when we talk about food it's usually in
absolutes there's good food and bad food
spinach is good for you milk is bad for
you
quinoa is good for you gluten is going
to kill you in your sleep could it
possibly be this simple or are we
missing something when we talked about
food as unhealthy as the American diet
has become presently 62% of adults are
overweight or obese our relationship
with dieting is just as unhealthy take
for instance one survey by the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill that found that 75 percent of
American women say that they endorse
some unhealthy thoughts feelings or
behaviors related to food or their
bodies food can be a source of pleasure
joy and it can help bring people
together or it can be a place of shame
guilt and remorse
Jordan SIA is a world record power
lifter and strength coach today he
trains entrepreneurs like Gary Vee and
helps people create a better
relationship with food I sat down with
him to talk about how we can make
progress to not only live healthier
lives but to also enjoy food without
guilt I love to keep things simple
mm-hmm and I would love to say that we
could just create these two separate
categories of good and bad food but
would you say that that's just a
complete oversimplification of food it's
a massive oversimplification and it's
it's a marketing tactic it's almost like
when you look out answer time you have
like the green checks and the red X's I
work with a lot of people who struggle
with food anxiety and with binge eating
and first and foremost more people
struggle with binge eating than they
would like to admit and one of the first
things I'd like to say is if you
struggle with binge eating if you
struggle with food anxiety if you know
going out to dinner with friends or
family on a Friday night is almost
anxiety-producing because you don't want
to ruin all your progress the first
thing I say is you're not alone because
a lot of people struggle with it but
very few people actually discuss it from
that point when we place a morality on
food whether food is good or bad right
or wrong you're setting yourself up for
more food anxiety when you say ice cream
is inherently bad when you say pizza is
inherently bad
when you go out to eat with your friends
and family and there's ice cream or
pizza you're gonna be more likely to get
anxiety about it because you think
you're doing something bad but when we
understand that our health isn't made up
by one meal or one bite you know and no
one got fat from having one doughnut
just like no one got skinny from having
one salad no one lost all their progress
by missing one workout no one got jacked
and shredded by having one amazing
workout it's our health is dictated by
everything we do over time and the more
we can realize that one meal isn't good
or bad one meal isn't right or wrong the
less anxiety we're gonna have a food
which is really what my main goal is to
have a healthy relationship with food so
great we can eat whatever we want
whenever we want and there will be no
negative outcomes for our health because
there are no good or bad foods except
not exactly changing how we look and
talk about food doesn't mean that we're
magically changing the nutritional
components so what does it mean and this
is one of the main arguments that people
will use when they go against what I'm
saying like oh really so you're just
saying like you should have pop-tarts
and pizza and and candy for every meal
I'm like no just because there's no such
thing as a good or bad food does not
mean I'm saying go eat whatever you want
like that's not what I'm saying
what I'm saying is don't play some
morality on it don't shame yourself if
you decide to at your son's birthday
party have a slice of pizza it's okay
but that doesn't mean I'm saying eat
pizza for every meal like generally
speaking to be a healthy individual and
maintain a healthier body weight and
have a healthier mindset like yeah
minimally processed lots of fruits lots
of vegetables lean proteins that should
make up the majority of your diet it's
like the 80/20 rule which is like most
of the time don't eat like an
when you do eat like an
don't treat yourself like an I
think a lot of times too like we need to
think about what our goals are from the
beginning because it's very easy to just
follow trends but we're so individual
it's like do you want to gain strength
or do you want to focus on your body do
you want to get lean right what is it
and I think if we focus on those things
first then we can figure out maybe
what's the best kind of lifestyle to
live what kind of food we should be
eating the health and fitness community
can be a confusing place to navigate
it's overloaded with opinions
pseudoscience and
claimed experts while there's a wealth
of helpful knowledge it can be difficult
to discern what's best for you
and the truth is it really depends where
you're at on your own fitness journey
one of my favorite examples of this for
one person progress might be saying no
to the donut because it's going to help
them stay on track it's gonna help them
eat fewer calories and that's gonna help
them lose weight which is what their
goal is for another person though
progress might be saying yes to the
donut because now they can eat it
without anxiety because I think a lot of
people only look at progress from a
physical perspective like fat loss
muscle gain but mental progress is huge
mental health is massively important and
it's seriously under discussed
especially in Fitness and for me if
someone can have a donut without leading
to a further binge and/or have a donut
without shaming themselves and feeling
guilty and just driving themselves on
the ground feeling like lesser person
like they failed that's also huge
progress it's probably better right to
make the decision consciously than to
slip up and make mistakes and then or
see them as mistakes if we say okay I'm
gonna go out and have a burger tonight
then we can feel better about that
experience a lot of people they'll go
get the burger but every bite they're
like I shouldn't be doing this I
shouldn't be doing this and they feel
terrible about it and they can't even
enjoy it and then when they're done they
feel so bad they like I screwed
everything up so screw it and then they
get the ice cream and they have a whole
box of cinnamon toast crunch and then
they have like what if you just enjoyed
the burger
what if you just enjoyed the burger when
you first get into healthy eating it can
be very easy to place large red X's on
some foods and green checkmarks on the
others but this might not be the best
long-term approach especially if your
goal isn't to just shed excess fat but
to instead rediscover a love of food
without shame or guilt as long as we're
giving our body the nutrients it needs
most of the time as Jordan said focusing
on eating less processed foods more
fruits more vegetables and more lean
protein we can indulge ourselves every
once in a while we can eat guilt-free
while on vacation we can kick our feet
up and have a few beers after all life
can be pretty damn boring if we don't
break our own rules from time to time
our burger is good for you well it
tastes pretty good and for this meal
that's good enough for me
[Music]
hey guys if you like this video you
might want to check out Jordans youtube
channel he's got a great channel where
he talks about fitness nutrition and
everything in between check it out in
the description below and of course if
you want to sign up to be a patreon
member I've got a patreon community
where I create exclusive videos and
podcast AMAs every month I wanted to
share a couple videos that I recently
released that you might like i sat down
with Jordan to get his advice for those
looking to build a fitness routine for
the first time the gym is full of
insecure people like it's really
important remember that and it doesn't
matter how someone looks they are not
looking at you they're looking at
themselves I also recently uploaded
behind the scenes content from my last
couple videos including how I shot the
opening scene for the I quit caffeine
video so if you go to
patreon.com/scishow matt the Avella
again there's a link down in the
description you can get access at the
exclusive videos tear to all that
content plus a bunch of other stuff let
me see how much I got here I got 17
videos on filmmaking and creativity
twelve videos on lifestyle design and
seventeen podcast episodes there's a lot
of stuff this has been we've been adding
it every single month making new stuff
trying to add value and give back to
those
who helped to support this channel and
help me continue to invest back into my
videos so if you have the money that
would be amazing I would love your
support if you don't then don't worry
about it no stress I'd rather you focus
on your finances and if you've got a
tight budget this month or this year no
worries at all thank you guys so much
for watching thanks for subscribing and
I'll see you next time I'm gonna I'm
drinking coffee again so that's good
news for me