As a health and fitness conscious individual, figuring how to enjoy eating your favorite foods guilt-free as part of a healthy diet is vital to getting and maintaining results for the long-term.
Often when we are just starting out with our healthier lifestyle, we aren’t sure how to handle our favorite foods and end up restricting ourselves too much and eventually going on major binges. Leading to a poor relationship with food and making us think a healthy lifestyle is an all or nothing on and off switch.
In this post, we’re going to go over a simple strategy – eating to 80% full – to help you figure out how to manage to eat your favorite foods without guilt and still progressing to a lean, healthy weight you can effortlessly maintain for life.
Be Specific About The Foods and Experiences You Enjoy The Most
Let me give you an example of what I mean, using an example from my experience.
Just in case you don’t know, I’ve been doing this workout and nutrition thing for over 12 years. In the beginning, I made a lot of mistakes and had some struggles. Luckily, over time I learned from them and figured out a way that worked for me that I could sustain.
Now, one of the things that I didn’t do when starting out was actually thinking about the foods I was eating.
I liked eating salt & vinegar chips, but I only ate them when I was watching tv or doing work. The television and work were triggers that it was time to eat chips. I had gotten into the habit of having to eat them when doing those things. There wasn’t any extreme joy or pleasure from the food and experience.
It was just mindless snacking.
Going out to brunch on the weekend with family/friends and getting a big stack of pancakes?
The excitement as they place the pancakes in front of you, the smell of maple syrup, and watching the hot butter melt on the pancakes. The laughs, stories and smiles shared over a meal with friends and family…
Priceless.
If I had to choose, it is easy to pick the weekend brunch over the mindless chip snacking.
The true dilemma when trying to maintain a healthy diet shouldn’t be that we have to choose on or off, but instead, it is finding out the foods and experiences we cherish the most and separating them from the ones we can live without.
Eating that leftover birthday cake in the breakroom on a Tuesday with co-workers you hate vs. enjoying birthday cake at a celebration with friends on a Saturday evening.
The answer is pretty easy.
Start thinking about the foods and experiences you enjoy the most, and you will see there is only a handful that you need AND best of all, don’t have to ever give up.
What Is A Healthy Diet?
For one, it is not a diet that causes you to stress all day long.
Living in constant, daily stress and fear of eating the right and wrong foods is not conducive to good overall health.
Neither is a diet that has you packing on the pounds from excess calorie intake or one that leaves you deficient in essential nutrients that allow your body to function at its peak.
Your body needs these two things:
- Macronutrients
- Micronutrients
Macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fats that are found in various foods in different amounts.
Micronutrients are things like vitamins and minerals, found in various foods in different amounts.
A chocolate milkshake has all the macronutrients and some micronutrients. But, it is also really high in calories and super-tasty from processed ingredients, making it easy to consume. Thus, making it easy to overeat (excess calories) and gain weight.
So a milkshake has some pros but also has some cons.
Now take a piece of salmon with some broccoli. These foods also have all the macronutrients and a ton of micronutrients. Salmon and broccoli also contain a lot of protein, fiber and make for a significant volume of food (they will fill up your plate) to help you feel full sooner, but without being a ton of calories.
The whole food based meal has all the nutrients we need AND is more conducive to not consuming excess calories.
Then we have a box of Cheetos and glass of soda. The glass of soda is a bunch of chemicals and pure sugar that has no nutrients. Just caloric energy (calories). The Cheetos are made from chemicals and wheat that has been stripped of its nutrients and processed down to flour. This process makes these foods more calorie dense and easier to consume more of.
This Cheetos and soda snack has no nutrients and makes it easy to consume a bunch of calories. These are what we refer to as empty calories. No nutrients, just adding to our calorie intake, making it easier to consume too many and gain weight.
Now Image these 3 meals on a sliding scale from best to worst based on the nutrients we need and trying to consume the proper amount of calories.
