Food to avoid when losing weight I Foods to avoid if you’re trying to lose weight

Am I even recording? Yes. Perfect. YouTube, what is going on? Welcome back to the channel. Welcome to the video. In this video, we're going to be covering what foods you should be avoiding to lose weight. I don't know what I'm doing with my hands, but we're going to talk about everything covering what foods you should eat, what foods you should not eat, what are good foods, what are bad foods. We're gonna cover all that in this video right here. So, we're gonna start off by talking about the truth about the foods. We're gonna then go into the foods that do this and the foods that do that, particular to you in specific. And then we're gonna cover a little guideline I like to use for a lot of my clients, which is red, yellow— I don't have a yellow marker, so just imagine that's yellow— and green. We're gonna talk about what that kind of, um, That's really a good structure and guidelines you can give yourself to kind of know what foods to eat, what foods to not eat, what foods are off limits, what foods are on limits. And so we're gonna cover all that in this video. Okay? So starting off with the truth. If you've followed me for any amount of time now, you know that there are no good and bad foods. A salad doesn't make you automatically skinny. And a cookie or donut doesn't automatically make you fat. You can eat any and every food that you would so like as long as you are in a calorie deficit. You will lose weight. Now, no, of course that does not mean have 1,600 calories all day of cookies, ice cream, and chips. You— that is not going to last very long. You're going to be super hungry. You're going to be super— Low energy, you're gonna be very moody, low willpower, so that's just not a good idea. But the great part about understanding that there are no good and bad foods and that your overall calorie intake is what matters, and which, by the way, if you need to know how many calories— I almost forgot what I was gonna say. If you need to know how many calories you need to eat to lose weight, feel free to head above, somewhere up there probably, I'll link my totally free calorie calculator. Calculator which can tell you how many calories you should eat to lose weight. All right? But the beauty of knowing that is as long as you're in your total calories for the day, there are no foods you should avoid because you can eat any food that you would like. And as long as you're in this calorie deficit, you will lose weight, which is very empowering and actually gives you more freedom now because I know you might attest to this. A lot of people's programming over the past 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years is that you can't eat the bad foods. The bad foods are off-limits. You can't have a cookie. You can't have nachos. You can't have the chips at the Mexican restaurant. You can't have a margarita. You can't have these foods. They're off-limits. They are restricted. This is going to backfire on you every single time because immediately when you restrict something and you say, I cannot have this, You're going to want it that much more. So knowing that nothing is off limits, you can have anything you like, and as long as obviously it's in moderation, you will be able to lose weight. So that is the truth. Now, I don't wanna just stop right there because people, even myself sometimes, I believe play into that a bit too much. And what I mean by that is, yes, you can eat any food you'd like. And still lose weight. That doesn't always mean you should, and I'm going to tell you what I mean the rest of this video. Okay, so now that we have that set up, good to go. The second part of this is I'm going to tell you basically 2 kinds of foods that you should be avoiding if you're looking to lose weight. The first one is going to be foods that make you just feel like shit. If you have— if, if you know that when you eat a certain food You are going to have very bad digestion, very low energy. You're going to feel super bloated. You're going to have, you know, you're going to feel super uncomfortable in your stomach, going to be very sluggish. Uh, it might even make you hungrier to where like you want more and more and more and more of it. Those are probably foods that you should quote unquote avoid. And when I say avoid, I don't mean like cut them out completely and tell yourself it's off limits. I just mean you should probably eat way less of those foods. And so I don't know what exactly that food is for you. For myself, for example, I know if I have too much pasta, for example, and my mom's Italian, 100% Italian, so she's not going to like that I say this, but if I eat too much pasta, for example, I get a little bogged down, a little sluggish, a little bloated. For me, I'm like, I don't eat pasta a lot because I know I don't really feel good when I eat that certain food. There's no exact food. It's not like, oh, you can't have cookies or you can't have donuts. For example, like I know people who, you know, if they, they're not lactose intolerant, but if they have like milk or dairy or something, they don't feel well. To me, I can eat dairy all day long and be totally fine. So this is gonna be dependent on you. But if you know every single time you eat a certain food, you feel like total crap after, it's probably a good idea to avoid those foods for the most part. Um, and again, not to say you can't have them ever again, Not to say that they're off limits, but this is to say you should probably put those off to the side for right now, especially if you are looking to make some changes in your body composition, losing weight, building muscle, whatever the case may be, because that's just going to make it harder on you if you eat that food and you feel like shit. And let's be honest, if you're eating a certain food that doesn't make you feel good, it's usually not low— it's usually not celery. It's usually not pickles or cucumbers. It's, you know, it's normally the higher calorie foods. So not only is it going to make you feel like total crap, but it's also going to be higher in calories. And so you're like a double whammy there. You're doing everything opposite of what you want to do. Again, if you are looking to lose weight, for example, that particular food is a double whammy, not just for the calories, but more so it makes you feel like crap. And then after that you have, you know, low energy, low