Health Fitness Guide

Do you suck at eating?

Maybe your doctor told you that you need to lose weight. Maybe you’re sick and tired of being the self-deprecating big guy/girl in your group of friends. Maybe you just had your first kid and realized you need to be there for him growing up. Maybe you woke up this morning, looked in the mirror, and finally came to the realization that it’s time to start taking care of yourself.

Whatever your reason is for wanting to make a change, you’re not alone! Every day, thousands of people make the decision to start eating better and losing weight…and every day those thousands of people don’t really have any plan or idea what they’re doing.

After all, there are so many freaking decisions to be made:

• Should I follow the food pyramid?
• Should I be counting all of my calories?
• What about “heart healthy” whole grains?
• Should I do this juice diet all of my coworkers are on?
• How many Twinkies can I fit in my mouth?

Fear not, for Nerd Fitness is here! (This is where the Nerd Fitness theme song would play…if we had one).

Today you’re going to learn the basics of a healthy diet so you can stop sucking and start living better. This is a relatively long article (3500+ words), so feel free to wait until you’re on you’re lunch break to really dig in…or just shun your work for the next 30 minutes and enjoy. Tell your boss you’re leveling up your life…he’ll understand.

Combine these diet tips with a fun strength-building routine and you’ll be shouting “THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAA!!!” in no time…or whatever else you prefer to yell while kicking people down bottomless wells.

Note: the diet advice here is an abridged version of the diet philosophies that I present in the different Rebel Guides for sale – diets and what to eat can be some of the most controversial topics out there, so this information is based on my personal research, philosophy, and results along with the results of the members of the Nerd Fitness community who have followed similar guidelines.

The Nerd Fitness Diet Philosophy

If I had to break down the Nerd Fitness Diet into a single sentence, it would go something like this:

“You’re smart and you know what real food is, so stop eating crap.”

You know what real food is: things that grew in the ground, on a tree, came out of the sea, ran on the land, or flew through the air. Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts are all great examples of REAL food.

On top of that, you know what crap food is: food that comes from a drive-thru window, a vending machine, box, bag, or wrapper. If it has an ingredient list longer than A Game of Thrones, it’s probably not good for you. If it started out as real food and then went through fourteen steps to get to the point where you’re about to eat it, it’s probably not good for you.

Use this information and combine it with this mantra: “you can’t outrun your fork“. When trying to lose weight, feel healthy, and get in shape, 80% (not an exaggeration) of your success or failure will come from how well you eat – which is why this point is one of the cornerstones of the Rebellion.

Mental Preparation

Eat more real food, you must. Eat less junk food, you will.

I realize this concept is nothing new or revolutionary, but up until now the ability to actually DO IT has eluded you for some reason – your heart wasn’t in it, you got sick, went on vacation, got bored, or just decided that you couldn’t live without certain foods (SPOILER ALERT: you can).

I am NOT a fan of “diets”, detoxes, juice cleanses, or crash-fads that result in vast fluctuations in your body weight and health. These are the useless solutions that are sold to you in pill form, in MIRACLE DIET INFORMATION ads online, and in super expensive health food stores.

You are smarter than that.

Want to know what I am a fan of? Small changes that produce big results, like my boy Optimus Prime. You need to determine for yourself how likely you are to succeed depending on how many changes at once you can deal with: Some people can radically adjust everything they eat overnight and have no adverse effects. Other people wouldn’t dream of giving up certain foods and the second they go more than a few days without it they become Crankenstein.