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Todays show was inspired by a chat I had with a member of our gym recently.

This gent is frustrated at the lack of results he’s seeing for the hard work he puts into his exercise.

He trains 2-4 times a week and he works hard within the session… and then for a variety of reasons: work, travel, family… his best laid eating plans seem to go out the window. Not every day. In fact the majority of what he’s doing with his food is actually pretty awesome.

However here’s the perhaps unfair brutal truth…

Initially, when your body is stuck at a weight it’s very-happy-with-thank-you-very-much even though perhaps you’d like to be 10 kilo’s lighter (as this gent would love to be) well it’s going to take closer to awesomeness with the SUPER VAST MAJORITY of your food.

That’s not so technical and exact is it?

All good. If you can relate to the situation our gym member is in I have you covered. Today I’m sharing: 4 Steps To Clean Up Your Diet.

Todays show assumes you’re got the basics covered. By that I mean that you eat primarily One Ingredient Food. So that’s fat fighting, natural whole foods. Stuff that’s easy to recognise that never needs to sell itself to you with hypy claims such as ‘95% fat free’ ‘healthy’ ‘sugar free.’

Real food like: Vegetables. Eggs. Nuts. Seeds. Fish. Meat. Fruit. 

I cover One Ingredient Food in show #002. That’s right it’s SO important it got the second ever show to itself.

Ok, so assuming you’re down with the primarily one ingredient approach lets power on with 4 high bang for your fat burning buck Steps To Clean Up Your Diet.

#ONE: Cut Refined Carbs Monday – Friday.

So here’s where it gets subjective. Not not far as what’s a refined carb – that’s pretty clear – it’s anything that’s been tampered with by man. It has more than one ingredient and it lives in a packet. It likely could hang out just fine on a supermarket shelf for God knows how long… because it’s full of preservatives and you know what?

That’s just fine because I want you to leave those rubbish refined carbs hanging out on the supermarket shelves! They don’t deserve to be in your day to day eating. At least not Monday to Friday.

Ok, I got a little side tracked… when I said ‘subjective’ I meant in relation to ‘primarily’ one ingredient foods. My gent in question assured me this was the case in his eating AND THEN on closer analysis he has…

=> sandwiches during working lunches 3 times a week.

=> muesli bars (bought for the kids) at home regularly.

=> sweets at work around 3.30-i-tis time. 

So, back to YOU: Step one is to get real about the refined carbs you consume Monday to Friday.

The tedious truth is that wherever they frequent your week you need to come up with a sustainable alternative.Even better… several.

#TWO: Double Your Fibrous Veg and Half Your Dairy.

The first part of this step is about focusing on what you give your body. Encouraging a more enjoyable and sustainable abundance based (rather than restriction based) approach.

Think of how you can build each of your meals first around fibrous veg. Not necessarily the fibrous veg you’ve heard arebest  instead choose the fibrous veg you enjoy most. Equally it’s wroth trying something new or even giving a previously hated veg another chance. It’s amazing how our tastebuds mature as we age. Perhaps try…

=> Finely shaved fennel or peels of zucchini or asparagus in your salad.

=> Roasted cauli, brussels and baby leeks.

=> Stuffed Mushrooms, capsicum or eggplant.

Since we’re talking high bang for your fat burning buck the second part of #2 is to half your dairy. This is in part because a lot of us respond badly to dairy – however we don’t realise how bloated and puffy it made us until we cut it. That was my experience.

Also, it’s a quality control. If you’re not yet sold on halving dairy my question to YOU: How high quality and portion controled is the dairy that regularly features is your week? My personal offenders used to be stuff like…

=> Low fat cheap and nasty supermarket brand cottage cheese that came from cows that lived… actually I’m not going to go into the factory farming lifestyle, the hormones, the slaughter process for those cows. It just stopped being ok with me.

=> Delicious addictive deli-style thick and rich (but low fat!) yoghurt… that likely came from pretty sad cows and alsoenticed me to devour every last scrape of it no matter how many portions it was meant to be or how many servings I told myself I’d make it last.

