Simple strategies to get and stay lean.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a small group at Equss Workforce Solutions for the company’s "Fitness Friday Talk." I shared a couple of my favorite food strategies focused around eating and how to naturally limit calories.
The first one I shared is one of the best healthy eating strategies I know and have had personal success with is eating to 80% full. It may take a few weeks to get a good gauge of what that feels like, but it's worth taking the time to figure it out. Once you do, you’ll have an easy lifelong strategy to help you feel better and naturally stay lean. Without much effort you end up eating less overall, no matter what you’re eating and you won't have to count calories or pre-plan every macronutrient. The idea is borrowed from a Japanese phrase “Hara hachi bun me” which roughly means eat until you are 80% full. The Okinawa Japanese People, from whom the term originates, tend to have some of the lowest rates of illness from heart disease, cancer and stroke.
I also talked about how during the holidays there’s a tendency to overeat. One of the best ways that I’ve found to overcome this is to try a “sampler dish” on the second passing. After eating your first plate of food and when you’re ready to go back for seconds, try only taking a spoonful of each item. This way you get to try everything you like and limit the total calories you take in. It also allows more time for your hunger signals to catch up with your stomach, giving you more of a chance to stop before going into a full “food-coma.” As an added bonus, you can continue doing sampler dishes but chances are the extra layer of work to get up and go do it might deter you and help you skip the extra food, calories, and a post eating bloated feeling.
Feel free to give these two easy strategies a try. If you want any help, guidance or coaching around this feel free to e-mail me at Joncg8@msn.com and we can try a one month program. In the one month program we focus on creating the "80% full" habit by doing it daily with check-in's during the week.
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