Nutrient Rich healthy eating, is almost an unknown idea, because it’s a zone of eating, that is unique. It’s where you actually eat  naturally, whole (plant based) nutrient-rich foods, in a successful way, 90% of the time or more. If you look at how most people eat, they are eating 90% or more nutrient poor foods only to find themselves stuck, suffering the consequences of a no-doubt great tasting, yet standard American diet (SAD) and hopping from one weight loss only diet to the next trying to deal with those consequences which are of of course, the obesity and health complications that so many people think are the natural effects of aging, but are really due to a nutrient-poor diet.

Weight loss only diets are usually never healthy, because they are only focused on helping you lose weight, not get healthy which is the key to living at a your ideal weight to start with. So low cal, and low carb / high animal protein, and low fat, and eating less… all while exercising more are the status quo when it comes to weight loss. And none of them work, or for long. Not only are each of these strategies narrow minded, short term and unhealthy, but even when they do promote weight loss the body soon adapts or due to it’s unsustainable nature it cannot be continued.

What’s so amazing is what happens next… people start to eating healthier when they finally stop eating the standard American diet and dieting, (eating less or manipulating protein, fat and carbs). Yet, they get trapped eating half-baked healthier diets with foods that may be plant based, gluten-free, vegan, low glycemic, raw, a nourishing tradition, or the way apes eat all day in some extreme way…

What happens is they end up eating what is emerging as the new Standard American Diet, which are foods that are better, more plant based, but are still processed and full of refined and added sugar, salt and oil, prepared in addicting, highly concentrated ways, processed and prepared so that the original nutrient integrity is not there. This is not nutrient rich healthy eating.

Nutrient Rich healthy eating is when you are eating foods in the natural state, or as close to it as possible in a way that maximizes nutrients, is appropriate in calories and is great tasting; with half-baked healthier foods as the fall back plan if you can’t get the best, not the target way to eat. Nutrient Rich healthy eating is should be the target way to eat for us all.

I received a call today from a woman who was considering a change to what I refer to as the gold standard of diet programs where nutrient rich meals are the basis of our health. Like many people, she was hesitant about the program because she felt overwhelmed internally by making such a big diet change.

I quickly advised her that making a lifestyle change is not an all or nothing process like most diet program usually require for any success. The founder and author of the gold standard of all diet programs, Dr Joel Fuhrman believes in creating a “lifestyle” for health not “living on a program” like most regimens insist on adhering to for goal achievement. Dr. Fuhrman personally achieved his success gradually through inspiration, education and support.

I fully understand the marketing of diet programs and their basic theories work – a formula of pounds lost over a certain period of time. Although I support many of the highly regimented programs that require complete conformity I firmly believe if you really want to set yourself up for long-term success you need to instill a new lifestyle mentality behind any regimen or interim diet and exercise program.

Let me provide you with an example. I choose to eat nutrient rich as a basic part of my personal lifestyle. I try to live that way 365 days a year – but of course there are those few times when I may eat nutrient poor foods for a variety of reasons. Choosing to live and eat nutrient rich is very different from making a major diet change that requires strict adherence all in one shot which is traditionally what most people are forced to do through the majority of diet and exercise programs.

That can drive you a little crazy.

I may choose to engage in a new diet or exercise program for a period of time if I feel it will take a particular aspect of my lifestyle to the next level but I am already eating nutrient rich so it’s not a very big departure from what I am already doing. My lifestyle already supports success because I have a long-term underlying support structure in the way I choose to live. This basic lifestyle commitment is not regimen-based but simply a fundamental part of how I live.

It is important that people understand right from the start that moving from basic “American Food” diet to a nutrient rich, plant based diet should not be an event based regimen or a dramatic change that causes fear. Knowing that success comes from a lifestyle change over a longer-term process in the start of their journey back to health can make all the difference in the world.

When you decide to take your lifestyle to the next level – only then will you discover the very best way to eat.

If you never heard anything more from me about your diet, would you eat nutrient rich or nutrient poor?

Nutrient rich right? Of course you would.

Well, if you learn how to eat nutrient rich as part of your lifestyle then you will be primed for success. For those just getting started, you can go to the next level in healthy eating, and with the help of a 6-12 week diet program you can introduce yourself to a whole new lifestyle.

When you learn how to eat a nutrient rich diet and your shorter term diet programs are not proving to be perfect, you can always feel confident in falling back on your nutrient rich lifestyle which will give you the foundation for success and confidence without the fear of failure.

There is a fine balance between your personal lifestyle and those regimented programs. Having your lifestyle based in a nutrient rich diet will give you the basis to achieve your next level in your health.

This is a lifestyle mindset.

My next post will be all about how to challenge yourself!

