I have a Cheez-It problem. You're not listening, I really have a Cheez-It problem! I have never met a Cheez-It I didn't like.* Some people can't resist chocolate or ice cream, some people it's pizza or some other food or sweet. While I enjoy all of those foods on occasion, Cheez-It's are the food equivalent of crack cocaine for me.
It takes all my willpower to pass up the isle where the Cheez-It's reside on the shelves at my local grocery store. My ever-loving girl friend Kimberly rolls her eyes at me in shear disgust when she sees how weak I am to the power of these little crackers, which draw me in like a cheese flavored black hole. "But you have given advice on nutrition to millions of people Will, how could you of all people be so weak willed about some little cheese flavored cracker?!" she says. I hang my head in shame and avoid eye contact with her for the rest of the day....
The point of this introduction is to point out we all have our weaknesses and we are all human... even me. I find Cheez-It's to be cheese flavored morphine!
This small problem got me to thinking. If there is one thing I have learned after all these years of doing nutritional research, writing countless articles on the topic of nutrition, and working directly with people on their diets, it's this: it's rarely one single thing a person does that is sabotaging their efforts to lose fat and or gain muscle, but a bunch of little things that have an accumulated effect.
There are some amazingly simple behaviors and strategies we can all add to our nutritional goals and workout plans that will have a positive effect. Using my own addiction to Cheez-It's as the primary example, I am going to cover a few of these surprisingly simple yet effective strategies. A few issues to keep in mind:
These tips are more about behavior changes and psychology then nutritional science, study results, or research. I have written many articles based on the later topics, but this is not one of those. If you are looking for more in-depth science oriented information about nutrition, supplements, and fat loss or gaining muscle, I suggest reading my ebooks on the topic and the many free article on my web site.
This is one of the most effective strategies I know of to avoid unwanted junk and various snacks from finding their way into your shopping cart, which ends up in your home, which ends up on your butt!
Make sure to eat something before you go food shopping and you will be able to resist the junk that often finds its way into your cart. If I go food shopping without a good meal in my stomach, I often come home with a family sized box of Cheez-It's and feel like sh*& for days after eating the entire box!
Human hunger and appetite are regulated by a phenomenally complicated set of overlapping feedback networks, involving a long list of hormones, psychological factors, and