Nutrition 101 - Live.Eat.Train

Life is a Journey of Discovery

Be curious. Be mindful. Be flexible.

After years of study and practice, I found an approach to eating that keeps my body healthy and my mind happy. Excited to share this approach with others, I set out to write a book detailing my approach. As I began the writing process, I was reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles: Life and Work. In his book, Mr. Dalio states:

“Principles are the fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that get you what you want in life. They can be applied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals. . . If we have good principles for dealing with [the variety of situations we encounter in life], we will make better decisions more quickly and have better lives as a result. Having a good set of principles is like having a good collection of recipes for success.”

Inspired by these ideas, I worked to simplify my approach to eating to determine the principles responsible for my success.

These were my guiding principles; they shaped my choices and helped me find an approach to eating that greatly improved my quality of life. It seems fitting that the first letter taken from the first word of each principle spells eat. The word eat has taken on a whole new meaning for me; it now describes a simple approach to life that can be applied flexibly to achieve your desired outcomes.

In the process of identifying my principles, I also uncovered three behaviors that were vital to my success.

Exploring the world with an open mind serves as the foundation for learning. Applying an informed approach to life serves as the foundation for deliberate action (trying). Transforming your approach to meet your evolving needs serves as the foundation for adapting.

My willingness to learn, try, and adapt was essential to finding an approach to eating that met my evolving needs and promoted my wellbeing. This process required that I remain curious, mindful, and flexible. Curiosity was the key to learning, mindfulness allowed for deliberate action, and flexibility made adapting possible. Here’s how each principle guided my efforts:

Principle 1

Explore the world with an open mind

Something I learned early on was the importance of keeping my mind open to new ideas and perspectives. An open mind helped me expand my knowledge of food and nutrition in an unbiased manner and, eventually, this knowledge helped me find an approach to eating that promoted my wellbeing. Curiosity was the driving force behind my pursuit of knowledge. This trait has promoted lifelong learning and is something I plan to continue nurturing in myself and others.

Principle 2

Apply an informed approach to life

Over the years, I’ve learned that favorable outcomes are the result of informed decisions, and informed decisions stem from understanding facts (the ideas presented to you) and circumstances (the conditions around you). Through study and practice, I developed a deep understanding of both nutrition and my personal circumstances. This understanding helped me apply a more informed approach to eating, which ultimately led to better eating habits, a healthier relationship with food, and a greater sense of wellbeing.

Mindfulness was the key to understanding. By focusing my attention on the present, I became more aware of the facts and circumstances that were most important for helping me make informed decisions in that moment. Being present, I have come to realize, is critical for making decisions that lead to more favorable outcomes.

Principle 3

Transform your approach to meet your evolving needs

Change is inevitable; it’s the only real constant in life. I’ve found this fact to be especially true as it relates to food. Not only have my nutrient needs changed over the years, so have my food preferences. To accommodate these changes, both education and experience have taught me the importance of being flexible in my approach to eating.

Flexibility, along with a solid understanding of basic nutrition principles, has helped me adapt my approach to eating in response to changing circumstances and allowed me to meet my needs more effectively. Learning to be flexible was pivotal to my success in finding an approach to eating that best supported my individual needs. Flexibility is a trait that has promoted my success in many aspects of life and is something I have come to recognize as vital to personal growth, which I believe is at the root of lifelong health and happiness.

I share these principles with you so you can better understand my approach to food and hopefully connect with it on a deeper level. My goal is not to tell you what to think and do when it comes to food, but rather to share my nutrition knowledge in a way that inspires you to think and act for yourself. I believe that success comes when you take responsibility for your actions; thinking being the most important action as it guides all other actions you take.

AN INFORMED APPROACH TO EATING

When it comes to food, balance is everything: Balance of nutrients for nourishment, ingredients for taste, and different food types for pleasure. A balanced approach to eating keeps your mind happy and your body healthy. As such, it’s important to learn how to make food choices with each of these factors in mind. That is, you must be mindful to eat foods that nourish your body and allow yourself to eat foods that taste good and bring you pleasure.

On my journey to find a more balanced approach to eating, I followed these steps:

Gain core knowledge
Master the basics

Together, my undergraduate and graduate studies in nutrition helped me gain a deep understanding of the basic nutrition principles. Learning and really having a solid grasp of the fundamentals was the first step in finding a more balanced approach to eating.

The second step was to master the basics, which involved implementing the basic nutrition principles. I put my knowledge into practice by trying the various methods I learned through study, which helped me adopt healthier eating habits and find my way to better health. I began this practice when I committed to overcoming an unhealthy relationship with food and is something I continue to practice to this day.

In the links that follow, I break down each step and provide you with the information I found to be most useful in helping me find a balanced approach to eating. My hope is this information will guide your efforts in finding an approach to eating that helps you achieve better health, greater happiness, and all other outcomes you so desire.

Step 1: Gain Core Knowledge

You need food to survive. Food promotes growth and gives your body life. For these reasons, it’s important to understand how to interact with food to keep your body thriving.

Unfortunately, food has become a major source of stress for many people. With a new fad-diet being promoted every few months, new and opposing views regarding nutrition showing up in the media every week, and conflicting advice about what to eat coming from every person (healthcare professionals included), it’s no wonder people have developed somewhat of a love-hate relationship with food.

My goal is to clear up the confusion by bringing your focus back to the basics. With a foundational knowledge of nutrition, you can easily master the skill of healthy eating, which is a must when it comes to achieving any health or fitness goal. A solid understanding of the basic nutrition principles will help you make better food choices daily, which means better eating year-round and less time spent trying to undo unhealthy eating habits.

Click HERE to learn the basic nutrition principles.

Step 2: Master the Basics

Once you’ve reviewed the basics, it’s time to put what you know into practice. The learning process doesn’t stop at gathering information; it requires two additional steps: applying that information and analyzing the outcomes. By applying your newly acquired knowledge, you’ll begin to solidify the basic nutrition principles through your own experiences.

I’ve seen these steps at work in my own life. As my nutrition knowledge grew, I continued to implement what I learned through study in both my personal and professional life. After ten plus years of putting my knowledge into practice, experience taught me which choices, and thus which behaviors, were the most likely to result in the desired outcomes for myself and my clients. There are four behaviors and seven choices coinciding with each behavior, which are outlined in the chart below.

Adopting these behaviors promotes a balanced approach to eating: an approach that has proven time and time again to be effective, sustainable, and best of all, enjoyable. The way to adopt these behaviors is by incorporating the choices illustrated in the chart into your daily eating routine. Each choice offers a great deal of flexibility and allows you to find a way of eating that best supports you and your evolving needs.

You’ll find detailed information about each of the choices in the pages linked below. I encourage you to read through this information, as it will deepen your understanding of the importance of each choice and give you examples of how to include them in your daily life.