How to beat your nutrition lies: The do’s and don’ts of nutrition
Many of us are becoming more mindful of what we put into our body. This can be for a number of reasons, from wanting to have the perfect body like we see in magazines, or from being scare-mongered by reports that obesity rates are on the rise and eating certain foods can increase our risk of having a heart-attack.
We therefore jump into action by reading the food labels in shops, or sitting at lunch with just a measly lettuce leaf. In fact, we all probably know at least one person who has started a new fad diet or has joined a weight loss program. Even supermarkets are directing us, by stocking up on all the latest ‘superfoods’ for us to include in our diet. Restaurants have also started telling us just how many calories we may be consuming. If that’s not enough, we often see news of drastic weight losses by celebrities and listen eagerly for their top “secrets to success” to try out ourselves.
However, is what we’re being told about healthy nutrition correct, or could it actually be causing you more harm than good?
To help you sort fact from fiction, we share our top 3 things you should re-consider:
1. Cutting out whole food groups
Many of the latest diets suggest you cut out whole food groups such as fat and carbohydrates. Juice cleansing seems to be one of the latest trends and is quite controversial for this very reason, as it requires you to abstain from eating food, whilst only drinking fruit and vegetable juices. This can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks!
Although you may be happy to see an initial weight loss, it isn’t necessarily good news in the longer term. Some recent research suggests that to stay healthy, our body needs to have a good mixture of foods. By removing whole food groups from our diet, we could be creating imbalances in our gut which could increase the likelihood of putting on weight. It’s therefore better to have a balanced and varied diet, with the removal of sugar, processed foods and alcohol.
2. Extreme dieting to lose weight
Open any magazine and you will see people talking about the latest diet they’ve been on, showing their incredible results. It’s therefore not surprising that many people try to replicate their success, but often without the desired results. This is often because they find the diets too difficult to follow and unsustainable in the long term.
Instead of crash dieting, aim to make smaller, gradual changes to your eating habits. Focus on including whole foods into your diet, whilst removing processed foods and sugars. By making a few better decisions, you will have a stronger chance of sticking to your nutrition plan, instead of yo-yo dieting. You should look at developing a health and fitness regime to work alongside your nutrition plan too.
3. Focusing on calories rather than what the calories are made up of
There may be a recommended number of calories we can consume each day, but a calorie isn’t just a calorie, as it depends where that calorie came from. For example, if you ate 2,000 calories from a balanced diet, you may find it easier to lose weight than a person who ate 2,000 calories which were made up of fried, processed foods. It’s therefore important to look beyond calorie counting and consider the type of food that you’re filling up on too.
What’s most important?
We believe your relationship with food shouldn’t be a negative one. Just because you’re trying to be healthy, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy food. It’s about eating in moderation and having a balanced diet of whole foods, teamed with a good exercise regime.
What do you think of fad diets and some of the other lengths people will go to in order to lose weight? We’d love to hear your stories and tips.
Elizabeth Harmon is a writer for Open Colleges Careers.
You Might Also Like
“We couldn’t recommend Kylie highly enough.”
“Having ongoing training is essential for our team and our business. It’s important to look after the people that look after others. Kylie has the experience, professionalism and knowledge to engage with our team and help them understand about human behaviour and why people do what they do. In the wellness and health industry it’s a different sales and service delivery and it’s imperative to keep on top of these understandings to perform at our best to help others. We couldn’t recommend Kylie high enough.”
- Amanda Bracks - Owner Soulful Fitness (2019 Fitness Australia Boutique of the Year)
“She’s the best speaker they’ve ever seen.”
“I have worked with Kylie over many years. She has helped me as a Business Mindset Coach, as a motivational speaker for my gym clients at both Vision Personal Training & now at Flow Athletic. I bring her in to train my Personal Training teams in mindset, communication and how to coach our clients better and excel in our own personal mastery as fitness leaders. At my recent Fitness Business event, my gym owner colleagues were blown away by her talk, saying she is the best speaker they have ever seen. After every event we always get rave reviews about her talks and training. I highly recommend Kylie’s work as a coach & speaker.”
- Ben Lucas - Founder & CEO, Flow Athletic
“So many things are just falling into my lap.”
“I finished the Spiritual Awakening Course yesterday and I found it truly amazing. An incredible next step after our coach training. I feel so much more enlightened and “opened-up”. It has really opened my eyes to the power of the universe and the energy flowing in each of us. I loved it – thank you.
I am feeling so lucky at the moment. So many things are just falling into my lap. I visualise it and set my intention to manifest it and it comes. Things such as getting more clients, needing help to put my business online, not knowing how to get known in my local community etc. Courses / insights / clients have just fallen into my lap at the right time.”
Of course I am still learning and growing, but the course has really helped. Thank you”
- Katharine Williams - NLP Coach, Limitless Growth
“I have never been this happy or powerful.”
“Before I signed up with Kylie I had a busy PT business… I was exhausted and on the brink of burnout and no matter how hard I tried, I had reached a ceiling in my income that I just couldn’t break through. After completing my NLP Coaching certification, I found my true voice and the energy of my business has been completely transformed. I’ve created an online program, up-levelled my entire business and totally smashed my previous income goals. I make decisions more confidently and I can help my clients create change in their life even faster. On a personal level, NLP gave me the inner strength to leave a toxic situation and rebuild myself which lead to me discovering the love of my life! Today I am living the life that I’ve always wanted – but just hadn’t been able to put into words. I have never been this happy or this powerful. If you want to manifest the life of your dreams I would not hesitate to reach out for help from Kylie.”
- Danni Vee - Women's Health Coach, My Fit Tribe
“I’ve noticed big improvements in my finances and client retention”
I signed up with Kylie because I knew that to have a bigger effect as a PT I needed to improve my understanding of how the mind works. Through NLP Coach training I now have great coaching techniques that break through all sorts of negative behaviour patterns. I’ve noticed big improvements in all areas of my life including my own personal finances and my client retention. This has allowed me new freedom to work on scaling my business and helping even more people with less one on one time from myself. The coach training has given me the ability to fully unlock the power of your mindset and those that don’t have this skill are only tapping into a small amount of their potential.
- Blake Worrall-Thompson, Performance Coach & PT
“Magick happens every time!”
This morning I had a kick-ass coaching session with Kylie Ryan. We’ve been working together for a couple of months, and she’s the perfect person to help me integrate the rapid transformations I go through regularly. I’d been getting this vision of my fully mature creative and entrepreneurial self. His discipline, commitment, and command of wealth was 10x what mine is now, but it wasn’t really about money for him. Our coaching sessions usually roll with me saying, “Kylie, I want to be, do, and have EVERYTHING” and Kylie helping me find the archetypes and parts that aren’t integrated and bringing them together. MAGICK HAPPENS EVERY TIME.
- Dane Tomas - Creator of The Spiral
Featured In
