9 Ways To Avoid The Most Deadly Nutrition Mistake – Part II
Quote #19
“There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things.” – Brian Tracey
Quick Tip #19
The next time that getting to the gym or grocery store, and/or cooking healthy food in advance has you feeling stressed out, remember the above quote. Chances are very good that you are caught up trying to do it all – everything that people ask you to do, everything that you think you should be doing, everything on your endless to-do list, etc.
Focus on the most important things and ignore the rest. By the way, everything in your life requires health, so it should probably be the most important value. After all, can you earn any money, love anyone, or practice your spiritual values if you’ve lost your health?
Recipe #19: Free CookBook – Healthy Gourmet Desserts
Instead of just one recipe this month, how about I give you about a whole cookbook?
This is a 100% FREE healthy dessert cookbook by the great Dr. John Berardi.
Who loves you?
9 Ways To Avoid The Most Deadly Nutrition Mistake – Part II
If you missed Part I, click here to check it out.
#4. Utilize “no-time” meals & snacks – If you’re someone who doesn’t like to cook, then don’t do it. Just make a plan to reflects that. For example:
Breakfast – Breakfast smoothie
Snack – 2 oz cheese + 1 orange
Lunch – Phase I South Beach Frozen Meal
Snack – 1.25 oz sugar-free dark chocolate (Neuhaus and Ghirardelli make good stuff) + green tea
Dinner – Small steak + sautéed spinach out with friends at a restaurant
-or- Frozen stir-fry without rice at home (available at every grocery store)
The key is in looking for solutions versus making excuses. It takes just as much time and energy to whine, bitch, and complain about how unfair the world is as it does to answer the question, “how can I get what I want in spite of the fact that I don’t want to cook?” on paper. The only difference is one leaves you exactly where you started, and the other moves you forward.
#5. Create a sacred routine – Grocery shopping, and food preparation need to become a priority in your life, unless you can afford to have someone else do it for you. When something is a priority, then something else is a posteriority.
If someone wants you to go out when it is time to take care of your nutrition, and you cannot reasonably move it, then you’ve got to say “yes” to the food, and “no” to going out. Maybe you can invite them over to cook with you, or do it earlier in the day, or something else. But, when push comes to shove, then you’ve got to take care of yourself, or you’ll have nothing left to give to other people… except maybe an extra serving of muffin top.
#6. Think on paper – When some asked Albert Einstein for his phone number, he had to go look it up in the phone book. As smart as he was, he knew that he could not possibly keep everything in his head. If you are trying to keep all of your appointments, when you’re supposed to workout, your grocery list, your menu plans, and everything else in your head, then you are GUARANTEED to fail and stress yourself out in the process.
Take that jumbled mess out of your head and organize it on paper. Specifically, go to the store and immediately buy a paper planner or an electronic one. You absolutely, positively need some place to keep track of your appointments, grocery lists, meals plans, etc. so that you do not have to waste time trying to remember them, or where you lost them at.
Yes, it will take a few extra minutes to plan your food and make a list, BUT what is the alternative?
- *Running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to find something to eat because you forgot a bunch important things at the store
- *Getting bored/disgusted with the healthy food you have at home because you always buy the same stuff because that’s all you can keep in your head
- *Running out of food on Wednesday when you can’t get to the store ‘till Friday because you tried to keep it all in your head, and then blowing your nutrition plan (that you don’t really have because it’s in your head)
- *Wasting a precious hour of your free time in going back to the grocery store again because you forgot stuff on the magic list in your head
#7. Think easy – As of right now, there are nineteen recipes on my web site, and I’m willing to bet that you have not tried a single one of them. Nothing goes onto my web site if it is not easy, quick, yummy, and nutritionally sound – nothing. The prep time for all recipes is LESS than 20min, for 2, 4, or 6 servings. If it is fast, free, and at your fingertips, then it is easy and you should be using it to make your life easier.
#8. Be flexible – Chances are good that your first plans will not work out. They won’t fit your life, a certain recipe won’t hit the spot, etc. If you make a plan (on paper), and it doesn’t work, that is fantastic! Now you know what doesn’t work and you will have a much better idea of what will work better for you in the future.
I change my plan all the time. I change it because I’ve got better ideas, new recipes, or changes in my schedule.
HOWEVER, this (all of this) ONLY works on paper. Without paper you are just winging it. If you don’t get closer to your goals while winging it, then you have no idea why. So you’ll wing it some new way, and that won’t work either. Then you’ll get really upset and say [in a whiney voice], “But I’ve tried everything! Nothing works!” (You have no idea how many times ADULT human beings have told me this with a straight face.)
Fact of the matter – you haven’t tried a damn thing other than winging it. You’re just doing the same thing that didn’t work the last time (winging it) over, and over, and over again.
#9. Leave room for dessert – Everyone needs a treat. The trick is figuring out how much you can get away with. If you’re actively trying to lose body-fat, you will probably need to keep it in the 1-2 times per week range. If you’re trying to maintain, it probably won’t be that different. Maybe in the 2-3 range.
Again, #9 presupposes that you actually have a written plan.