Early 2019 I was in a rut. Already the year before I was waking up from a dream, which was my life. Superficially everything should have been good: A beautiful wife, two wonderful sons, a house, and a successful career. But I was unhappy. And low energy: After work, I had nothing left in the tank to play with my sons or read a book - I was drained.
I decided to change things to get more energy. My starting point: Eat healthy.
I did not want to lose weight, it happened as a by-product of eating healthy.
I started in March with 95kg, was 82kg in summer, and by autumn I weighed in at 78kg - which is the weight I am holding since then.
I got more energized and better sleep, I was able to concentrate and focus better. And the best part is still to come. Combatting all major diseases in our society and so to increase my healthspan.
You Are What You Eat
Most people aren't aware that we do not only get the energy out of our food. What we eat is deconstructed and built into our human cells.
We literally are what we eat - on a molecular level.
For example, Our red blood cells only "live" for three months. So we are constantly producing new blood cells and older ones die off. This is happening with most of our cells.
The quality of the food we eat determines the quality of our cells and how well the processes in our body function.
I want to illustrate how bad this can go by the trans-fat example. The WHO (World Health Organization) states that 278.000 deaths a year are caused by the intake of trans fatty acids originating from industrialized food production. The health issues you encounter before consuming those are not nice, either. Studies have shown that trans-fats are built into the brain cell membrane, distorting it. The result is diminished cognitive function. There is growing evidence as well that this can lead to depression and even Alzheimers.
We cannot expect to function well if we don't eat high-quality food.
We cannot expect to age well if we don't eat high-quality food.
Life-Style vs Diet
Your nutrition is a central piece of your health and with that well-being. That is short, mid and long-term. Changing your nutrition shows fast effects - to a point where you can reverse some of modern society's diseases like diabetes.
I encourage you to make healthy eating a lifestyle in all its facets. What I mean by that is that you should not think of it as an intervention to just lose weight, to look better, or to get rid of some pain and then continue as before. Think hard about how you can make this sustainable. This has two aspects:
- Choose a diet that you want to eat for forever. Introduce new healthy foods or reduce bad step by step. Some healthy foods might not taste as intense as industrialized, designed foods. So your taste buds need to adjust to taste again after being overwhelmed all the time, e.g. by lots of sugar. Make sure you stick to it until you see how delicious natural food can be. Then introduce the next. Or reduce added sugar from your coffee: Stick to it until black coffee tastes good (It's the best!). Then reduce the next.
- Make it fun. Make it an exciting journey. Food is quality of life. Food is deeply backed into our culture and in any culture. It is a deep part of the human experience. There is so much to explore. There is so much to learn about food. There is so much to learn about cooking. Cooking can be so much fun and a gratifying experience on its own. Make it a game, experiment: Introduce one new meal, and one new vegetable, eat seasonal, and harvest some food in nature. Endless possibilities to explore and experiment with.
The Rules
Ok, let's get at it. How did I not only lose weight but become healthier and more energized, as well as bring my food experience to the next level?
How you eat
How you eat. This is mandatory. And makes the experience so much better as well.
I can boil it down to: Eat mindful.
What does that mean?
Don't eat on the fly, while you are doing something else. When you eat be present with it. Be present with how the food tastes. Be present with the people who are eating with you. This makes it so much more enjoyable.
Now to the most important point: Feel when you are satisfied. Most of us overeat. I get it, it is delicious, and human nature tends to eat what is there, but that is the most unhealthy part of it all. You might have lost the feeling when you're satisfied - when you are full - but it will come back. Eat slow. Take your time. Feel into you. Stop eating when you feel satisfied. Or if cannot feel that yet, stop eating after one normal portion size.
When you eat
Again: Take your time to eat your meals. Avoid eating alongside other activities. That way you cannot eat mindfully and for sure overeat.
I recommend eating 3 meals a day, and only there.
If you are hungry in between. Only if you are hungry. Stop. And feel if you are really hungry. Drink a glass of water. Drink tea or coffee - unsweetened. Have a handful of nuts. Eat fruit. In that order - after every step, you can check if you are still hungry.
Don't eat anything after dinner. Have your dinner at least 3 hours before your bedtime. I know this will suck for many people - it sucked for me. But all the snacks we usually eat in front of the TV (or whatever else we do in the evening), we eat habitually on auto-pilot. And the snacks are unhealthy and add unnecessary calories. If you need help with this in to get it started: Replace your convenience food with some raw vegetables like carrot sticks.
What (not) to eat
Let's go into the meat. Errr. Not that much meat ;-)
Remember: You can take these step-by-step if it feels overwhelming to do it all at once.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are not bad as such, they need to be part of any diet. But in a standard diet, we eat too much and too low quality of it. So we eliminate all the bad, unnecessary carbohydrates. This had the most impact on me. Start here if you do it step by step.
