Determining if you are a nutritional lunatic is simple. If you’re eating food and you have no idea what it is then that is clearly the definition of insanity. For example, you wouldn’t just randomly pour liquids into your vehicle’s gas tank, hoping that it was going to operate, would you? No sane person would just find any liquid, like beer or bleach for instance, and dump it in his vehicle and say “Hey, hope this works”. No, not even you would do that. You would find the right kind of fuel. Look at all the machinery in your life that you know exactly how to operate. What’s the gas to oil ratio when you’re filling up the trimmer? What kind of oil goes in your motorcycle? What kind of gas goes in your lawnmower or your BMW or your pick-up truck?
It’s time to wake up and realize that the most important machine you own is your body and it’s time to pay attention to what you’re putting into it. When you just pick any food and eat it and you’re not aware of what it is and you don’t think about the ingredients, then your action of eating would be considered completely and totally irrational. It makes absolutely no sense and therefore, you would be classified as nutritionally insane, a lunatic, nut case, off your rocker and soon, the gentlemen in white coats will be showing up for a conversation.
However, thanks to this wonderful blog, you have an opportunity to amend this thoughtless and ridiculous eating phenomenon ASAP. Let’s consider a few things. When you eat, what is your thought process? (Unfortunately, I already know). Often, there is no thought process. In the real world, most men eat like starving robots or zombies, carelessly indulging for years until they are surprisingly diagnosed with a disease and then…panic. It is flabbergasting that so many of us have been alive on this planet for all these years and still have no real idea how to take care of our own nutritional health. What to eat, when to eat, how to eat, why to eat and so on.
Some “experts” think that the first step in fixing nutritional health problems is education. Unfortunately, that could not be the furthest thing from the truth. The first step is NOT education (thank God). You should not begin to change your diet by reviewing charts and memorizing the calorie content of food or conducting detailed nutritional analysis as part of “patient education”. And no, you should not generate a false feeling of success by purchasing a truckload of worthless diet programs or unregulated supplements. First, that sort of approach does not work. Second, that sort of approach does not work. The first step in making any type of change is creating awareness; you’ve got to be aware of the specific action that needs to be changed. You need to focus on details like the exact time and place and activity that you want to change. You need to be conscious of what’s happening and then reformulate that action into a positive decision-making strategy.
And what’s good about using this method of first creating awareness is that it works regardless of the amount of knowledge that you already have. No studying involved. For example, once you’re aware, your mind will naturally apply your current knowledge, whatever that may be, but you will at least be aware and begin to change immediately. You will rely on what you already know to start, which allows you to change your actions rapidly versus waiting for some future event or educational process. This method is easy because your mind will naturally lead you in the right direction. This is especially great if your lazy, since your subconscious mind does the work.
Alternatively, if you try to use the status quo, inefficient, outdated method and become “educated” first, you’ll waste time, energy and resources, yet won’t be prepared to take any measurable steps to improve your health. You’ll be studying facts and literature and your brain will eventually collapse into a fog and still you will have no idea what the heck to do. The old method is like trying to learn how to play baseball by reading a manual written in Chinese. There is no chance that will work. You are going to have to pick up the bat and just swing and this way, you will develop awareness immediately.
To start, pay attention to what food you eat in a very basic sense. What is it exactly that you’re putting into your mouth? For example, if you’re eating potato chips, just look at the potato chip for a second and evaluate it; describe it to yourself. “This is a thinly sliced piece of potato that is fried in oil” is great place to start. Try to visualize or see the ingredients in an item. For example, pasta. It’s just flour. The same with white bread. Just flour. In a very simple way, they are almost the same thing based on primary ingredients. Another example is a Snickers bar. If you eat a Snickers bar, you just didn’t eat a Snickers bar. You had peanuts, chocolate, caramel, salt, and who knows what else. Looking at your food and trying to examine the ingredients will help you become much more aware of what you’re putting in your body. Remember, you’re not trying to become a nutrition scientist here. Keep it simple. All you want to do is begin to understand what it is that you are actually eating. Yes, it would be good to learn to read a food label eventually but that is just not practical right now. Initially, too many details will destroy your momentum and suffocate your goals.
In a clinical setting, medical professionals create food awareness by advising clients to keep a very detailed food tracking log known as a food diary. It’s usually an eye-opening experience when done properly because people don’t realize how much they eat or how often. Tracking food intake directly increases awareness. However, the food “liary” as we call it can be a worthless book of fabricated lies because people do not report truthfully which often makes the entire process a complete waste of time. Psychologically, people report consuming less food and healthier food because they are in denial or embarrassed of their actual eating habits. But if you happen to be excessively compulsive or have extra time on your hands and you can be honest with yourself, create a food tracking log and track away. For the rest of us who don’t want to write a novel, become ultra-practical and focus your mind on looking at food as ingredients. Create basic awareness for now, which will be enough to get you to start making better nutritional choices.
Questions also create awareness. Take a detailed look at the items that you’re about to consume. How big is it? What’s the color? What’s the shape? What are the ingredients? Actually look at the item critically because you could say you ate a piece of pizza, but how thick was the crust? How big was the piece? What kind of toppings were on it? What were the shape of the toppings, did they cover the whole pizza, part of the pizza? Allow your mind start paying attention to detail, which is establishing awareness. Again, look at the size of the food to get a relative comparison. Was the pizza bigger than your hand or head? If there’s small pieces of a food, how much are you eating combined? Is it a whole plate full, whole pile full or is it two or three small quarter-size pieces? If you have three chips, are they giant chips? Are they small chips? Become aware in a specific and detailed manner regarding the food that you consume.
Most guys are oblivious to a lot of things. Let’s face it, we don’t pay attention because we don’t really care. However, for other things that are important to us, we are certainly aware of what’s going on. We always try to be aware when we’re watching a football game. We sit down, start watching and immediately initiate a barrage of questions to anyone, even random strangers. “Who’s ball? What down in it? What’s the score?” We always ask questions to increase our awareness of circumstances revolving around sports, yet when we sit down for meal we rarely say, “Hey what’s in this meal? Where’s the chicken from? What’s in this sauce? What kind of bread is this? How much fiber in this bread?” Ask questions to focus you mind, just don’t be an idiot about it or you will be an outcast quickly.
Just remember that the real key is to look at ingredients in the food you eat and not the item as a whole, which will automatically make your mind create a new awareness regarding the food that you consume. You will naturally make better decisions using whatever current knowledge you have. Let’s face it, many men do have some nutritional knowledge. We know what sugary food is, we know what salty food is, we know what fatty food is. But you haven’t been fully aware or focused on what you eat. Just by triggering your awareness, you will start to use your existing knowledge to make better choices and as your knowledge improves, so will your health. Remember, awareness is critical because that is what’s going to trigger the initial recognition of your action that needs to be changed. The bottom line is you have to know what you’re eating; there’s no way around it. If you want to be any healthier, you have to know what it is you are eating, otherwise, you’re just nutritionally insane.