Good foods Bad foods: The black and white thinking

Just go out on street and ask any random person about what to eat if one wants to get fit, the ubiquitous answer will be eat boiled vegetables,drink hot water in morning, leave fried foods, pizza is detrimental, discontinue sugar – all the answers boil down to the black and white thinking about the foods that either an eatable is good or bad. well, that’s definitely not the case. In this blog i am going to completely alter your preconceived perceptions about foods.

“whether a food is good or bad for you depends on it’s quantity you are consuming “

IIFYM Approach

A diet approach that recently went so famous and is apt in today’s scenario is IIFYM approach which means if it fits in your macros, you can consume that food. Personally, i modified this into IIFYCM means if it fits in your calories and macros(macronutrients). Every eatable you consume has some calories in it and that should be your main concern.

let suppose a male named keanu, he is 75 kg and his daily calories requirement is 3000 calories to maintain his weight(I will tell you in my upcoming blogs how you can calculate your own calories requirements using different methods).

now keanu can consume pizza,burger or any other eatable if it is not incongruent with is calorie intake. However, that doesn’t means that keanu will consume all 3000 calories from junk food solely. Surely he will hit his protein intake for the day and will eat whole foods for sufficient micronutrients( vitamins,minerals) but he will not look any food with the narrative of good or bad. That is called FLEXIBLE EATING or SKILLFUL EATING.

For example, keanu’s daily protein need is 150 gram and he hit his protein intake by evening on any random day, also he had consumed enough whole foods/ nutritious foods but still he has 600 calories tank left to be filled. So now he can now consume pizza,burger,chocolate, soft drink or any other eatable which will fill his tank of 600 calories without wrecking his fitness and health. It’s just that simple.

“REMEMBER, IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT BUT ‘HOW YOU EAT’“

You have to learn to harness the portions of food you’re consuming and once you learnt it, you’ll become a mindful and skillful eater who is free with her/his choices.

There are several fitness enthusiasts out there. what you think they all are just eating boiled chicken all year around. NO, they just know how to eat skillfully which facilitates them to enjoy their life along with keeping their fitness peachy.

TIPS TO BECOME SKILLFUL EATER:

1. Ditch your black and white thinking about foods
2. Start using food tracking apps (like myfitnesspal, healthyfyme)
3. Start using kitchen scale which will help you in controlling portions of foods
4. Reading labels of any packaged food before procuring one
5. keep “IIFYCM” approach in your mind

keep in mind that whole game is about “how you eat”.

Now flexible eating doesn’t means that you should start eating mindlessly anything if it is fitting in your calories and macros. Your first priority should be hitting your daily protein intake and eating enough whole foods for preventing micro nutrients deficiency in your body and when once their consumption is on point, you can eat any of your favorite foods.

it’s just 80/20 rule, 80% whole foods/nutritious foods and 20% your favorite eatables.

The main motive behind flexible eating is just to weed out your black and white thinking about foods.

“ONCE YOU BECOME A SKILLFUL EATER, DIET WILL NO LONGER BE A PREDICAMENT BUT IT WILL BECOME A LIFESTYLE”

The above recommendations are for healthy beings who ain’t facing any disease like diabetes etc.

So that’s all about today’s blog. I will see you all in next blog. till then, stay fit, keep exercising and be benevolent towards others.

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