No empty calories
You want to nurture your body with your diet. If you eat empty-calorie food, like white flour products, you don't give your body any nutrients. No, you even hurt your body because of the fast-rising high blood sugar. Another way to look at it is to avoid all food that raises your blood sugar fast. This is also what makes you fall into a hole afterward when the blood sugar crashes again. You can look up the glycemic index of different foods, which expresses exactly how high the blood sugar spikes. Avoid all high glycemic index foods.
To keep it simple: Only eat full grain products - no white flour, no white rice, etc. You can also replace some of it with lentils or beans. Both have carbs, but in a better overall package, e.g. a lot of protein as well.
No added sugar
You know this was coming. It is important. Sugar is like a drug, makes you want more. It is incredibly unhealthy. You need to stop this. I took a hard stop: No added sugar in anything
- No sugar in tea, coffee
- Only plain yogurt or any other "optimized" natural food
- No lemonade, coke, etc
- No fruit juice
- No sweet pastries
Check the labels of any product if and how much sugar is contained. In the end, the amount is the issue, we get it everywhere. I had made some exceptions: Sauces and ketchup. Make sure that you don't use it more than once a week.
Note that sugar built into whole foods is of course ok.
Fats
We need to eat fats, it is an essential part of functioning well. That fats in general are bad is a myth. But of course, there are some fats to avoid.
No deep-fried food
We talked about trans-fats already. That is why you should not eat deep-fried things, the oil changes to trans fats.
Fats and olive oil
You probably wonder what fats are healthy then. Fats are great for your health but we need to choose wisely.
Choose butter over margarine, don't overdo it.
Use cold-pressed oil. Extra virgin olive oil gives you an extra health boost. I do everything with it: Frying, salad dressing, etc. Sometimes I use coconut oil if I have a more Asian-style meal.
Nuts and seats
Nuts and seats are another way to get healthy fats. Plus there is a lot more good stuff in it. Integrate where you can: Some nuts and seats in the müsli in the morning, some sunflower or pumpkin seats on top of the salat. Despite having high calories they are still absolutely worth integrating into your diet for all the health benefits. As long as you listen to your body and stop eating when you are satisfied, don't worry about it.
Protein
Less meat, more fish, and plant-based protein
Eating less meat is of course a controversial topic, but there are too many studies showing the negative impact on our long-term health. The sheer amount of meat consumed today is a big health (and environmental) issue. I recommend reducing meat consumption to one time a week. And if possible avoid red meat like beef or pork. Eat organic and local products, where you are sure it is high quality.
A good way to achieve this is to introduce more fish. I recommend eating fish twice a week (More is getting problematic because of the heavy metal accumulation in the fish).
- Legumes are a great source of protein, too. Combined with nuts/seed or whole grains gives the full pallet of essential amino acids (protein) like meat.
- Fermented dairy over another diary
Diary products are unfortunately not good for us. What makes them ok is if they are fermented: Yogurt and cheese are ok but don't overdo it here, too.
Fiber
A healthy gut biome is super important for our health. We need to feed our friends down there: with fiber.
- Add lentils, beans, whole grain products, and seats.
Micronutrients
Besides the macronutrients, there are many substances that we need as well to be healthy. We find them mainly in plants. A good advice in general is to integrate as many whole food, plant-based elements in your diet as possible. Here are some things I did:
At least one leafy green salad a day
Eat as much as you want. You get so many good micronutrients. Make sure to chew it well because that makes more of the good substances available.
More vegetables
Eat as much as you want. Get a good variety. Colorful veggies indicate many healthy substances.
Fruits
Eat as much as you want. Again, avoid juices because of the blood sugar rising too fast. If you eat the whole food it comes in a healthy package. Berries, in particular, are amazingly packed with health-promoting substances - and have less fruit sugar than some other fruits.
No processed food
Don't eat industrialized produced food. Just don't. Usually has added sugar, cheap and unhealthy oils, and all kinds of additional unhealthy elements.
If your grand-grand-ma would not have recognized it as food: it's bad.
Summary
I know that this might be a huge change for you. When I started this way of eating, I already was cooking for my family and so was already using a lot of whole foods. So the shift was not that big for me. If you feel overwhelmed by the entire program, start by shifting how and when you eat together with the rules for carbohydrates. That will have the biggest impact. Then you added the next steps from there: e.g. integrating more vegetables.
Here are the rules at a glance:
- Eat slowly & mindfully, and stop when satisfied
- Don't eat after dinner
- Cut sugar and empty calories
- Only water, coffee & tea
- Quality fats: Nuts, seeds, and olive oil
- Protein from fish and plant-based
- More fiber
- Maximize whole food, plant-based
- No processed food
I wish you all the best on your health and weight loss journey! I hope this program will help you a huge step forward. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
