Written by Jonathan Aluzas

I can’t tell you how often I hear “I don’t know what to eat!? Tell me what I should be eating!”? This plea is generally fairly desperate in tone and the person delivering it usually all but has me by my shirt front.? And the bad thing is that this scene might play out at Arena Fitness, at a family gathering or at a cocktail party.? If it’s at a social event, this missive is usually accompanied by something like “I don’t usually eat like this,” as they balance fourteen vertical inches of chips, cookies, chicken fingers and seven-layer dip in one hand and a bucket full of margarita in the other (to which my unspoken response is “yes you do and I’m off the clock so I really don’t give a xxxx!”)

Tip: Don’t do this to someone in the fitness industry outside of his work unless he/she creates the opening for you to do so.? The off-duty doctor doesn’t want to talk about the rash you have, the socializing therapist doesn’t want to talk about your mommy issues, and the vacationing trainer doesn’t want to talk about how to make your ass fit into your 12 year old son’s skinny jeans.

Here’s the thing:? I’m not buying it.? I’m not buying the story that you don’t know what to eat.? Even with all of the crap floating around the media about celebrity diets and such, there’s not a person around with two brain cells to rub together that doesn’t know that fruits, veggies and natural, unprocessed foods are the best thing for you and that processed, sugar-filled, fried, and fast foods are garbage.? So, it’s not that people need to be educated, it’s that they need discipline.? They need to alter their behavior.? And people don’t like to do that so they keep looking for answers instead of actions.

Well, in spite of my insensitivity, I’m going to point you to a great resource called Spark People, a website devoted to the daily discipline of healthy living.? It has some great information and the calendar they created this month really caught my eye.? It’s a calendar of March with a real-world, realistic and common sense nutrition suggestion for each day of the month.

If you were to actually follow these suggestions, you wouldn’t have to take me by the lapels and scream in my face anymore.? And, you’d probably fit into those skinny jeans, too.

Check it out; I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.? Especially those who like to knock back a cocktail or two (see March 17th).

https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_articles.asp?id=780

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a fitness training facility in Encino, California.

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