If you’re looking to 80/20 your health journey, then you must start with your diet…since it has such a massive impact on you how think, feel, behave and look. 

I’ve pioneered this methodology for years through my company, EvolutionEat. Here are the major areas you can start working on immediately: 

#1. Take Inventory of a “Normal Food Day”

Here you get real with your current eating habits. Write down on a piece of paper what a typical day of eating looks like for you, meal by meal, snack by snack. Don’t worry about nutritional info or anything like that. Let’s just get real with what’s going on. 

#2. Identify #1 Unhealthy Habit You Want to Change

Common unhealthy habits include: stress eating….ordering fast food every night…late-night binging…never having food at the house….forgetting to eat until 4pm…sugar sugar sugar. 

These examples are by no means exhaustive. You may have many habits you want to change. Start with the biggest one that’s most pressing. Be aware of it as you practice Steps 3-8, and then hone in on Step #8 below. 

#3. Identify Disempowered Relationship with Food 

For example, “I eat when I’m stressed,” or “I eat when I’m bored,” or “I feel addicted to sugar,” or “I don’t know what’s good for me,” or “I don’t put any thought into what I’m eating” or “I feel out of control around food,” or “I hate food and never want to eat.” 

#4. Disrupt Expectations of “Diet”

If you’re like most people, you likely associate “working on your diet” with “going on a diet” (which sucks) and having to shed pounds (which is hard). So let’s start by changing your relationship to expectations and process. 

You cannot improve what you cannot measure, but it won’t do you any good to obsess about how unhappy you are with your body. Stop looking at the scale and instead start focusing on lead measures: the choices you make that influence the scale. (In other words, what you eat.)  

#5. Master One Meal at a Time 

As tempting as it is to overhaul everything all at once, that sort of approach will surely lead to failure and only fuel your already-deeply-entrenched coping mechanisms of over-eating, sugar-chasing, not caring at all, or whatever matches your current preferred poison. 

Start with breakfast, master it for a week, then move on to lunch, and so on. 

#6. Eat an “Evolutionary” Diet    

As far as your diet is concerned, eat what nature provided. If it was grown or born on earth, it’s healthy to eat. Why? Because our genes and physiology evolved through the process of natural selection and are most adapted to be nourished with the food that we evolved around. 

…Avoid (by and large) grain-laden, sugary, processed and otherwise unnatural foods because they make you sick, sad and heavy 

…Eat healthy fats to jumpstart your metabolism, repair your gut, and nourish your hormones. 

…Eat way more protein than you currently are (1 g for every pound of lean body mass) to solve your sugar cravings and help you feel full.

…With this combo, you will naturally come to eat less carbs, which, in excess, are addicting.   

#7. Practice Routine of Consistency 

Let’s disrupt your current eating routine (which is likely all over the place) by anchoring your day with 3 big, nutritious and calorically-dense meals every day, no matter what.

This means you have to put thought and preparation into what you’re eating, where you’re getting your meals, etc. You should know exactly what you’re going to eat the night before. 

Instead of focusing on what you can’t have, focus on “eating enough of the good stuff.” Every meal should have one natural protein source, a healthy amount of natural fat, and veggies. 

#8. Practice Accountability 

Take photos of everything you eat. If you commit to this practice 100% (without having to be perfect), you will change the way you eat. Period. Be particularly mindful of the habit you identified in Step #3. 

This is the just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the work we do at EvolutionEat. 

When you learn how to master your diet in an iterative, sustainable way—your health and body goals become effortless. 

You won’t just feel more energized, but your mood will improve. You’ll have created more stability in your daily routines and flow. Most importantly, you’ll be freed up from all the negative thoughts, judgments and patterns you’re currently caught in. 

#TRUTH.