When I hear people say “Everything in Moderation”, it’s basically just an excuse to eat stuff they know is damaging to their health. Those people never look or feel like me either. They are paying the price for this philosophy and I’ll explain why here.

Is cyanide OK in moderation as long as it’s in something that tastes good? How about eating strychnine, as long as you are careful to space it out enough so it doesn’t kill you right away, or you build a tolerance to it over time, or you take antidotes every time you ingest it?

The food you eat either improves your health or damages your health. There is no “neutral” food. The “Everything in moderation” people are making an allowance for the foods that damage their health. Then, they are hanging on hope that the healthy foods they eat will act as an antidote to counteract the damage they just caused. Does this sound like a healthy lifestyle to you?

Then there’s the people who claim to eat healthy “most” of the time and only eat unhealthy “some” of the time, as part of a “balanced” diet. Dr. Mercola has a great answer to this one:

“According to soda companies like Coca-Cola, sugary beverages can be safely enjoyed as part of a “balanced” diet and lifestyle. But what kind of “balance” are they really talking about? In essence, the “balance” referred to here is a balance between poison and nutrition. The idea they’re promoting is that if you eat a healthy diet, you can safely indulge in a little bit of poison every now and then. This is the only balance they can refer to, because when it comes to real foods and pure water — which is the only beverage your body cannot live without — maintaining balance is not really an issue. When you eat real food, it is beneficial and you don’t need to concern yourself with adverse effects like obesity and diabetes.”

The myth that “everything in moderation” is OK was recently busted through the publication of a study showing that eating only one junk food treat (aka poison dose) per day for just one month is enough to trigger metabolic syndrome in healthy people!

I submit that healthy foods can be just as “fun” and delicious and even more so, then unhealthy foods. In fact, I have found that all the healthy foods I eat and the recipes my friends and I have developed (many of them on HardBodCafe.com) are much more delicious than the unhealthy foods I used to eat. In fact, they are so much more delicious, I simply don’t crave any of those unhealthy foods anymore. Those poison food from my past don’t taste near as good as the healthy foods I eat now. Plus, I know that those poison foods would make me feel like crap, so  I just don’t touch them anymore.

I would rather feel awesome and get healthier every day than eat occasional poison and then use “health foods” as an “antidote” to try to reverse the damage. That poison is still going to make you feel like crap – maybe not while it’s in your mouth – but soon after and you know it. You will certainly pay the price in how you feel, think, act, move, your mood, your lifespan, your quality of life and so much more.

Moderation just isn’t worth it.  In fact, if I’m traveling and run out of healthy food, I just don’t eat anything until I can find healthy food. I would rather be hungry for a few hours until I can find something that’s going to contribute to my health than eat some poison just to take my hunger away in the short term.

Start feeding your body with the foods it wants and needs in order to thrive and stop feeding your body with poisons that destroy your health. This means eat real food first! Stay away from the food that comes in a bag or box or is processed with other ingredients. When you buy a food, it should have no label, because it’s only one ingredient and it doesn’t need one. If it does have a label, it’s best if the ingredient list is just one thing. If it’s more than one thing, you should know what the ingredients are and confirm that every single one of them is contributing to making you healthier. I just went through my cupboards to see if I’m living by this rule and I did find some bags and boxes, but most of them had just one ingredient. For example:

• Chia seeds (in a bag)
• Maca powder (in a box)
• Almond flour (in a bag)
• Ground flax seed (in a bag)
• Coconut oil (in a jug)
• Pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, Celtic sea salt (pumpkinseed butter)
• Cabbage, water, sea salt, turmeric, cumin (my favorite sauerkraut)
• I do also use a protein powder that has several ingredients, but I know what they all are and they all contribute to my health.

I had a friend recently tell me she would never be a fanatic like me because she wants to be able to enjoy the occasional hot dog on the side of the street without feeling sick, or a burger when she’s out with friends. That’s totally fine and I never judge people who make decisions like that, but they need to know that if they want to have that occasional hot dog, or occasional cake with frosting, or occasional pasta, or occasional cookies, or occasional pancakes, or occasional donuts, or occasional chocolate, then they have to put up with the occasional health problems that go along with all that stuff.

But actually, everything listed in the last paragraph and in a better tasting healthy version, can be found on HardBodCafe.com! Like the chocolate cake and frosting pictured at the top of this post for instance. I bet you thought that was a picture of something I was going to tell you to stop eating, right?

So am I’m missing anything by being a “fanatic” and refusing to eat poison in “moderation?” Oh heck no! In fact, that piece of chocolate cake at the top was in my belly within seconds after the picture was taken!