In this interview, Dr. Chuck and Alan Winters of Vigaroom discuss simple steps that people can take in their diet and everyday life to improve their overall health.
Simple Steps to a Heathy Lifestyle
It’s no secret that the average person probably doesn’t have the most nutritional diet nowadays. With processed, packaged foods being the norm and fast food restaurants offering quick options for our busy lifestyles, most Americans’ diets are comprised of highly processed foods filled with chemicals and preservatives to give them a longer shelf life. Unfortunately those chemicals don’t give us a longer shelf life, quite the opposite in fact. To discuss this, Dr. Chuck sat down with health and wellness coach Alan Winters, the co-founder of Vigoroom, to share his story and the simple steps he took to a healthy lifestyle.
“My story of getting healthy actually starts when I’m about 16 years old,” Winters says. “I’m a really scrawny kid. I’m about 5’7″, Chuck, I barely weigh a 120lbs. My mother takes in my pants- and they’re slim to begin with,” he humorously shares. The first thing Winters did was get active, “I really get passionate about swimming, and I got it from my dad who was a pretty active swimmer. And, I started in to the degree that once I start, I can’t stop. Which teaches me this lesson when it comes to some lifestyle and behavioral issues.” From this, Winters shares what he learned, “Once you get a habit, a good habit, it’s more painful not to do that thing that you have got in the habit of doing than it is to do it, which is kind of the reverse way people see some of these healthy life style things.”
So what good habits did Winters learn from this? The answer was simple: clean eating.
“What is clean eating? You just eat real food, like real food, like it’s not in a package, it’s not macrobiotic, it’s not organic, you know, it’s just real food,” Winters explains. “I look at it really simple, 80% of the time you should eat food that is recognizable. That would include fruit, can be meat and cheese. It’s not limited to like restrictive diets, but it should be real food. So, I always say if you look at something that’s in a package and you don’t know some of those ingredients because they’re long chemical names, you probably should avoid it. If I have a glass of milk, it probably is just milk. If I have a steak, it’s a steak. If I have chicken- again as long as it’s not filled with antibiotics- it’s fine, or eating vegetables is fine.” Another thing Winters emphasizes is cooking. “Cooking is a good thing! Cooking means you know the ingredients that are involved with what you’re going to eat.”
In addition to paying attention to what kinds of food we put into our bodies, it’s also important to be mindful of the amount of food we put in as well. One thing many of us are guilty of, especially during the holidays, is overeating.
“I grew up in a family where my mom said to my brother, and my brother is a cardiologist in Georgia, she said to Craig and I: ‘clean your plates because children are starving in Asia,'” Winters shares. “Now, if you’ll look at it, Chuck, it’s kind of funny. By my finishing my food, starving children in another country will be better off. It makes no sense, right?” Winters humorously remarks. And he’s not the only one who’s heard this growing up, many of us are told as kids that we need to “clean our plates.” Which if you’re trying to get a growing child to eat their vegetables is fine; however, this often carries on into adulthood as a habit of overeating. “Let’s face it, weight management is such a huge issue and tied to so many other bad health issues. If everybody just got sensitive to the fact that ‘I’m full enough. Even though there’s more over there I could take, I’m actually pretty satisfied, and that’s good for leftovers for tomorrow. In fact, I could freeze that and enjoy that next week or next month,'” Winters says. “It’s really basic stuff. It’s also stuff it’s not hard to get in the habit of, I’m full enough. I ate real food and I’ll make enough that I’ll freeze some and I’ll have it another day.”
So what are the takeaways from this?
Eat real food – Avoid foods that are highly processed and filled with chemicals.
80/20 rule – Eat real, nutritious food at least 80% of the time. It’s ok to cheat from time to time (20%), but for the most part eat real food.
Don’t overeat – Listen to your body when it feels full, do not eat to the point of being stuffed just because there is still food on your plate. Package it up for leftovers that can be eaten at another time. Also, wait 20 minutes after eating before getting a second portion; that’s how long it takes your body to realize its full.
By following these simple steps, you can be on the right track to a healthy lifestyle.
For more health and wellness tips from Alan Winters, click the button below to check out his website Vigoroom.
For more devotionals with Dr. Chuck, register by clicking the button below.
For more Spoonfuls of Courage, check out Dr. Chuck’s show Spoonful of Courage TV or buy the books A Spoonful of Courage for the Sick and Suffering: Transforming Your Greatest Challenges into Your Biggest Blessings and Spoonful of Courage: Equations to Find Grace in Life’s Challenges on Amazon.