=> Oily yellow cheese that coated my fresh bakery-bought-gorgeousness… again, I’m thinking sad cows, minimal nutritional value, high caloric density and yet if I eat it I just want more and more and MORE of it.

If you are the type of person that never loses yourself in a tub of mass produced ice-cream or a packet of choc biscuits or even if you’re in a position to buy that crazy-expensive-yet-delicious-organic-grass-fed-whatever-dairy AND ALSO you’re then capable at stopping at the recommended minuscule serving size then perhaps skip this second part of #2.

And know that you are super-ultra-unique.

#THREE: Ensure Home and Work Are Both Trigger Free Zones.

The addictive refined carbs that most often snuck into our studio members day lived both at his home and his office.

If that is also the case for you then it’s time for an eviction!

If you’re anything like me you’re also going to have to get tough with the ‘healthy’ foods that you struggle to portion control. For me that’s nuts and nut butter. I’ve given up on keeping nut butter at home. Actually even my roasted nuts live at work where I have less snack time. Home is for only the highly less tempting natural nuts I use in cooking.

If you have other people in the family to account for and you can’t indulge in such zero tolerance for tempting trigger foods as me here are some ideas…

=> Wherever possible buy the version of the refined/trigger food that is less tempting to you. So maybe that’s the chocolate or bars the growing teenage boys/genetically gifted flatmate still love yet you find much appealing.

=> Introduce a healthier substitute at work for the crap-o-la biscuits and cake. If you’re boss then really it’s your right to encourage – Hell, I’m going to say it – even ENFORCE a rubbish free zone at least for the food you provide for your team. If you’re not the boss then at least you can politely suggest, support, bring (!) food upgrades.

=> Whenever you remove tempting trigger foods come up with a better alternative. You spend a lot of time at work and home. There WILL be times when you find yourself in a ‘state’ perhaps Stressed / Tired / Sad / Sick that means even less tempting trigger foods become tempting… easy… a near unavoidable thing to desperately grab.

It’s the same for all of us. The difference is whether you’ve planned for your low willpower moments: evicted the rubbish from work and home AND found the alternatives or whether you’ve left yourself vulnerable.

#FOUR: Plan Your Go2Meals.

Yes, step 4 is a bit of work. It involves planning 3 Breakfasts, 3 Lunches, 3 Dinners that are Lean, Clean, Quick, EASY and pretty delicious.

It’s one thing to know that the One Ingredient Approach works. To Decide to Cut Carbs Monday to Friday. To Double Your Fibrous Veg and Half Your Dairy. Even to Ensure Home and Work Are Both Trigger Free Zones.

However you also need to MAKE IT HAPPEN consistently when you wake up already running late and stressed about the day to come… when you unexpectedly have to work through lunch… when you get home late and exhausted and your daily discipline quota is all used up!

Those are the times when you need the easy solution to turn to.

I’ve devoted a show each to Go2Breakfasts, Go2Lunches and Go2Dinners.

To get actionable today, if you’re frustrated at the lack of results you’re seeing for the hard work you put into your exercise I’d love you to implement the step that most resonates with you. Just one step to start is brilliant.

To recap:

#ONE: Cut Refined Carbs Monday – Friday.

#TWO: Double Your Fibrous Veg and Half Your Dairy.

#THREE: Ensure Home and Work Are Both Trigger Free Zones.

#FOUR: Plan Your Go2Meals.

That’s it for another week of Healthification, I’d like to say a big shout out and heart felt thanks to you for listening and especially to YOU if you’ve left me an iTunes rating and review.

Particularly big thanks this week to Shaz11:11 from Aus who recently left me this most lovely review: “Sometimes you stumble across something that you’re sure was written/spoken just for/to you…this podcast is one of those things!! I’ve only just recently downloaded all podcasts and am currently working my way through. So far during EVERY edition I’ve had an ah ha moment of sorts. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and all the little things that should be so darn right obvious but we’re often too blind to see.”

Shaz, you are so welcome. Your feedback means a lot – it made my day to hear it – so HUGE THANK YOU.

If you liked this you’ll also like: My Food Diary: Cheat Day + Ideal Fat Burning Day. (part two)

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.