Stop Overcomplicating Nutrition Try This Instead! Revised

All I want you to do for one week is focus on getting the right amount of protein for you. I will have a link below for my protein calculator so you can figure out exactly how much you need. And all you do this week is make sure you're getting that protein in. And what I want you to start to watch for is as you're doing that, what's shifted in the rest of your macros and calories? So as you've started to increase your protein, because likely you will because most people undereat protein, anywhere from 30 to 50%. So as you start to do that, you'll go, oh wow, you know, I started to kick out a little bit of fat, or I started to kick out a little bit of carbs. What's interesting is the research shows that when you increase protein, especially when you eat protein first, you actually tend to make better food choices, especially you eat more non-starchy vegetables. Now the other thing that happens as you increase protein is you you have less cravings, you have better satiety, and you tend to eat less because beyond the satiety, right, you've got the satiety and it's also more thermic. It's using more calories. Protein has a way higher thermic effect of food than fat or carbs— 20 to 30% versus carbs, 5 to 10% versus fat, negligible, like 3% or less. All right, so that's the second thing you do. The third thing you do, and this is week by week, all right? Super easy. Third week, I want to make sure that you're getting in at least 5 servings or more, and hopefully more, of non-starchy vegetables each day and 2 fruit servings. So what is a non-starchy serving? It's a half a cup of cooked or a cup of raw. So cauliflower rice, cook it up, half a cup, It's a serving. Salad greens, a cup, a serving. So you can see how easy this is. Like, I tend to get 5 servings at my dinner and 5 servings at my lunch. I would love to see you get 10 servings a day, bonus points, star student, but at least 5, that's your minimum. And 2 servings of fruit. Now for fruit, here's the rules: fresh or frozen, not juiced, dried, syruped, jammed. Okay, so you want to eat fresh or frozen fruit and ideally look for, you know, always include at least a berry serving in there. And then one more thing about the veggies and the fruit: diversity of colors. Mix this up, don't get into a veggie rut. And then start to look as you're doing this, because we've— we're really adding before we're taking away. We added the protein, now we added in more vegetables and some fruit. I want you to look at what else is going on. What's shifting now in the rest of your macros and your overall calories? Because you're probably seeing that things are starting look even better. The fourth thing that I want you to do is start to zero in on those carbohydrates. Now, if you need a little bit more help here, this is the Sugar Impact Diet where I really talk about the right types of carbs to reach for. Remember, all carbs except for fiber turn to sugar. It's just a difference of whether you're making them from the berries or the lentils, or you're mainlining them from, say, the Skittles, right? So you know which one I want you to choose. So carbs are going to be somewhere around 100 to 130. I do 100 as a baseline, 100 grams. And then I always say, if you want more than that, earn them with exercise. And I do 25 grams for each 30 minutes of hard exercise. That's not going out for a walk. Now, I'm monitoring fiber in here, but I'm not dealing with the net carbs. I'm just focusing on getting enough fiber. And basically 30 grams is sort of my low point. I really love 50. That's like star student again, right there is 50. Okay, so that's the next thing. And then finally, I know I said 4 weeks, okay, but we're into the 5th, but the 1st week doesn't really count because you're just checking things out. The 5th one, we're really modulating fat, okay? So think about where fat's going to come from. Now, when you eat animal protein, you get some fat in it, right? If you're eating wild fish, if you're eating grass-fed beef, you're going to get some fat with that. And the cool thing is, when you're eating these better animal choices, which are the only ones that you want to eat, you're also going to get more omega-3s, and that is super duper important. So that's the first place you're going to start counting fat in, which you'll see on the app. The app will do it naturally for you. Then add in what you're using for cooking. So maybe you're using a little bit of avocado oil, maybe you're using some extra virgin olive oil on your salad, maybe using some coconut oil for cooking. That's what I want you to watch. And what I want you to really watch is use those ones and really avoid using more of the seed oils, the omega-6 oils here, just because they're more refined, they can be more damaged and more pro-inflammatory. So I'm talking corn, sunflower, safflower, soy. Let's focus on instead the extra virgin olive oil, the avocado, and the coconut. But again, we're just going to use a little bit for cooking. What I tend to do with cooking is I'll start a sauté with a little bit of avocado oil, and then I will add in some bone broth. So things like that, so I'm not just heaving on a bunch of fat. And finally, if I have room for more fat, this is where I add in my whole food fats. And these would be things like nuts and seeds, avocado, coconut, olive, dark chocolate. I put that first. It should actually be dark chocolate, then nuts and seeds, and avocado, right? And I eat an ounce of dark chocolate at least every single day. But that's where— that's the other part of it. Now here's the thing with fat. Adds up fast. And so you want to make sure you're really getting in because, you know, we've got the essential fatty acids we need, but we really want to focus more there on the essential fatty acids. And where I tend to go with that is I kind of like 60 grams as a starting point, or about 0.3 to 0.5 grams per pound of target body weight. But this is a real sliding scale here because some people feel better lower carb, higher fat. Some people do better higher fat, lower carb.