at once. That means, if you’re working on a right schedule, no bicep curl or tricep press machines!!
Instead, try some of these:
Lat pulldown
Row
Leg press
Assisted pull-ups/chin-ups
Chest press
7. Don’t forget about your diet!
[Eating healthy plays a huge role in fitness! And if you’re focused on strength gain, you’ll need to watch your protein consumption as well.]
At first, I thought health and wellness were all about exercise–that if I just lifted weights and did cardio all the time, I’d magically be super strong, look ripped, and feel better. I was wrong.
Over the years, I’ve learned that the actual exercise bit is only half of the equation. Diet is the rest. You may have heard the saying that “abs are made in the kitchen.” It’s completely true. During periods where I had. abad diet, no matter how much I exercised, I never made much progress. But when I got my diet together, everything came much more easily.
Diet plays a huge role in wellbeing. It controls how much energy you have. It provides the protein your muscles need to grow. It impacts your sleep and your mental health, which both need to be in good shape for your body to get the most out of fitness.
Don’t neglect it. Although I went through many periods of wishing it worked that way, you won’t be able to get anywhere if you just eat cheeseburgers and fries all the time.
For some ideas on healthy eating, you can checkout my blog collection on the topic.
8. Exercise doesn’t have to be done solo.
One of the great things about exercise is how many different ways you can do it! At first, I was drawn to the fact that you can easily do it solo. As an introvert, I like to have lots of alone time and exercise is a great way to build that in, so for the longest time I only ever did it alone.
But exercise can also provide great benefits when done as a group activity! This is particularly true if you’re someone who has a busy schedule. If you do group exercise, you can build social activity and fitness into the same time slot and don’t have to sacrifice one to fit the other in.
Plus, exercise in a group has the added benefit of helping keep you motivated. After trying group fitness, I learned that it can be more effective than solo fitness for really pushing you. In front of a group, you always want to do your best.
I still do lots of solo fitness, but I have integrated some more group stuff into my training. They both have their own benefits and it’s good to try all your options out before settling on something.
[Even though I mostly exercise alone, a group fitness class every once in a while is a great way to keep me accountable for going to the gym.]
9. Exercising more will lead to so many great changes. Stick with it!
The awesome thing about exercise is that it doesn’t just make you stronger. The act of getting fit actually has a tendency to spill over into other areas of your life, pushing you to make improvements in all sorts of things.
After I started exercising for a while, I noticed that I wanted to make new changes in my life that I’ve never thought about before. I focused so much more on my mental health and got into meditation. I became much more interested in food/diet, and started digging into how to eat healthier. And I worked to try to find ways to reduce my screen time, which was causing headaches and adding anxious/depressive feelings to my day.
These changes don’t come immediately, though. You have to stick with it for a while. It probably wasn’t until year two that I really started noticing a difference in how I thought (year one, my exercise was pretty on and off, which could explain why it took so long).
If you’ve just gotten started haven’t found that much benefit from exercise yet, stick with it. In the long run, you’ll start to see big differences.
10. Some results are just unattainable. Set goals that work for you, and don’t base your success on what you see others accomplishing.
I wrote about this idea more in depth in my first ever post on this blog. When you get started in fitness, your main inspiration is often whoever you see doing fitness on the internet. At least that’s who it was for me.
But those people are not average. Fitness is often their day job–whether it be as an influencer or as a top athlete. They spend hours at the gym every day, have personal trainers, and are paid to be as fit as possible (which can sometimes mean that they take unhealthy steroids). Some were just born with incredibly good genetics.
Most of the time, their bodies are not attainable to the average person. With my schedule as it is right now, for instance, I’ll never look as muscular as someone like Simone Biles, whose entire job is to focus on gymnastics. No matter how much I try, it’s just not going to happen.
This can be hard to realize at first, and it can lead to setting unhealthy expectations. You can’t expect to go to the gym a few times per week for a year and suddenly have 10% body fat. It’s a multi-year process that takes a huge amount of effort, and some factors may be outside your control.
So don’t base your goals on what you see on the internet. Base them on what works for you–what makes you feel good, or what’s reasonable based on your rate of improvement.
It will help you feel so much more confident in your fitness!
[Tip: Spend a few minutes at the beginning of each month planning out what your goals will be for that month. This will help make sure you’re keeping on top of things. Base them on your current abilities and interests, keeping in mind that they should be realistic! Don’t base your goals off of anything you see on social media.]