Salmon & Broccoli———–> Milkshake ————-> Cheetos & Soda
A healthy diet is simply balancing all the possible things we could consume and making sure we get the nutrients we need and avoid too many calories.
This is much easier to do with the majority of our food coming from the more nutrient dense side of the scale. Don’t think of foods as bad or good, but instead as more nutritious and less nutritious.
How To Enjoy Eating Your Favorite Foods Guilt-Free
1.Stop thinking of foods as good and bad.
Pizza isn’t bad. It has macronutrients just like a bowl of organic chicken and quinoa. It also is a lot more calorie dense, in turn making it easier to consume those calories. But it smells amazing, tastes amazing, and enjoying it with others is always a good time.
We should never villainize food and feel bad for eating it.
This is step one.
Eliminate the doubt or worry that you are instantly self-sabotaging yourself by eating food that is deemed “bad.” All food is a combination of calories and nutrients. Don’t think of food as such a clear cut good and bad and instead more along the line of a continuum of worst to best.
The problems arise when we overeat foods. This is a lot harder to do with chicken, broccoli & rice and much easier with pizza.
2.Eat Slower
To combat the bingeing, it is key to learn to eat slower. It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to communicate to the brain. So if you are stuffing down a treat meal like no tomorrow, you WILL overeat and feel stuffed and horrible.
Slow down, enjoy your food, put it down between bites. Chew.
By doing this, you give your body a chance to properly digest and let you know if you are still hungry or not before its too late. Slowing down and being more aware gives you the opportunity to stop before too much damage (excess calorie consumption) is done.
Eating slower will help you feel more satisfied and is a much different feeling than just being full.
3. Stop when you are about 80% full.
Now that you are eating slower and giving yourself a chance to gauge your level of fullness, practice stopping when you are 80% full.
This takes some practice, and there is no exact prescription, just simply stop when you are satisfied. You could eat more, but you know you’d feel uncomfortably full if you did.
4. Only have your favorites 10-20% of the time.
I don’t want you to think that this gives you free will to eat burgers, fries, pizza, and milkshakes all day, every day.
That is not the goal here. You want the majority of the food you eat to be whole, unprocessed foods that you prepare. These foods are the most nutrient-dense, provide the most satiety, along with improving your energy levels, mood, and performance in the gym.
But, you don’t have to eliminate the foods and experiences that revolve around food OR feel guilty about partaking in them.
Remember, think about the foods and experiences you enjoy the most and limit yourself to those select few situations. Then simply use the strategies outlined to enjoy them, guilt-free.
WHAT TO DO:
Aim to do steps 1-4 80-90% of the time. For the other 10-20% of the time #5 is key.
1. Eat 3 meals a day.
2. Have some whole food protein at each meal (eggs, chicken, beef, fish, greek yogurt, protein powder).
3. Have vegetables or a serving of fruit at each meal. It doesn’t matter what kind, eat what you enjoy.
4. Don’t drink calorie-filled beverages.
(if you have an alcoholic drink stick to spirits with a no-calorie mixer, wine, or just plain beer. No 700 calorie long islands 
)
5. Don’t stress if you aren’t having one of your prepared, planned meals. Just remember to:
- Get what you want/crave/enjoy the most
- Eat slow and savor it
- Stop when you are 80% full.
This way we aren’t over eating and “ruining” anything. Seriously, you will be amazed at the progress you make following this rule. Remember a burger, fries, and milkshake aren’t inherently evil, they are made up of protein, carbs, fat, minerals and vitamins just like salmon and broccoli. But it’s a lot easier to eat 2,500 calories in one sitting at 5 Guys scarfing back our food with no awareness.
No one has this problem with salmon and broccoli they baked at home.
Be more mindful and start enjoying the foods you love again.
If you want help mastering your nutrition and support with practicing your 80% habit from a certified nutrition expert with over 12 years experience, then click below to get my exclusive tips and strategies on nutrition, training, and mindset delivered to your inbox: