For many years to follow, a great deal of personal transformation took place. Eating unsustainably, I
eventually got caught up in the vicious cycle of eating nutrient-poor once again. It also took me
years to break out of the weight loss-only dieting mentality, and I didn’t have enough support to
thrive in a culture of so many people eating the SAD.
I cycled through countless new diets, each of which was more plant-based and more nutrient-rich
than I had eaten before. Sometimes I went vegan, ate nothing but raw food, and even adopted the
Paleo point of view for a very short while. But with each of these eating styles—all of which could
have been optimized to be nutrient rich—I got caught up in dogma and distracted by the half-baked
healthier eating styles I refer to today.
What I eventually discovered was that the message was as important as the meal. Many diets
were based on some single facet of a truly healthy eating style, like getting enough calories, or
humans are adapted to eat fruit, or historically man ate meat, but none of them communicated a
complete nutritional message that really made sense. They left too many unanswered, common-
sense questions that are today easily answered when you understand what it means to eat nutrient-
rich. Right here, right now, you will get those answers.
The message is as important as the meal means it just isn’t enough to eliminate or greatly reduce
the amount of animal foods in your diet; to eat less refined foods; to exercise more to “burn
calories”; to lower your saturated fat content; to control your carbohydrate intake; to eat more
fruits and vegetables; to eat a lower glycemic load; to not eat late at night... I could go on and
probably so could you.
All of these and many more are potential attributes of a nutrient-rich healthy way to eat, but by
themselves will not result in a sustainable lifestyle or the results you wants.
Believe me, over 20 years I have tried all of these “single facet” focuses, but it not was until I
understood nutrient-rich nutrition and how eating is affected by other life dynamics that I was fully
able to sustain healthy eating as part of a resilient lifestyle. Understanding why nutrient rich works
is as important as what you do. Having the whole picture and inserting the nutrient rich key will
unlock a whole integrated lifestyle—one that produces the results everyone covets.
Overall, it took me 20 years to make the nutrition transition from eating the SAD, to focusing on
weight loss only and eating somewhat healthier, to finally understanding the whole picture and the
basics of nutrient-rich healthy eating.
Making the switch only took a decision—but learning how to eat in a great-tasting truly healthy
way, and understanding how to lose weight the nutrient-rich way(so that maintaining my weight
wasn’t chance but deliberate), took time.