So there we go! My top 10 tips I wish I knew when I started to work out.
I hope they can help you out! If there’s any other tips I missed that I should consider, please share!
Cooking at home is one of my favorite ways to stay healthy, but it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. Lots of recipes take hours to make or require expensive ingredients you’ll probably never use again. And those that are quick often tend to be somewhat unhealthy (e.g. mac and cheese or a hot dog). It can really feel like there’s no winning.
To help fight off this feeling, I’m starting a recipe series where I’ll share some of my favorite meals that don’t fall prey to those same issues and occasionally a few that fall closer to the less healthy category. The goal of diversity in recipe suggestion is to promote balanced eating, something I strive for daily and talk about more in depth in my diet philosophy introduction here. I recommend checking that out for background on my views on food.
For this installation, I’m sharing a few of my favorite non-breakfast foods that can be made for cheap and that consist of relatively healthy ingredients.
1. Tofu Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are a classic Vietnamese staple. They’re simple, delicious, packed with vegetables, and infinitely customizable, which makes them almost a perfect food.
The main things you’ll need for tofu spring rolls are:
Rolls
1 container (about 16 oz) of firm or extra firm tofu
2 cups cooked vermicelli noodles (I like to use brown rice-based ones if I can find them, but if you can’t, white is okay too)
Around 12 rice paper wraps
Fillings of choice (recommended options include cabbage, shredded carrots, mint, and cilantro but you can pick and choose based on whatever you have on hand that sounds good).
Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter (try to find the kind with no added sugar and just peanuts/salt if you can)
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce, based on salt desires
1-2 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce (this stuff) depending on spice desires
Approx 1 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar
Juice of a small lime (or half a large one)
Some water for thinning
The recipe is super simple:
Drain and press your tofu about 30 minutes before you’re ready to get started.
Once your tofu is drained, you’re ready to go! Take everything that goes into the peanut sauce and mix it all together in a small bowl. Play with the proportions of ingredients until you find something you like. The amounts I provided are guidelines but peanut sauce is often up to personal taste. The sauce is usually pretty chunky before you add water, so once you’ve mixed everything else together, add water until it gets smooth and relatively fluid.
Chop up your tofu into small chunks (I usually go for rectangular chunks rather than squares because they fit better into the wrappers) and toss into a hot pan over canola oil. Cook until these look brown and no longer wet.
Cook your vermicelli noodles. While those are going, you can prep whatever veggies you’re putting in (shred your carrots/cabbage, etc).
When the noodles are done, you’re ready to fill. Get a bowl of warm to hot water and get your rice paper. Make each roll by taking a sheet of paper, dunking it in the water until it’s soft, pulling it out, and filling with tofu, veggies, and vermicelli. When done, wrap the roll up however you please. I typically go for a burrito style where I roll up the ends first, then go lengthwise.
Repeat until you run out of fillings.
To eat, dip the rolls in peanut sauce.
To make this even better, I also recommend adding a step of marinating your tofu (for about 30 minutes) after you press it. I left it out to keep within the time constraints, but it does add a lot of flavor. I typically use soy sauce, chili garlic sauce and sesame oil as my main marinade ingredients but this is up to you.
2. Lentil Tacos
Lentils are one of my recent food discoveries and a new favorite. They’re hearty and packed with all kinds of nutrients. And as someone who doesn’t love the texture of many other vegetable protein sources–such as beans-these are a lot more palatable.
You can swap out ground beef in a taco recipe with red lentils to boost the healthiness of the meal. Although it doesn’t taste exactly the same, I think it’s a pretty good substitute and has a lot of great flavor in its own right.
Here’s what you need to make lentil tacos:
3/4 cup dry red lentils
A little under 2 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable, up to you)
A little under 1 cup of your favorite salsa
Some sort of oil. I like using olive oil but it does have a strong taste, so something more neutral could work better for you.
1 small yellow or white onion, diced
1 clove minced garlic or about heaping teaspoon of the jarred kind
Spices! Salt, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, and oregano. They also make packets of pre-made taco seasoning at the store but it’s a lot less customizable to your preferences.
Tortillas (either flour or corn)
Whatever taco toppings you typically enjoy (chopped tomato, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, etc)
When you’ve got everything together, follow these steps:
Rinse your lentils in water.
Chop up your onions and garlic.