This morning, as I was reading Google Alerts on Nutrient Rich foods, I came across an article by By: Linda Hepler, BSN, RN, that reminded me of the time when this question dominated my mind.  It makes the same point about living “healthy” that I was thinking.

Healthy living is usually about exercising more, eating better or less and making sure you get your zzz’s. But doesn’t go very far beyond that and when it does, it’s off the radar screen for most people.

But if it were so easy to manage your energy, eating and exercise everyone would be doing it really well. It’s not easy to live a healthy lifestyle successfully, especially if you are a goal oriented person who is focused on achieving life and business goals, where healthy living often takes a back seat.

To top off the confusion…

What is a “healthy” lifestyle anyway and how to do you live a healthy lifestyle successfully?

The answer is of course, having the performance lifestyle mindset set and skill set to function and perform optimally while focused on your life, business or a sporting goal. That focus of course, is what drives you to make the right healthy living choices.

But that’s the mindset of only 3% of the population. Most people do not know how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully.

Have a read of this article.

Max Muscle Nutrition Planning Article: LIVE LONG, LIVE HEALTHY
Include lots of nutrient rich foods in your daily diet. … Tip: “Nutrient dense food or nutrient rich foods as they are called today, are foods that are …
www.maxmuscle.com/nutrition-article/44/

It’s a basic article that delivers 8 tips that are good to know including the one about nutrient rich foods, but the point I want to zero you in on is in the first few paragraphs.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY can keep us alive longer than ever these days. It’s surprising then to learn that research, such as a recent Michigan State University study, suggests that only about 3 percent of Americans are living consistently healthy lifestyles – which most health experts agree is the key to longevity. But, how exactly to define a healthy lifestyle?

If you hit the gym five times a week, eat lots of protein (debatable), and try to get your zzz’s each night, it’s a good start. But, there’s more to healthy living than that. You may think you’re doing all the right things, but still be putting yourself at risk for health problems.

How to tell if you’re making all of the right choices for a long and healthy life? With so much conflicting health information out there, it’s hard to know sometimes. Each day, it seems, there’s a different story about the positive or negative effects of coffee, the newest super fruit, or the latest and greatest supplement to try.

Many experts will tell you that the best way to get and stay healthy is to forget about the latest health trends – and the newest super fruit – and get back to the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle.

Here are some top tips from the professionals for getting back to the basics.

The Performance Lifestyle formula, identifies the 12 fundamentals of living healthy, that will guide in you in how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully and  just so happens; help you achieve your life, business and sporting goals in fine fashion at the same time.

The most interesting part of the formula is this:

While directly managing your energy, eating and exercise, are the 3 core essentials of health and high performance, they are only 1/4 of the formula. Every other skill in the lifestyle formula will enable you do to do those three things well, achieve your goals, and give you a much better quality of life.

Performance Lifestyle defines how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully in a context you can understand.

Once key aspect of your lifestyle is obviously your diet.

Recently, I was talking with Tracie Boyle (not Susan Boyle) but Tracie  Boyle, who switched to a nutrient rich diet as part of a more successful lifestyle that she is improving little by little.

When she began her transformation, she changed the quality of the foods she was eating, from refined foods to nutrient rich whole foods, and didn’t even get into formalized exercise and look at the natural weight loss transformation she made.

I am thrilled for her as this is one of the most dramatic natural weight loss transformations I have seen.

She said: “I started to exercise, but not in  a formal way, I walked more, and included more physical activity into my day like parking further way from the store.” You know, lifestyle changes.

Of course, that level of activity is not going to build extraordinary levels of fitness, but combined with eating a  nutrient rich whole foods diet, meaning a diet that gives you the nutrients you need and not too much energy (calories) or the stuff your body doesn’t need, you can start to live at or near your ideal weight.

Now given Tracie’s prior diet, she was going to get a big bang for making every calorie count eating a nutrient rich diet, and now she is making other lifestyle changes. Her thinking has already begun to change and she is now in the process of living better and better.

Lots of amazing things changed when she started to eat better, and one by one started thinking differently. As she went through changes, she started learning how to live better.

That’s what we do in a Performance Lifestyle.

Congratulations Tracie!

We will keep you posted on her progress as a guest blogger here on PerformanceLifestyle.com

One of the greatest discoveries I found when leading the development of the Performance Lifestyle Formula, was this:

The very same set of lifestyle skills that will enable a person to get out of the downward energy trend and increase their energy, will enable someone to dramatically improve their health and get their weight under control, as well as achieve peak performance and the goals they have set, ultimately improving quality of life. The power is in how the skills are applied (tactics) – what skills you apply, how  you do it and why.

For example: if a person is training for a transformation challenge or sporting goal, when you Activate and Strengthen Your Body in a Performance Lifestyle, your lifestyle would include more sport specific training than someone who has ambitious life or business goals and does not require fitness training at that level.

