Why is everybody trying to make everything much more difficult than it has to be? As a whole, we have worked ourselves into a mindset that if something is going to be effective, it has to be reallllllly HARD or reallllly COMPLICATED. Personally, I miss the days when things were simple. And yes, I realize I sound like an old lady saying that but if being wise involves sounding old, I’ll take it! I have an iPhone of which I only know how to use about 20% of the options. A Pandora account which I don’t know how to create a playlist on. A vehicle that took me a week to figure out how to change the temperature in. A website I walk on eggshells through because I don’t want to crash it with the wrong click of a button and for Christmas, I received a drone from my husband that I still don’t even know how to turn on! These things are complicated and therefore overwhelming. The chances of me ever really mastering any of them is zero. I don’t care enough nor do I want to take the time to make it happen. I like simple.     This is where most people get it wrong when it comes to nutrition and fitness as well. They assume creating healthy eating habits has to involve a complete overhaul of their life. Buying supplements, counting every calorie, weighing and measuring their food or tracking macros in an online fitness tracker. We get so caught up about whether or not we should intermittent fast (and the answer is no, but I will address that topic at a later time). Should we eat high carb and low fat, or high fat and low carb? Are 3 meals per day better than 5? Is it okay to eat past 7:00 pm? Does Keto work? Does Paleo work? What about meal replacements?  

It Doesn’t Have to Be this Difficult!

  While any one of those topics above is worth discussion, they are not what the VAST majority of you need to focus on. Instead, focus on finding simple ways you can make a single improvement every day, that you will be able to maintain for your entire life. When we take on too many changes at once, or we make things too complicated, the end result is we get overwhelmed and stop doing everything. We can’t keep all of the balls in the air, we drop them and then feel like a failure. Complicated doesn’t work. If you are looking to make lasting change, here are my suggestions for where you should start:

• EAT breakfast every day.
• EAT only real food. If you can catch it, kill it or grow it…it’s REAL.
• Do this until you wouldn’t consider eating any other way.

That’s it! Simple, yes. Easy, no. Simple doesn’t mean it will be easy. If you have a history of eating poor quality foods or have struggled with a contentious relationship with food, it is going to take time and work. That is exactly why you can’t make it complicated. When we make small, achievable changes each day, the success we feel propels us into making bigger and bigger changes over time. Life is complicated enough. Your nutrition and fitness don’t need to be.