Get your seasoning ready. Here, I can’t recommend exact amounts to you because it’s all up to preference. I tend to put the most cumin, though, followed by chili powder and garlic powder, with a little less paprika and oregano and the least salt. Note that you might not even need salt if you’re using a high sodium broth. This is up to you. It’s usually a couple teaspoons total that I end up with across all the spices.
Heat up some oil on medium heat (a tablespoon or so) and cook the onion and garlic until it starts to brown and get soft. Note that you’ll want a pretty big pan for this since everything will be getting added together.
Add your lentils and your seasoning mix and stir for about 30-60 seconds to get it all mixed together.
Add your broth and heat it up to boiling. After the mixture has boiled, drop the heat to low and cover. The lentils should finish cooking in close to 30 minutes or a little sooner.
When the lentils are tender, stir in your salsa and you’re ready to go! Serve the lentil mixture in tortillas of your choice, with whatever toppings you like!
3. Asian Chickpea Power Bowls
Chickpeas are another new staple in my diet. Super healthy and really tasty when prepared a lot of different ways. One of my favorite ways to use them recently has been to make power bowls: healthy and hearty whole foods mixed together and topped with a sauce.
My favorite right now is an asian style bowl that I made up. It actually shares a common ingredient with the first recipe on today’s list: the peanut sauce.
These bowls are really quick, tasty, and a great way to boost your energy. Here’s what you need to assemble the bowl:
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 can of chickpeas (16 oz)
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
About 5-6 handfuls of kale, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic or a heaping teaspoon of the kind from a jar
About 1/2 to 1 tsp of soy sauce, based on salt desires
Dash of sesame oil (optional)
Powdered or grated fresh ginger (optional)
Plus, the ingredients for peanut sauce:
1/4 cup peanut butter (try to find the kind with no added sugar and just peanuts/salt if you can)
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce, based on salt desires
1-2 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce (this stuff) depending on spice desires
Approx 1 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar
Juice of a small lime (or half a large one)
Some water for thinning
And here are the steps for assembly:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Open and drain the chickpeas, then give them a quick rinse.
Chop up the sweet potatoes into small chunks (about 1/2 x 1/2 inch or so, but this can be flexible).
Rinse and chop your kale.
Get out a baking sheet and put a piece of aluminum foil on it. Take the chickpeas and sweet potato chunks and put them on the sheet. Try to keep them from mixing with each other.
Pour a little olive oil over the chickpeas and sweet potato and toss to cover. Then add salt, pepper, and garlic powder based on how much potency you want. Honestly, I have never measured this myself and just eyeball it until it looks good. Just be careful not to put a ton of salt. Mix again.
Pop the baking dish into the oven. It should take about 20-30 minutes to be ready, based on how small your sweet potato chunks were.
Mix up your peanut sauce. Combine everything except the water. You can play with the proportions until you get a taste you’re happy with. Then, add water to thin the sauce until it is relatively fluid.
Put a dash of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. When warm, add your chopped kale and cook down until it’s wilted. Add your soy sauce and stir, then add your garlic. If you have some ginger and sesame oil on hand, I recommend adding a dash of both to the mixture as well. Let it all cook for a minute or two and you’re ready to go.
When the oven stuff is done, pull it out and start plating. I usually keep each ingredient separate in my bowl. 1/3 for chickpeas, 1/3 for sweet potato, 1/3 for kale, then put peanut sauce on top. But if you’re feeling like it, you can just mix it all together, too!
And that’s it! Those are three of my top recipes right now for quick, cheap, and simple meals that ensure you’re getting a balanced diet, but not in exchange for flavor.
If you try any of them, let me know your thoughts and tag me (@audreysathleticadventures) on Instagram with any pictures you share!
One of the things I find so frustrating about a lot of lifestyle and health influencers–and health culture in general–is the focus on extreme diets or non-science-backed cleanses.
Consider the Keto diet–a high fat, low carb diet plan that attempts to put the body into a fat-burning state. It’s everywhere. The ice cream section at your local grocery store probably has a subsection of Keto. There are hundreds of books explaining the diet and providing recipes. And if you google “I tried keto”, you’ll get seemingly endless results of people trying the diet and promoting their results. But it can actually be really unhealthy to the average person if done long term.
Keto tends to be heavy in animal products, like steak, which aren’t great if consumed in large quantities.
Keto can lead to kidney stones. Eating too many animal products (often necessary for high fat/high protein/low carb) can produce acid and lead to increased calcium output, which increases kidney stone risk.
