Diet or Die

Hey y'all!! Today we'll be going over popular diets, and finding out which one is right for you. Our diet not only has a direct impact on fitness goals, but also our health and mental well being. Diet is honestly the most important thing we can focus on, if we want to change our lives for the better. I know we all want to change our lives for the better, because that's why we're all here in the first place.

There's just so many diets out there, and so many voices telling us this is the best one. I'm not gonna tell you pick this diet over that one. What I am gonna do is give you the knowledge so that you can make the right choice for you. So, lets get into it, starting with what makes any diet work.

The reason any diet works or doesn't, is you. What it comes down to is your adherence to the diet. If we can't stick to a diet for any number of reasons, then its not gonna work, and we won't see the perks of that diet. It doesn't matter how optimal a certain diet looks on paper if it doesn't work for who we are. That's why its important to find a diet we can actually stick to for the long term, even if it isn't the most optimal diet.

Finding the diet that matches up with you can be a bit of trial and error. If you find yourself constantly tempted, unhappy, or "cheating" on your diet; then it's probably not the diet for you.

Try a diet for a month or two and pay attention to how your feeling. Does it feel like your going crazy and have to force it, or does it feel kinda natural for you?

It's a lot easier to stick to something when it doesn't make us feel like we're suffering. Now, if you never controlled what you ate, then any diet you start with is probably going to feel more challenging, but challenges are what make us better. On that note, a big pitfall I see a lot is people trying to change too much at once.

If you been eating the same sort of diet for years, to think you're gonna totally change it and never go back is kinda crazy.

Be realistic and honest with yourself, and things will go so much smoother. Small steady change in our diet can bring us where we want to go, and more importantly there's a much higher chance of us sticking to it for the long haul.

Something I like to tell people when it comes to diet is, generalize then optimize.

Meaning, start on the big things that are throwing us off track of our goal, then worry about all the little things. Think about all the unhealthy things in your diet. Of those things, what things could you cut out pretty easy? What things are gonna be harder to cut out? Generalize by cutting out all those easy things one at a time. Then after you've been able to cut those things out of your diet and keep it out, you're ready to optimize. That's when we start to tackle those harder things, that we can't seem to get out of our diet.

For me the easy thing to cut out of my diet was chips. The harder thing that took some time was frozen chicken nuggets. I didn't eat them frozen, you know what I mean lol. If you try to cut something unhealthy and it keeps coming back, that's okay. As long as you're trying, and on the note be kind to your self during this process. The last thing we want to do is beat ourselves up and give up.

Having a healthy diet doesn't mean eating being a saint. If you enjoy a good burger then have one. One burger every week or two isn't going to completely undermine all your hard work. As long as we are staying in control and exercising moderation; remember the dose makes the poison. For me personally, when I let myself indulge every once in a while, it is so much easier to stay on the straight and narrow the other 99% of the time. I know a lot of this is kinda conceptual, but I hope that it's connecting in some way. Next I'll cover some of the big diets out there and a few of their unique perks.

There are so many different diets out there, so feel free to look up more of them. I'll be covering some of the bigger ones, which are: Mediterranean, DASH, Keto, and intermittent fasting.

Let's start with the Mediterranean diet first.

This diet is characterized by eating lots of veggies, healthy fats, and low fat proteins(fish and chicken). While avoiding most red meats, added sugar, and processed foods.

This is probably one of the easier diets to get into. Mostly because of the verity of dishes, and the amazing flavors.

The main perks of the Mediterranean are the positive impact on heart health, and reduced risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The DASH diet (Dietary approach to stop hypertension) is characterized by flexible food choice. Given we avoid sodium(1,500mg or less a day), added sugar, and saturated fats. That still leaves a lot of food options on the table, and another diet that can be a bit easier to get into.

The perks of this diet are, the flexibility you have, and the reduced chance of heart disease. Pretty straight forward stuff.

Keto is characterized by, very low carb intake(50g or less), and high protein and fat intake. Over time in this low carb state the body begins to use fat as the main fuel instead of carbs. This diet is super popular, and has some great short term results. However, over the long term it may not be the best for heart health. There is so much back and forth you'll see about the keto diet online. So use your best judgement if keto interest you.

Intermittent fasting(IF) is our last diet today. The main characteristic of IF is fasting windows and feeding windows.

There are several ways to do IF, but the most common model you'll see is 16:8. Meaning a 16 hour window without eat, and a 8 hour feeding window, where you get all your daily calorie needs. Depending how you are, this could be one of the harder diets to get into. The perks of IF are cellular repair, metabolic change, heart health, and can aid in weight loss. The juice is worth the squeeze when it comes to IF. Not to mention you have a lot of options for what you can eat. The diet itself doesn't call for you to cut anything out, but rather to just control when you eat. Another cool thing about IF is that you can combine it with other diet types like keto, and potentially get the perks of both. Mess around with all these different diet types and see what works best for you. Again feel free to look up even more diets than what we covered here. Who knows, maybe you'll find something you love!

Congrats y'all!! You made it through another article, and are that much better for doing so! If you like more information on diet please feel free to reach out to me. My email is all over the website. I'll leave y'all with a challenge today. Make one healthy change in your diet this week, and see if you can keep that change until you forgot it was even a thing. Hopefully you gained at least one useful thing from this article, and if not R.I.P homie. Until next time y'all, peace!!