Why We Love How To Make Healthy Eating Unbelievably Easy (And You Should, Too!)

Why We Love How To Make Healthy Eating Unbelievably Easy (And You Should, Too!)

• My little brother was very good at a few things
• from a very young age.
• The first thing he was really good at
• was making everybody laugh without trying.
• 
  
• Like the one time I told him
• he should have a little bit
• of protein after a workout.
• 
  
• He got all excited
•  because he thought I said "poutine."(Laughter)
• 
  
• The second thing he was good at
• was eating large quantities of food.
• Come dinner time
• 
  
• it wasn't uncommon for him to outeat
• most of the adults at the table.
• 
  
• Now, as you may have guessed, 
• as a five-foot-nothing little boy,
• there is, in fact, a downside 
• to regularly outeating full-grown men.
• At just 11 years old, I could already see
• that, if nothing else changed
• 
  
• my little brother was headed
• for an adolescent life littered with teasing
• and unhealthy eating.
• 
  
• As his older brother,
• I wanted to do something about it.
• 
  
• As a nutrition, or kinesiology student,
• with an intense interest in nutrition
• 
  
• I knew that I had to do
• something about it.
• 
  
• Initially, I wasn't sure how,
• Im serious to find a way immidietly.
• 
  
• Now I broke my leg while I was
•  walking to class, and I slipped on some ice.
• 
  
• Yes, that is the whole story.
• I was walking, there was some ice.
• Poof, broken leg.
• 
  
• No lives saved.
• No purses returned.
• No cool story to tell.
• 
  
• Little did I know as I lay there
• in that quickly melting puddle of ice,
• waiting for the ambulance to arrive,
• that this moment would forever 
• change the life of my little brother.
• 
  
• After I had a surgery
• to attach a small titanium plate
• and a few screws onto my fibula,
• I was given two crutches,
• and told not to put any weight
• on my leg for two months.
• 
  
• This posed a unique problem,
• as there was still plenty
• of snow and ice on the ground.
• 
  
• And I still had two months left of class, spread out over one of the largest
• campuses in the country.
• 
  
• So, with that in mind, 
• I made a decision that any hard-working student 
• in my position would do.
• And I obviously decided
• to stop going to classes.(Laughter)
• 
  
• Now, with all this free time
• from studying at home
• 
  
• I had finally figured out
• how I was going to help my little brother.
• I knew that what he needed to do
• was very simple in theory
• 
  
• but very difficult in practice.
• What he needed to do
• was change his eating habits.
• 
  
• From experience
• I knew the things that he needed
• to change, and the things that he didn't.
• 
  
• The problem was that communicating
• this through somebody else
• would most likely just end up
• like the childhood game of telephone.
• 
  
• The message gets passed along,
• but with little misunderstandings
• and misinterpretations along the way.
• There's not much left
• of the original message
• 
  
• and everybody's just left confused.
• And my little brother's eating habits
• are left unchanged.
• 
  
• So, keeping that in mind, I made
• one of the best decisions of my life,
• and I decided to move back home
• for the next two weeks,
• 
  
• and make every single meal
• that my little brother would eat,
• educating him about proper
• nutrition along the way.
• 
  
• While I was at home,
• in the kitchen, I often found myself
• awkwardly trying to maneuver
• holding on to two crutches,
• hot pans, and sharp knives.
• 
  
• It wasn't very easy.
• I also had to make sure to take
• little breaks every few minutes
• to make sure that the swelling in my ankle
• wouldn't become unbearable.
• 
  
• Now, after just two weeks,
• not only were the results phenomenal,
• but they were as a result of a strategy
• that anybody can use.
• 
  
• The reason we were able to see
• such dramatic and positive results,
• which I'm very excited
• to share with you later, is that we changed his environment
• to match his goal.
• 
  
• We made his environment work for him,
• instead of against him.
• 
  
• This simply meant replacing
• all of the bad options with healthy ones.
• 
  
• Making this uncomplicated adjustment
• enabled us to easily
• transform his nutrition
• 
  
