Nutrition is a bit of a minefield. Beyond the basics – we’re talking along the lines of “food will keep you alive” here – there’s little agreement on the details, and everyone seems to have his or her pet diet or strategy.

Mix in allergies or conditions (both the legitimate and the hyped up) and you’d be excused for wondering just what the hell you can eat that won’t kill you, let alone make you healthier.

How much

In general, whatever you eat (assuming that it agrees with you) your first priority should be to make sure you’re eating enough. This still applies even if you’re trying to slim down. Dropping your intake below what you need will make you lighter, but it will not make you fitter. You may lose quite a bit of weight, but what you’ll be left with is mostly flab. It’s a mistake some of us have made in the past, and one of the reasons we hate the phrase “weight loss” – you really want to reduce body fat, not weight.

What “enough” is obviously varies from person to person and on the level of activity they’re doing, but eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re done (and don’t go after snacks just because you’re bored) is a nice loose guideline to follow for most people. That’s obviously for people trying to slim down. If your goal is to bulk up, then you’ll need to make sure you’re eating more than the baseline. Don’t just run out and load up on pie and cake, of course.

What

Once you’ve figured out how much, you’re going to want to figure out what to eat. Everyone seems to have their own theories. Some make sense. Some sound a bit counterintuitive. Some are downright crazy. Others make sense on some level if you dig beneath the hype.

Do some reading, pick one you like the sound of, and give it a shot. Just keep in mind that no diet will take effect overnight, so if you decide to do some self-experimentation, stick to it for a few weeks at least if you want to see any effects.

Even if you don’t find anything that appeals to you, you can always mix and match within reason. Take Paleo, for example. It’s very popular with a lot of groups, and although it’s hyped up to the eyes, the basic principle – eat real food which is as fresh as possible – makes sense even if you don’t buy into the whole “eat like a caveman” package. Setting some simple guidelines makes it a lot easier to organize yourself.

Sugars and Fats

In most cases, you want to avoid excess sugar – cutting down on sugar made some pretty drastic difference in our case, especially in drinks. If you think water has a bland or boring taste, try to work out more – that bottle of water will become your best friend real fast.

On the other hand, fats aren’t something you want to avoid completely. There’s plenty of documentation that says that dietary fats don’t automatically transform into body fat. Your body will just produce that from any calories it has left over, and you really need fats in order to operate properly. Besides, if your food tastes like the packaging it came in, your diet plan is not going to last very long.

Oops?

On that subject; you will occasionally break ranks and dig into something which you might consider unhealthy. Unless you’re a solitary recluse living on a distant mountaintop, it is almost guaranteed to happen. It’s ok. It won’t undo any effort you put in up to that point, as long as you don’t let it become a habit or give up entirely.

Most bodies are less like carefully balanced chemical solutions and more like random chemical soups. Going off track isn’t going to throw them off. Coach Devine of Sealfit suggests an 80/20 ratio is acceptable (though not ideal) while you’re getting started (80% healthy, 20% anything else), which seems reasonable to us.

When

When you eat also seems to be a matter of contention. Some say you should eat at regular intervals, some say you should avoid eating before bed, others say you should space out your meals just so.

Again: your body is not a machine. It’s not going to demand food on the second. While you need to get your metabolism going (Grappler Gourmet has an excellent article about this) so what you eat gets processed efficiently, don’t sweat the details. Eating when you feel a need to eat is close enough. It’s not an exact science, and as a first step, getting yourself to think about what and how you’re eating is more important than a schedule.

Don’t overthink it, and be honest with yourself. But not too harsh.

Header image: Good Food Display
From NCI Visuals Online

Mammoths by Charles R. Knight (1923), Public Domain