willpower, super bloated. You don't want to, you don't feel like cooking. You don't feel like making a healthy dinner. You don't feel like going to work out. You just kind of feel like laying on the couch and watching Netflix and eating, binge eating popcorn, whatever the case may be. Don't make it harder on yourself. Make it easier on yourself. Avoid the foods that just, you know, you make that, no, make you feel like crap. And this takes being mindful, by the way. It takes being mindful of like, how do you feel after you eat a certain food? Like take some time at like today when you watch this video, Go through the rest of your meals throughout the day and notice, how do you feel? Do you feel like good energy? Do you feel like you're super stuffed? Do you feel like you're super bloated? Do you feel pretty good? Notice those things and let that be your roadmap to what foods can and cannot. And we'll talk more about a roadmap here, but what foods you should and should not avoid. So that's number 1, or I guess number 2. Number 3, foods that you cannot control yourself with. And again, I spoke earlier about Let's say you have a food and, for example, you know, you just want to keep eating, keep eating, keep eating, keep eating. There's no right or wrong answer here, and everybody's different. Some people are going to tell you, no, just have the food in moderation. And I think that's a, that's a viable idea for sure. There's going to be some times though, especially earlier on while you're trying to make a change, that just having it in moderation it's not going to work. Like, for example, my assistant coach, Linda, she loves Nutella. And so, for her, when she started, she was a client of mine for 2 and a half years. And when she started her, first started her journey, she was like, you know what? I can't have this in the house right now because if I have it in the house, I'm not gonna have a little spoonful, I'm gonna have half the jar. And so, she was like, you know what? Like, for right now, not having it in the house. And so, That's what she did because that was a food she could not control herself with. So she simply put it out of the house, out of sight, out of mind, and knew that for right now, that was a food she was going to avoid. Now, come full circle, it's been 2 and a half years, she's made a transformation, she's crushing it, she's obviously a coach now on my team. Now she's able to have Nutella in the house and control herself with it. She's not like, again, not to say for the rest of her life she banned it forever, but for that short period of time while she was really trying to make these changes going through You know, going through learning how to count calories, learning how to get your protein in, learning how to do all these things, she said, hey, for right now, that's a food I'm going to avoid. And now, again, it's come full circle. She's able to have it into her life again, so on and so forth, in moderation. And, you know, sometimes that has to happen. So if you know there's a food you just can't control yourself with, whether it's ice cream, whether it's a certain cookie brand, whether it's, you know, whatever it is for you, again, that's why I can't tell you exact foods. I'm never gonna tell you to avoid this food or that food, but foods that you know right now you cannot control yourself with, and you know what those foods probably are for right now. Again, it could be saying, hey, buying a single serving size instead of buying a whole family size. That, that could be an option as well, and it has worked for clients of mine. But don't— you know, again, I think people push a lot like, oh, eat whatever you want, eat whatever you want, moderation, moderation. Yes, But there might have to be some times where you say, hey, I can't control myself with this food, so I'm gonna— I'm not gonna have it in the house right now. So that is the other kind of like food category I would say. And foods you should avoid— avoid foods that make you feel like total crap, and avoid foods that make you not be able to control your decisions, your emotions, so on and so forth. And so those are the 2 biggest things. Now heading into over here very quickly, I want to touch on this red, yellow, and green. And again, just Actually, I did green and I tried to cross it out and now it kinda looks yellow, but either way. This is something where it's a great strategy you can use. So, red, yellow, and green. Basically what this is, is you make a list of foods, okay? And again, this is gonna be individual to you, but you make a list of foods. Red foods are probably gonna be one of these 2 things right here, or both. Foods that you don't feel very well, you don't digest them very well, makes you go to the bathroom, makes you pretty bloated, makes you pretty gassy, makes you feel You know, very sluggish, very tired, very foggy-headed. Those are gonna be your red foods, okay? And again, red means stop, right? So pretty much keep those foods out of sight, out of mind, and try to avoid those red foods. 'Cause if you have those red foods, it's gonna be bad. It's normally gonna end up bad. And so that's the red side of these. Next one is gonna be the yellow side of it. And again, just bear with me with yellow. Yellow is foods that, you know, not necessarily you can't control yourself with it. It's more so like, you know, if you have it in excess, then it could potentially become a red food. So again, like pasta, for example, for myself, if I have like just one plate of pasta, I'm good. No, not a big deal. But normally I don't just have one plate. Um, so if I go back for a second or third, it's like, okay, that's when I start to feel I feel, you know, pretty bad and like, and I can already tell from like after the first plate, I'm like, all right, like I don't feel like I do, for example, when I eat my green foods. So for example, stick to carbohydrate sources. When I eat white rice, I feel great. I feel phenomenal. I digest it super well. I am not bloated. I am not gassy. I don't have bad digestion. I have good energy. I feel like I'm ready to go. That is a green food for me. I eat that all day long. All day long 'cause I feel great on it. My body likes it. It digests it. I feel pretty good. Pasta, not so much. So, again, that's where having the knowledge of, I mean, being mindful of what these foods do to you. So, like, for example, another yellow food for me would be Chick-fil-A, for example. I