It can be really difficult to get enough fiber, since fibrous foods often tend to be higher carb (think whole grains and fruits). Fiber is really important for proper bowel health, and not having enough of it can lead to blockages and other unpleasant problems.
Animal products tend to be unhealthy in large quantities due to their high amount of saturated fat. Higher carb, vegetable-forward diets, rather than animal-focused ones, are much better for long term health.
Keto can be a good option for people with certain health conditions, but it’s not really that good of an option for the average person.
It’s easy to see all these flashy diets and think they’re the answer to all of your weight loss problems, but in many cases, they’re not. In some cases that’s because they’re genuinely unhealthy, but often, it’s because they’re unsustainable.
The best diet for you is one that you can stick with!
The problem with a lot of restrictive diets that are promoted today is that they’re nearly impossible to actually stick with if you’ve come from a totally different background.
If you’re a big animal product consumer and you suddenly decide that being vegan is the way to finally lose those extra pounds, if you cut out all the meat and dairy cold turkey, it’s not going to go well at all.
The human body does not do well with extreme and sudden change. You’d probably experience really unpleasant gut problems, have a serious difficulty finding enough recipes you like to suddenly replace all your old meals, and find yourself unsatisfied with the new tastes. After enough frustration, you’d just abandon ship.
That’s not healthy at all! It’s the same with extremely calorie restrictive diets. If your body needs 1800 Calories per day, but the internet tells you to go for only 1200 so that you can burn a bunch of fat, you’re going to be starving. You’ll be constantly hungry, feel weak and tired, and probably will cave and eat a snack, meaning the diet got you nowhere. Plus, you’re more likely to be stressed trying to meet your calorie goals.
This is not a meal! But it can sometimes feel like all you’ve got if you’re restricting calories.
If you’ve been frustrated by challenges like this, you’re not alone! I’ve experimented with calorie restriction and sudden diet changes, and it’s never worked out well. I was left with all of the problems I just described and felt miserable. But over time, and with a lot of experimentation, I have finally started to find a solution that works: balance.
There is no universal best diet. The best diet for you is whichever one that you can stick with–so long as it promotes some balance and stays away from extreme and unhealthy habits.
How does this balance look in your day to day life? No two individuals will have identical plans, but my diet strategy looks as follows.
I try to incorporate both healthy behaviors and less healthy behaviors, but weigh them in favor of the former. The occasional unhealthy activity helps me feel satisfied and fulfilled, without being so often as to negatively impact my health in any non-miniscule way.
On the healthy side of things, I try to use the following guidelines in my week:
Cook my own food most of the time, so that I can control what’s going into it, rather than rely on guessing how healthy something is.
When cooking, I try to make plant-forward meals and limit my consumption of animal products, except the occasional item low in saturated fat (such as turkey breast or low fat greek yogurt) or a small dash of cream in my coffee. I don’t commit to full on veganism or any other restrictive diet, but just try to make informed choices to ensure that I get enough vitamins and minerals, enough protein, and enough fiber, without consuming too many unhealthy fats.
I try to minimize added sugar in both the food I prepare and the food I purchase. If I make banana chocolate chip muffins, for example, I’ll rely only on the sugar from the chocolate chips and bananas, and skip any additional sugar the recipe calls for. And if I get a sweetened drink from a shop, I’ll go for a less sugary option (such as 25% sugar at a bubble tea place).
I try to buy in-season products from the local farmers’ market, which tend to be more nutritious than out-of-season supermarket items and also lower in dangerous pesticides.
However, I also allow some flexibility in my week and don’t only eat health foods 24/7. This has a few benefits for me:
It helps me ensure I can fit in social activities where food is involved without being stressed about what I’m consuming.
It reduces the overall amount of brainpower and emotional energy I spend on food because I get an opportunity to eat unrestricted and don’t need to feel bad about my choices.
I get to enjoy a delicious treat every once in a while, which brings me joy!
A little more specifically, I try to allow the following:
A dessert or fun sweetened drink a couple of times in a week (typically limit this to about two, but it can be flexible). I try to choose healthier options, like frozen yogurt over ice cream, but if I’m feeling like ice cream no one’s stopping me!
I will go out to a restaurant 1-2 times per week, but typically just at dinner (this could be lunch, too, if you prefer that–I just like using dinner as a social time). When I’m there, I can get whatever I want! Sometimes I’ll eat a burger and fries, sometimes a healthier dish. It depends on how I’m feeling, but whatever I’m feeling is fair game.
