Hey hey!
Last week, I tried a new thing on my Instagram handle, which was to post the time I wake up. I was initially sceptical about doing it because a simple rule that works for me is “no phone” for the first hour of waking up or preferably the first 5 hours.
But I know that a lot of us struggle with waking up early and I wanted to see if this was something useful to do. And I’ve had a handful of people get back to me about how seeing that post encouraged them to head out for a run that day or not hit snooze.
If you are one of those who struggle to wake up, I feel you. It is hard. But it is not insurmountable.
On to the 3 things for today.
on radically re-thinking your plate (or) are there 3 macros or 4?
the advantages of not being elite
can I cancel out my ice-cream by running for an hour?
on radically re-thinking your plate
There are 3 macronutrients - carbohydrates, proteins, fats.
Carbohydrates are what our grains (rice, roti etc) and vegetables like potato consist of.
Protein is present in reasonably significant quantities in lean meat and seafood. Dairy and eggs are probably the primary source of protein in our diet for a lot of us. Lentils and legumes are a source as well, even though they are 4:1 carbs:protein i.e. they contain 4 times the carbs as protein.
Fats i.e. dietary fats are not the same as the fat in our body. These come in dairy and eggs - they are great fats. As well as in oils like ghee, butter, coconut oil.
our typical plate
The typical Indian plate consists of a lot of grain - whether it is rice-based or roti-based. This is simply how we have grown - with the grain being the centrepiece and everything else supplementing it.
Depending on socio-economic factors, taste buds, location etc the rest of the contents of the plate vary. There's generally minimum protein and in the cases of exceptions where there's significant meat consumption, the quality of the meat and the preparation mechanisms do leave a lot to be desired.
Fats are also just happenstance. There's a stigma associated with fats which is helpful if we are going to avoid a lot of fried food but unhelpful if we don't have any fats at all in our intake.
Our plate's composition ends up looking something like this.
what's the problem with that plate?
Based on 1000s of food logs and interviews and observations, we've found that most plates look somewhat like the above. The problem with that plate
Too many calories and too little nutrients.
Not enough of the other macros i.e. protein and fats.
And the biggest problem is that we do not eat enough vegetables. There are a lot of constraints around why we do not eat protein in our diets or incorporate good fats. But not eating enough vegetables is a problem that can be rectified.
So, here’s a simple and radical solution - vegetables are our 4th macronutrient.
And if you can ensure that you have MORE vegetables than the amount of grain on your plate - you are sorted!
This one change and I have a protocol for you to get around to this, will make a huge impact on your health.
If you liked this post, do share it with ONE friend or family member please.
on the advantages of not being elite
I think we don’t celebrate being normal enough. Watching the highlight reel of elite athletes and performers, we assume that’s what it always is.
We are not elite athletes who need to perform every game day.
We don't need to show up to training every day and perform like it is game day.
We don't need to play through the pain.
Tom Brady, as an example, does not eat tomatoes because they increase inflammation. Isn’t that nuts?!?! Let alone pizza and beer and all that. TOMATOES!!! That’s the level of commitment and sacrifice needed to be amongst the top 100 in the world.
We don't have any pressure on us.
Except for the unreasonable ones, we put on ourselves.
We can have the "pro" attitude but with enough slack.
80% is good enough.
Eating like an adult at least 80% of the time allows 20% of favourite foods.
Training at 100% intensity once a week and 80% the rest of the time will allow us to have fun, recover and leave a huge margin for error.
Being "normal" is not a bad thing at all.
Let's use the advantages. 80% is good enough for a lot of these things.
Put 100% on the things where you are a professional.
Hope this post allows you to relax a bit more. We have a lot of slack. Let’s use it!
can I cancel out my ice-cream with my running?
If I want to eat an ice-cream that's 400 calories and if running for 40 minutes burns 400 calories - can I run daily and eat that ice-cream daily and doesn't that seem like a win-win?
It is a pertinent and honest question. The answer is always a wee bit more complicated with a bit of yes and no.
If we go strictly by the calories equation, yes. But this is where calorie counting has its limitations. As I mentioned earlier, it is just one tool in the toolbox and using it in this fashion is not its strength. I find it useful to understand our ballpark consumption, our macronutrient splits and all that.
So, that’s the yes part.
At least in me, this just developed a bad habit of me thinking of exercise as good which enabled me to eat junk food (which I thought of as bad) but could not resist.
Our body is one piece. Everything we do to ourselves matters. The way we think about what we are doing to ourselves matters. When we end up thinking of good vs bad, then guilt enters the picture. And that can be unhelpful.
Everything we do is a tool - exercise and nutrition, for example. It took me the longest time to erase this way of thinking from my system. I found that I would need to earn credits (with myself) to allow me to eat what I wanted to eat.
This often resulted in periods of guilt when I ate a lot of ice-cream (chocolate ice-cream is my thing. You replace it with whatever yours is). Some days, I would want to eat little and some days I would want to eat more. But when I looked solely at that day and "Did I earn it today?", it just led me down weird places.
Only after I moved away from thinking this way did it become liberating to eat better and train and have fun.
So, what does this lead us to?
eat your favourite foods.
find your 80%
find joy in lifting weights or whatever activity you choose to do.
And most important, figure out your own system for yourself. For some, weekdays at 100% and weekends being a lot more relaxed will work. For some, 2 treat meals a week will work.
Your system is your own. And it is fine to keep changing it. In fact, as you evolve, your system will evolve.
So, maybe there is a time when “cancel out the ice-cream with my running” will work for you. That’s fine too.
You know best. Act responsibly.
And that’s it from me. Thanks for listening/reading. Have a great Sunday and the rest of the week.