eat out 1 to 2 times a week max. If I do eat out, it's probably gonna be more times than not Chick-fil-A. If I had Chick-fil-A one night, I'm good to go. It's all good. Like, I enjoy it. It's all good. I don't really feel terrible on it, but I know if I had that, like, for example, the next day, that's when I'd say, alright, I don't feel very good, because just the oil that they cook in and like sometimes it is the, you know, the French fries or the fried chicken or whatever the case may be, like, you know, that is gonna mess with me eventually. And so that's kind of like a yellow food for me where it's like, I'm not gonna have it every single day. It's not gonna be a staple in my everyday meal plan, but every now and then, totally cool. I know I can control myself with it. I know that it's not gonna make me feel like total crap after, but if I kept going, kept going, kept going, that's when I know it's gonna turn into a red food, for example. So those are more of your yellow foods. And then finally, last but not least, your green foods. Green foods are foods that you know, you're like, I got these. Not only do they make you— I'm gonna switch markers— not only do they make you feel very good, not only do they make you, you know, have good energy, Not have, you know, bad digestion issues, not have bloat, not have that foggy-headedness, but also they're easy to work into your everyday routine. They're quick, they're simple, you know, like for example, again, for me, going back to the white rice, I have white rice every single day. I literally just buy it from either Trader Joe's or Wegmans, or not Wegmans, Whole Foods, actually Wegmans as well, but I buy it from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. It's just like— organic frozen jasmine white rice and I put it in the microwave for 4.5 minutes and it's good to go. It makes rice, perfect rice. And so for me, that's a green food because white rice in general is great, but now that I can add that extra layer of like, I just put it in the microwave and it's good to go and I can have it literally all day long whenever I want, yeah, it's a green food. Like, a green food for me is Greek yogurt. A green food for me is watermelon. A green food for me is eggs. Chicken breast, steak, like these foods that I know make me feel very, very, very good. Um, and I have them pretty much all throughout the day, all throughout the week. I kind of just said earlier, I only eat out 1 to 2 times a week, but these green foods should make up the majority of your nutrition. The majority. I, and I've done a video on the 80/20 rule with nutrition. If you want to watch that video, feel free to head above. Um, I did a whole video on the 80/20 rule, but essentially the 80/20 rule is 80% nutrient-dense whole foods and then 20% things you enjoy. That's basically how you can kind of think of this list right here where it's like normally your green foods are gonna be the more nutrient-dense, the whole foods, the quote-unquote healthy foods for you. That's what should probably be making up a lot of your food because it makes you feel good. Not because you need to eat it to lose weight, because it makes you actually feel good. You know, you eat, you know, you feel better when you have vegetables. You know, you feel better when you have fruits. You know, you feel better when you have good lean protein sources. Like you're going to feel better. So most of your food should be coming from those green foods, but it's not to say you can't work in things you enjoy. So again, for example, the yellow or even the red foods, like let's say green foods you have every single day. Yellow foods you might have one to two times a week, and then red foods let's say you have one to two times every three to six months. That could be one strategy. Kind of think about like these are the foods that I'm working in throughout my day, throughout my week, throughout my year, so on and so forth, right? And this way you're never going to the extreme of over restricting something, which again we talked about that can always that can backfire as well because if you're over restricting it's going to make you want it that much more and so on and so forth. And you're giving yourself ways where you can work these things in here and there without it backfiring on your progress. Because again, can you eat whatever you want and lose weight? Yes, but that doesn't mean you should because that mentality is gonna backfire. 'Cause again, if you're eating nothing but, you know, 1,000 calories of ice cream per day, you're probably gonna be very hungry, you're probably not gonna have good energy, not gonna have good workouts, not gonna have good muscle protein synthesis It's like there's a lot of drawbacks to that. So coming up with these, coming up with your red, yellow, and green list, come up with your list. Like take 5 to 10 minutes, think about what foods are, because a lot of times people get, um, anxiety around like, oh my God, like what, what should I eat? What should I not eat? Am I going to ruin my progress by eating this food? Now that you have this guideline of the red, yellow, and green foods, take some time and go through your list, make your list, because now That will take away the anxiety because a lot of the anxiety comes from the ambiguity of like not knowing, like, am I going to ruin my progress? What foods should I avoid? You know, it's all right here. You've already written it out. So if you have a solid, clear, bright plan, that's going to take away a lot of that like feeling of like, am I ruining my progress? Am I doing something wrong? Because you literally laid out exactly what you need in your list right here. So that is the video for today, guys. Hope you enjoyed it. If you If you did, please feel free to drop below. And actually, if you've watched this far, drop below some of the red, yellow, and green foods for you. Do it right now. Go to the comment section, say, hey, Eric, one red food for me is fucking Nick's ice cream, or it's Ben Jerry's, or it's this cookie. Or, hey, one of the green foods for me is like, I love watermelon. I'm gonna eat it every single day. Start to come up with your list and drop some of your foods here below. So hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, please feel free to leave it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel and click the notification bell. All right, thank you for watching and we will talk soon.