The 3 Principles Of A Family Diet
This article focuses on the principles that you should follow to create the most effective family diet.
You’ve probably heard of a thousand other blogs that talk about ‘foods you should avoid’. ‘Eat these 5 foods for a million times better fat loss’ or ‘the newest superfood to change your sex life’.
Yes, many of them may help you ‘feel’ better and make small progressions in the right direction. But is it because this ‘new superfood’ was really the biggest contributor, or was it because you became more conscious about a food group that you may have previously neglected?
There are many ways to skin a cat but there are also many ways to avoid getting fat…
The reason I don’t like the articles that focus solely on one or two particular foods are because they don’t take in the greater picture of the principles that make these particular foods ‘head and shoulders’ above the rest.
If you haven’t read any of the Full Tribe articles before, our philosophy is based on principles and holistic thinking, it’s completely how we run our program too. Values-based and for a longer term solution.
There is a great adapted quote from Harrington Emerson, “methods are many, principles are few. Methods may change, but principles never do”.
A very common example of this in weight loss. People claim ketogenic diets, meal replacement shakes and intermittent fasting are the ways to go. These are the methods. The principle is a caloric deficit (burning more energy than you consume). These methods all ‘work’ (albeit not sustainably or for very long in most cases), but all they are really doing is putting the individual into a caloric deficit.
To pair with a great family diet is a great exercise and movement regime. Click here for recommendations for what movement is best for you.
So going back to the ‘5 foods that will make you make you a better human…”, the method may work or it won’t, but what it’s not doing is providing the knowledge of the principle behind the benefits.
We at Full Tribe are going to lay out an easy, simple to implement approach that is going to take your knowledge of nutrition for the whole family to a whole new level. To give you the best family diet.
Here are the 3 principles of a family diet;
Portion control
You’ve heard it before and I will repeat it until I don’t have to anymore. Portion control is the biggest contributor to weight loss and gain. It’s all got to do with the number of calories you are consuming. It’s important when you are very new to this idea that you need to practice counting calories or being able to track portions to get an idea of what you’re consuming. I’m not talking about weighing your food to the gram, but being able to understand rough estimates on how much you should be eating. In the Full Tribe Program, we use a method for a family diet that works from parent’s all the way to kids.
Understanding also that the type of food you eat is going to give you a different caloric content depending on how it was produced and it’s chemical make-up. I’ll go into this more in the next principle and keep it very simple.
Because principles are simple.
No bad foods, only better choices
This is all got to do with quality of the food. I’m not talking about buying the most organic, ancient fruit farmed in the fields of Norway above 2000 metres. I’m referring to the simple understanding of processed vs. unprocessed, saturated vs. unsaturated, complex vs. simple.
The reason I say “no bad foods, only better choices” is the relationship that we create with food. It’s not about labelling foods as ‘bad’, ‘good’, ‘healthy’ and unhealthy’ as this can put them in a position where if it’s bad once, it will be bad for the rest of its days. Eating some cake as an example can be detrimental when you’ve already smashed a few cans of coke and added sugar to all your coffee as you would be consuming an excess amount of sugar in a day. But having some cake for your birthday as a treat at the end of the week of eating really well is actually a great thing to do.
In a family diet, enjoyment and celebration of food is crucial.
In food, moderation is key.
Abundance
Eat the rainbow. The more colourful the range of fruits and vegetables you eat, the more vitamins and minerals you’ll be consuming in return. It doesn’t have to be incredibly complicated; you can stick with the more common choices but ensure that you are getting a variety in.
If you have trouble slipping them into your food and into your kids’ meals, just grate them in and mix it around! A family diet can have a few secrets…shhh!
Eating a mix of proteins, fats and carbohydrates are going to be important for a big and wholesome meal to keep you fuelled for longer and to support our bodies.
(Very) Short Summary of the Family Diet
A family diet shouldn’t be difficult and it sure shouldn’t be thought to just be black and white.
Principles are always going to be more important than the methods. Don’t get caught up in the cooking when all you’ve got is spam.
A proper family diet is going to build long-term growth and a better relationship with food.
Here are some basic and simple recipes for the kids, click here.