• from the standard American diet,
• ironically referred to
• from its acronym SAD,
• to wholesome and nutritious
• without a hitch.
• 
  
• Because of the planning this
• wasn't the least bit difficult to do.
• When you remove the unhealthy options
• 
  
• wholesome and nutritious food
• becomes both plan A, and plan B.
• The beauty of this solution
• is that it takes willpower
• almost completely out of the equation.
• Quite simply, if it's not there,
• you can't eat it.
• 
  
• An added bonus to this strategy
• is if there's no chips
• on the counter calling your name,
• it's likely that you'll just
• forget about them
• 
  
• and completely avoid the feeling
• of deprivation all at once.
• Little bit of a brain block.
• This may sound a little bit
• too simple to be true
• 
  
• but I assure you it's not.
• When you remove the barriers
• to your success --
• in my little brother's case,
• unhealthy food --
• and you replace, or you pave
• the way, barrier-free
• 
  
• the road to success
• becomes a much smoother ride.
• 
  
• So set up your environment
• so that it works for you,
• instead of against you.
• This works well for any goal.
• For my little brother,
• I was the environment.
• 
  
• I made all of his food,
• gave him the right snacks
• 
  
• and answered all of his questions.
• But what would that have
• looked like if I wasn't there,
• and how can you make this work for you?
• 
  
• Well, to be successful,
• you have to minimize
• the difficult decisions being made.
• Say, for example, you walk into the lobby
• 
  
• and, on the left of those tables,
• is delicious chocolate chip cookies,
• squares, and everything you like.
• On the right side,
• is fresh fruit and vegetables
• 
  
• vibrant colors, chopped up nicely,
• they're crunchy and juicy.
• 
  
• You've been sitting in here
• for two hours, so you're starving,
• you have a choice to make.
• Should you choose option A on the left
• 
  
• or should you choose the wholesome
• nutritious broccoli on the right?
• Given this scenario
• 
  
• I think it would be very hard
• for most of us
• to resist the temptation of option A.
• This is a real-life situation,
• and it's one that happens all the time.
• 
  
• It's very important,
• because of that reason.
• So when you remove
• the barriers to your success,
• it will just become a little bit easier
• for you to not have to make
• that hard decision
• in the first place.
• 
  
• Here's how you can make
• this strategy work for yourself.
• 
  
• Start off by finding out
• what your personal trigger foods are,
• and make a promise to not keep them
• in your house anymore.
• 
  
• So that when the time comes,
• the decision has already
• been made for you.
• Now, that's not to say you can never
• have these foods again.
• 
  
• If you really want one, you can always
• just go to the store, and buy one,
• or you can keep it
• so that you're only having them
• at special events, such as this.
• Just don't keep a stash
• underneath the cupboard
• if you know that they're going
• to be an issue for you.
• 
  
• That's how you make your environment
• work for you, instead of against you.
• That's how you make healthy eating
• the default, and not the exception.
• So if you have a personal goal
• of eating better,
• go home, find all of your junk food,
• and a neighbor that you're
• not particularly fond of,
• and give it all to them.
• 
  
• The basis of this strategy worked
• for my little 11-year-old brother,
• and it can certainly work for you too.
• 
  
• Let me just finish off
• by sharing the final results
• of my little brother's lifestyle change.
• Let me also just point out,
• that I had one main rule
• that I wanted to follow
• with the change.
• At no point,
• did I want my 11-year-old brother 
• to feel hungry, or deprived.
• Here's how that worked out.
• After the first seven days,
• he had lost five pounds.
• 
  
• After the second week,
• it was eight pounds.
• But it didn't just stop there.
• I went back to write exams,
• and he kept going.
• 
  
• After 20 days, it was ten pounds,
• and, by 36 days,
• he had averaged half a pound a day
• to top it off at 18 pounds lost.
• 
  
• Make your environment work FOR YOU
• If everybody had their environment
• working for them, instead of against them
• 
  
• my little brother's level of success
• would be the norm.
• My hope is that one day it will be.
• Thank you.

Why We Love How To Make Healthy Eating Unbelievably Easy (And You Should, Too!)