If I’m going on vacation for a few days, I drop any self-imposed restrictions on eating. One of the most amazing parts of travel for me is being able to taste new and delicious foods, and limiting myself to only plant-based foods means I miss out on a lot of options–plus it can be a lot more stressful trying to find really healthy restaurants, especially if traveling with friends and family who don’t share the same health focus in their dining. On vacation, I’ll still eat healthy sometimes, but I also allow myself to try whatever looks good.
I don’t work off of a calorie restriction. Calorie counting is very popular in the weight loss community, but I’ve personally found it to be way too time consuming and also detrimental to my mental health by forcing me to spend all my free time thinking about food. Rather than restricting myself to a set amount of food per day, I work on eating primarily healthy and nutritious foods (which, it turns out, tend to be lower in calories) and stop when I start to feel full. If I eat a ton one day, that’s okay. Rather than stress about failing a daily goal, I can think about the fact that I enjoyed my food and maybe later in the week I’ll try to make healthier choices to balance that out.
I probably eat something like this bad boy once per week! It tastes great, but in moderation is not all that bad for my health!
Getting yourself to a healthy diet is not easy. A lot of the steps I’ve achieved by now are the result of years of hard work, and it took a lot of frustration and mistakes to get here. If you’re struggling, the most important thing is to not beat yourself up. Physical health is incredibly important, but so is your mental health. It’s not worth throwing one down the drain to get the other.
If you take one thing away from this article, have it be the following: don’t obsess over perfection in your diet. That’s a recipe for stress, depression, and poor results. If you want to be healthy, work on finding a diet you can stick with, one you enjoy, and one that prioritizes balance and flexibility. It will take a while to get there, but you can do it if you take it slow, plan carefully, and forgive yourself when you struggle.
One of the things I find so frustrating about a lot of lifestyle and health influencers–and health culture in general–is the focus on extreme diets or non-science-backed cleanses.
Consider the Keto diet–a high fat, low carb diet plan that attempts to put the body into a fat-burning state. It’s everywhere. The ice cream section at your local grocery store probably has a subsection of Keto. There are hundreds of books explaining the diet and providing recipes. And if you google “I tried keto”, you’ll get seemingly endless results of people trying the diet and promoting their results. But it can actually be really unhealthy to the average person if done long term.
Keto tends to be heavy in animal products, like steak, which aren’t great if consumed in large quantities.
Keto can lead to kidney stones. Eating too many animal products (often necessary for high fat/high protein/low carb) can produce acid and lead to increased calcium output, which increases kidney stone risk.
It can be really difficult to get enough fiber, since fibrous foods often tend to be higher carb (think whole grains and fruits). Fiber is really important for proper bowel health, and not having enough of it can lead to blockages and other unpleasant problems.
Animal products tend to be unhealthy in large quantities due to their high amount of saturated fat. Higher carb, vegetable-forward diets, rather than animal-focused ones, are much better for long term health.
Keto can be a good option for people with certain health conditions, but it’s not really that good of an option for the average person.
It’s easy to see all these flashy diets and think they’re the answer to all of your weight loss problems, but in many cases, they’re not. In some cases that’s because they’re genuinely unhealthy, but often, it’s because they’re unsustainable.
The best diet for you is one that you can stick with!
The problem with a lot of restrictive diets that are promoted today is that they’re nearly impossible to actually stick with if you’ve come from a totally different background.
If you’re a big animal product consumer and you suddenly decide that being vegan is the way to finally lose those extra pounds, if you cut out all the meat and dairy cold turkey, it’s not going to go well at all.
The human body does not do well with extreme and sudden change. You’d probably experience really unpleasant gut problems, have a serious difficulty finding enough recipes you like to suddenly replace all your old meals, and find yourself unsatisfied with the new tastes. After enough frustration, you’d just abandon ship.
That’s not healthy at all! It’s the same with extremely calorie restrictive diets. If your body needs 1800 Calories per day, but the internet tells you to go for only 1200 so that you can burn a bunch of fat, you’re going to be starving. You’ll be constantly hungry, feel weak and tired, and probably will cave and eat a snack, meaning the diet got you nowhere. Plus, you’re more likely to be stressed trying to meet your calorie goals.
This is not a meal! But it can sometimes feel like all you’ve got if you’re restricting calories.
