Food is fuel

This is what you should be thinking on your diet, nothing else. It’s the mindset of athletes, and it will give you a new lease on life. 

We all need food. It is literally energy. A calorie in physics is a unit of energy.

All food is essentially the same. There are fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. You need all of these. You can debate the ratio, but if you don’t get enough of any, you will not perform or function at your best. I tend to agree that there are vary levels of health of different food, but I’d rather you eat a donut than not eat.

Your body needs it to perform. You are an engine that runs on food. Think critically about what you put in it, but don’t starve yourself and expect improved results.

Your body needs it to recover. Just because you ran today doesn’t mean you can’t eat a decent supper.

Your brain needs food. It just does. Sure, healthier choices help it perform better. But it needs something to function. Low/no carb diets may impair memory. 

Top athletes don’t starve themselves. Eat like an athlete, not a model. If you’re like me, getting in the exercise is not the problem. That’s the fun part. The diet is the painful part. There are successful athletes in almost every subclass of diet.

It’s not difficult. Your body is programmed to tell you when to eat and what to eat. Don’t ignore it. It knows better than you do what’s good for it. There’s a reason we’re all carbohydrate addicts.

Your body is perfectly designed for your lifestyle. If you’re trying to make a change, change your lifestyle, not your diet.

Think about how a kid eats. Sometimes you have to force them sit down and do it. Eventually they do it, even if they may just eat a plate of Oreo’s and strawberries. Then they are straight back out playing. As they should be. And as we should be too.