Todays post covers; 3 great myths perpetuated by the food industry as they set out to hijack your biology and your body by deliberately addicting you to their toxic, craving causing creations.

Inflammatory?  HA, too right this crap-o-la food is inflammatory!

It’s one issue I won’t be grey on.  I believe 100% that quality, unprocessed food is your Only long term lean body solution.  

I do however, have a grudging respect for the huge success of the marketing campaign behind convenience food… it’s certainly worked.

It’s absolutely got people living out of packets… and addicted… and victimized by constant, relentless cravings.  It can be a depressing cycle.

Thankfully the solution is deceptively simple. 

Before we jump to solution mode I should say this post was inspired by an ‘I Love Marketing’ podcast I listened to recently with Dr Mark Hyman. {For the facts and stats I highly recommend this episode:}

Dr Hyman states “As a doctor the best thing I can do for peoples health is to teach them about food and teach them how to cook.”

The doctors’ approach absolutely resonates with me.  He provides the research to support everything I have seen to be true in years of helping people transform first their relationship with food AND then their bodies.

In this post I’m going to keep the focus on mindset and dig deeper with the 3 great mythes.

Myth #1. It’s all about Personal Responsibility.

=> If you just had a little more will power.  Or weren’t so lazy.  So gluttonous.

WRONG!

I’m huge on personal responsibility.  However, an addict needs to first deal with the addiction and the cause behind the addiction.  

At a simpler level the fact is convenience food has been deliberately manufactured to be as addictive as possible.   Manufactured to have the perfect ‘bliss’ point… a concentration of fat, salt and sugar that makes it near impossible to stop eating these high caloric density concoctions once we start. 

{for further reading I reference ‘Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us’ by Michael Moss}

Your solution.

If you do not feel in control of your relationship with certain fake foods:

a) Take the time to uncover what need (or gap) you’re looking to fill when you over-consume said foods. There will be a feeling you’re seeking at such a time – or perhaps a feeling you’re looking to avoid.  (for example: certainty, reward, anxiety).

b) Once you recognize this, it’s time to be honest with yourself: Does the food actually provide that solution?  Or, more likely: Is it just a means to distract/avoid/block out which actually leaves you feeling worse as soon as the short term indulgence is over?

c) Ok, what are 2-3 alternate ways you can resourcefully achieve this need/feeling (or fill this gap) without falling prey to the food industries’ craving causing creations.

Myth #2. Everything in Moderation.

=> There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods.

RUBBISH!

A calorie is not a calorie.  Some food nourishes and supports your body.  While other food has zero nutritional value, addicts you, plaques you with cravings for more dead food and numbs your taste-buds to the quality fuel your body deserves. 

As covered in myth one once you start it’s near impossible to stop – millions upon millions of research dollars have been sunk into guaranteeing this – so the only solution is to not start.

Extreme?

Let me ask you; How is the “I’ll just have one” or “I’ll eat double today but then no more till next week” or “I’ll do an extra long gym session tonight” approach working for you?  

Your solution.

If you do not follow through with your ‘everything in moderation’ intentions or you’re not happy with the way your body is looking and feeling:

a) Eliminate the crap-o-la food.  Ditching it completely is the easy option because it breaks the addictive-craving-causing-cycle.  It also gives your taste-buds the chance the appreciate the gorgeous, natural intensity of flavours in real food.

b) Include the huge variety of craving fighting micronutrient rich veg that your nutrition was liking lacking in the convenience food cycle.  Build your meals around these veg, especially colourful fibrous veg.

c) Indulge in quality, satisfying lean protein and include good fats.  Once you cut the fake processed rubbish you’ll be amazed out how much real food you can happily consume. Yes, FAT too.  Natural fats like egg yolks and avocado and nuts are not ‘bad’… man made frankenstein fats are ‘bad’.

Myth #3. Exercise to eat what you want.

=> Have that cake and run it off tomorrow and it’ll be just fine.

UNSUSTAINABLE!

The numbers simply do not add up.  I cover that here >> Why you can’t out train a bad diet:

Beyond that the mindset is reactive and impossible to stick to long term.  

The viscous eat – exercise – eat cycle is flawed.  It puts food in the position of ‘reward’ and exercise in the position of ‘punishment’.  Rather than seeing each as complimentary tools to get your body looking and functioning optimally.  

Your solution.

If you feel like you’re on a hamster wheel – losing a frustrating battle to keep up with ever increasing exercise requirements:

a) Swap your fake processed food to primarily one ingredient natural foods and notice just how much you can eat – quality AND quantity. Even more importantly it actually leaves you feeling satisfied and your body nourished.

b) Lock and load your ideal weekly training plan. Of course ‘ideal’ won’t happen every week – however it’s important to have a plan in place so that it does happen as often as possible.  The exercise regime that is designed to give you the best results so far as body composition, strength, fitness, energy levels, confidence and so much more. Rather than reactively forcing yourself through unplanned, unfocused, UN-fun exercise sessions to ‘make up for’ the rubbish you just mindlessly shoveled into your body.

c) Lifting weights.  Apart from being the most effective way to choose your curves – and by this I mean both add sexy lean muscle and strip ugly fat – lifting weights does not send your body into the carb craving over-fuel that moderate intensity cardio does.  You’ve see it before right – cardio trapped fitter and fatter?   In contrast, to lift weights effectively you need a focused, structured, balanced program – it’s a proactive and planned approach to exercise.  It’s exercise to get you a result rather than exercise to fight to stay where you are.

At this point, I’d like to refer again to Dr Mark Hyman who believes; learning to cook your own quality food is “the single most important, powerful thing you can do for your health.”

WOW.  That is huge.  It’s also less time consuming, less expensive and a whole lot more doable than you might imagine.

If this lazy, impatient, unimaginative cook can make plenty of quick and delicious meals then I know you can too.  Here are some of my favs High Protein Low Carb Vegetarian (my day on a plate).

What is your favourite fat loss fuel meal?