If you’ve been frustrated by challenges like this, you’re not alone! I’ve experimented with calorie restriction and sudden diet changes, and it’s never worked out well. I was left with all of the problems I just described and felt miserable. But over time, and with a lot of experimentation, I have finally started to find a solution that works: balance.
There is no universal best diet. The best diet for you is whichever one that you can stick with–so long as it promotes some balance and stays away from extreme and unhealthy habits.
How does this balance look in your day to day life? No two individuals will have identical plans, but my diet strategy looks as follows.
I try to incorporate both healthy behaviors and less healthy behaviors, but weigh them in favor of the former. The occasional unhealthy activity helps me feel satisfied and fulfilled, without being so often as to negatively impact my health in any non-miniscule way.
On the healthy side of things, I try to use the following guidelines in my week:
Cook my own food most of the time, so that I can control what’s going into it, rather than rely on guessing how healthy something is.
When cooking, I try to make plant-forward meals and limit my consumption of animal products, except the occasional item low in saturated fat (such as turkey breast or low fat greek yogurt) or a small dash of cream in my coffee. I don’t commit to full on veganism or any other restrictive diet, but just try to make informed choices to ensure that I get enough vitamins and minerals, enough protein, and enough fiber, without consuming too many unhealthy fats.
I try to minimize added sugar in both the food I prepare and the food I purchase. If I make banana chocolate chip muffins, for example, I’ll rely only on the sugar from the chocolate chips and bananas, and skip any additional sugar the recipe calls for. And if I get a sweetened drink from a shop, I’ll go for a less sugary option (such as 25% sugar at a bubble tea place).
I try to buy in-season products from the local farmers’ market, which tend to be more nutritious than out-of-season supermarket items and also lower in dangerous pesticides.
However, I also allow some flexibility in my week and don’t only eat health foods 24/7. This has a few benefits for me:
It helps me ensure I can fit in social activities where food is involved without being stressed about what I’m consuming.
It reduces the overall amount of brainpower and emotional energy I spend on food because I get an opportunity to eat unrestricted and don’t need to feel bad about my choices.
I get to enjoy a delicious treat every once in a while, which brings me joy!
A little more specifically, I try to allow the following:
A dessert or fun sweetened drink a couple of times in a week (typically limit this to about two, but it can be flexible). I try to choose healthier options, like frozen yogurt over ice cream, but if I’m feeling like ice cream no one’s stopping me!
I will go out to a restaurant 1-2 times per week, but typically just at dinner (this could be lunch, too, if you prefer that–I just like using dinner as a social time). When I’m there, I can get whatever I want! Sometimes I’ll eat a burger and fries, sometimes a healthier dish. It depends on how I’m feeling, but whatever I’m feeling is fair game.
If I’m going on vacation for a few days, I drop any self-imposed restrictions on eating. One of the most amazing parts of travel for me is being able to taste new and delicious foods, and limiting myself to only plant-based foods means I miss out on a lot of options–plus it can be a lot more stressful trying to find really healthy restaurants, especially if traveling with friends and family who don’t share the same health focus in their dining. On vacation, I’ll still eat healthy sometimes, but I also allow myself to try whatever looks good.
I don’t work off of a calorie restriction. Calorie counting is very popular in the weight loss community, but I’ve personally found it to be way too time consuming and also detrimental to my mental health by forcing me to spend all my free time thinking about food. Rather than restricting myself to a set amount of food per day, I work on eating primarily healthy and nutritious foods (which, it turns out, tend to be lower in calories) and stop when I start to feel full. If I eat a ton one day, that’s okay. Rather than stress about failing a daily goal, I can think about the fact that I enjoyed my food and maybe later in the week I’ll try to make healthier choices to balance that out.
I probably eat something like this bad boy once per week! It tastes great, but in moderation is not all that bad for my health!
Getting yourself to a healthy diet is not easy. A lot of the steps I’ve achieved by now are the result of years of hard work, and it took a lot of frustration and mistakes to get here. If you’re struggling, the most important thing is to not beat yourself up. Physical health is incredibly important, but so is your mental health. It’s not worth throwing one down the drain to get the other.
If you take one thing away from this article, have it be the following: don’t obsess over perfection in your diet. That’s a recipe for stress, depression, and poor results. If you want to be healthy, work on finding a diet you can stick with, one you enjoy, and one that prioritizes balance and flexibility. It will take a while to get there, but you can do it if you take it slow, plan carefully, and forgive yourself when you struggle.
Audrey's Athletic Adventures 