So here are a few way in which a Performance Lifestyle can apply in your life:

1. It’s how you live a “healthy lifestyle” successfully – this is one of my most common answers because a healthy lifestyle has many definitions and is very subjective. Meaning, anything can be deemed “healthy” even if it’s not. For example; in a Performance Lifestyle we eat nutrient rich foods, and when you know what a nutrient rich food is, the guess work is taken out of  it and you actually learn how to eat for health, which is a skill. We take the same “best practice” approach to each of the 12 fundamental skills you learn in the lifestyle, each of which enables you to function and perform better and live a healthy lifestyle, successfully.

• Get out of a downward energy trend and restore yourself – underlying almost all diseases of lifestyle (not genetic diseases, but those driven by choice and by the environments you subject yourself too), is overwhelm, exhaustion, fatigue, over stimulation, under recuperation, over consumption, under nourishment, over busy (over trained) limited physical inactivity, all of which give rise to the overweight condition and health complications and what we call “diseases of lifestyle”. In a Performance Lifestyle, staying out of this trend is top of mind.

• Get free of Performance Addiction – some people just can’t stop themselves, yet they are trying to live in balance, with vibrant health and peace of mind and they have anything but “peace of mind”. They have so many stories floating around in their head, most of which are unsupportive, that they can’t stop moving, doing, being better, striving, proving themselves etc. If they want to get free of performance addiction the answer is to get into a Performance Lifestyle.
  

• Overcome fat loss resistance and “metabolic syndrome” - how many times have you felt like you are doing it all, but just can’t get things to change, like your weight? The specific reason why is not also easy to identify, but the one thing is simple to clarify, there is some aspect of your lifestyle that is holding you back and causing problems. In a Performance Lifestyle you will learn how to overcome fat loss resistance by making a whole lifestyle change and that means taking steps back far enough so you can make changes at the needed level to move forward in a position of strength.

• Set a big goal (life, business, sport) and achieve it with the support of your lifestyle. The purpose of your lifestyle is to achieve your goals, and goal achievement requires performance; that’s why it’s called Performance Lifestyle. The whole idea of eating, thinking or living better is to achieve something greater and bigger than health itself. Health is your birthright, success isn’t!

• Prepare for a Personal Transformation or Fitness Challenge (coming next) – it’s one thing to live the healthiest lifestyle you can, it’s another to transform or challenge yourself in a highly regimented period in your life. This is a time period when you are following a proven training program or system that is planned and only lasts for a period of time. Your lifestyle then helps you maintain your results. If you want to prepare for a personal transformation or fitness challenge, then get into a Performance Lifestyle to get ready, and learn how to do it right!

• Get the most out of our life – how do get the most of your life without life getting less than the best from you? You must stay out of that downward energy trend which will do more to negatively affect your energy, attitude and outlook than anything else. You also need to align the structure of your life, your lifestyle and your goals so that you start “firing on all cylinders” so to speak. This is a tall order no doubt, but whether you know it or not, that’s what we are all striving for. Having a lifestyle that is sustainable; that works so well, it’s an amazing ride with the best quality of life possible each step of the way. If you want that, then Performance Lifestyle principles and practices to work for you.
  

Each lifestyle skill in a Performance Lifestyle is clear. You learn how to manage your energy including the quality of the food you eat and your activity levels so that you can challenge yourself and stay fit consistently in a Performance Lifestyle and achieve your goals. To do that, we need to develop a resilient  mindset and skills set and that’s what you learn in Performance Lifestyle training and coaching like the LS 365 Training at The Lifestyle Coaching Center.

One of the core essentials of a Performance Lifestyle is eating nutrient rich foods and it is the most successful way to eat, for health, performance and natural weight loss.

About 5 years ago, I introduced one of America’s top trainers  and my new friend at that time, Jon Hinds to eating nutrient rich, when I learned that he was suffering from debilitating hand pain.  He tells his story in the link above about how getting free of animal products not only enabled him to get free of the grip arthritis had on his life, but how it completely transformed his life.

Now 5 years later, a plant based diet is now part of his MBG 3 Training System, which he teaches at the national and international gym chain called The Monkey Bar Gym.

The Monkey Bar Gym is a real up in coming force to be reckoned with in the fitness industry, a competitor to Cross fit, and one of the main point of differentiation besides a training style and the type of equipment each outfit offers is that Cross Fit promote a Paleo Diet approach and the Monkey Bar Gym promotes plant based eating which is health promoting.

Here’s a view video’s of Jon talking about eating a plant based diet to trainers from all over the country. Everyone including those firmly “planted” in eating animal products, were intrigued and started making plans to start eating plant based as the case was made!

It was exciting for me to witness this and talk about it!