How I broke away from restricted dieting and calorie counting to find more balanced way of healthy eating for life by asking three simple questions.

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I’ve been obsessed with eating healthy for decades.

That obsession has not always been … well, healthy.

But at the age of 46, I can finally say that I’ve learned how to eat like a grown up without it taking over my life.

I had to pull myself from the throes of disordered eating to get here.

And I’m obviously not perfect.

But, my hope is to show you a few ways that I’ve evolved on nutrition and why simplicity has finally allowed me to enjoy a healthy balanced way of eating.

None of this is pseudoscience—I’m still fully certified by one of the world’s most respected nutrition programs.

I’ve just evolved and refined my systems to simplify this stuff so I don’t have to obsess (er think) about it so much anymore.

Let’s get into it.

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“I haven’t seen you eat a pancake in over a year.”

My wife called me out for being the annoying guy that would always get the damn salad whenever we went out to eat.

She was kinda joking and busting and my balls.

But there was a deeper truth behind the words.

I was basically falling into a common (yet never discussed) pattern among the fitness professionals you see online: My disordered eating was masked as being “clean and healthy.”

There was always the anxiety I’d get over going out in the first place.

You might feel the same way about eating away from home:

• “What could I eat?” I’d have to check the menu before we arrived.
• “Where would I get my protein?” Every meal had to center around egg whites, chicken, fish or steak.
• “Nothing is going to fit my macros!” I’d stress over how to track any restaurant meal. I’d either fast all day to make up for it, or fall off and not track.

My diet was so rigid all of the time that it was too hard to sustain.

After a few days or weeks of perfection, I’d fall into the binge fest when I’d crash hard and eat all the things.

Back and forth I’d yo-yo like this.

I had to change.

I’ve transformed my approach to nutrition

And the evolution has led to incredible results:

• I eat chocolate every night now.
• And as a result I’m actually eating less junk food overall (I’m snacking on fruit more often).
• I don’t eat to comfort myself as much.
• But whenever I do comfort eat, I understand it’s not the end of the world and I don’t beat myself up over it.
• I dropped the calorie counting and macro tracking.
• Now I just focus on eating as many plants as possible without shaming myself about how much protein is in everything.

At 46 years old, I’m healthier and in better shape than I was in my 20s and 30s.

Why? Because I found a way of eating and training that is just simple and works for me.

I’m able to be consistent with it in ways that were never possible when I was so rigid about eating clean and hitting calorie targets perfectly.

My healthy eating now revolves around three core principles

Rather than worrying about the exact calories and macros and how much protein there was, I loosened up a bit and just aimed to eat a balanced plate.

I ask myself three questions whenever I eat:

What’s my protein?

It doesn’t have to be half a chicken anymore.

The research is now clear that we don’t need to aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight like the fitpros preach online (ugh, I preached this for a hot second, too).

The actual science is a much more modest 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram.

For me that meant aiming for a much easier-to-obtain 90-100 grams of protein per day instead of the 150 grams that I was targeting.

My goal now is to just have a little protein source on my plate.

Big or small.

Some of my favorites:

• Chicken thighs (taste way better than the breast)
• Legumes (I try to go plant-based 1-2 times per week now)
• Steak
• Ground meats (chicken, pork, turkey, beef)
• Dairy (greek yogurt, cheese).

But honestly, I no longer overthink it. If my protein for a meal is two of my kids’ string cheese sticks and a little peanut butter, I’m cool.

Some days I’m looking at more like 80 grams of protein; others I’m going over 120 grams. But on the average, I’d say I’m right around 100.

What’s my plant?

I used to have a big ass salad for lunch daily.

Then dinner was another green veggie option as a side (usually broccoli). Fruit was just annoying to track.

And then I realized those greens were hard on my stomach. I was just powering through for some reason.

As I’ve gotten older, I’m really leaning in on the importance of fiber.

Only about five percent of Americans are eating the appropriate amount of fiber per day—25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.

And you need to eat like a truck load of leafy greens to satisfy your fiber that way if that’s your only source.

Fruit on the other hand? A convenient way to snack and pack a nice punch of fiber. A cup of raspberries has eight grams of fiber.

Now whenever I eat, I just try to make sure that I have some kind of plant.

That means sometimes at dinner, I’m eating a side of berries or an apple.

How do my portions look?

I’m not counting calories anymore. But that’s not a license for eating like an asshole.

Calories still count. Even if you aren’t counting them.

Which meant I needed a system to keep my total amount of food in check.

I now use one of two different methods of portion control to make this work.

One is simply dividing my plate in quarters and then filling the plate like this:

• 1/2 plate (or 2 quarters) for veggies or fruit
• 1/4 plate for my protein
• 1/4 plate for my remaining carbs
• an additional tablespoon for a fat source or sauce (butter, avocado, dressing, etc.)

Or I can use my hand to roughly measure:

• 1-2 palm size portions of protein
• 1-2 cupped hands full of carbs
• 1-2 fists full of veggies or fruit
• 1-2 thumb size portions of fats

That’s it.

I eat chocolate every single night

There’s this quote from Bruce Lee about his journey through martial arts. It sums up my journey through healthy eating:

“Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.”

— Bruce Lee

Before I learned about nutrition: food was food. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Then I studied fitness and nutrition and learned the importance of macros, calories, fiber, healthy fats, etc. Food was no longer food. It was science. It eventually became stressful as I tried to be perfect.

Now I understand the art of eating: Food is food again. I’m just eating natural, whole foods as balanced meals without worrying too much about the minute details.

No more restricting fun foods and white knuckling my way through aggressively “clean” diets, feeling miserable and starving.

And yes, I’m fucking human.

When I’m on vacation, I eat whatever I want—within a bit of reason.

Sometimes, I fall off a little bit for a couple of days. But rather than beat myself up over it, I just slowly get back to my way of eating.

But the simplicity of all of this means that I’m no longer stressing so much about all of this stuff.

I’m just enjoying this way of eating and fueling myself naturally.

I can do it for the rest of my life and never feel like I’m dieting.

And I’m enjoying it again.

That’s what I want for you.

I hope you found this useful. If so, I’d appreciate it if you sent this newsletter to one person you think would benefit from my writing today.

And if you’re new here and enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be honored if you subscribed for more at this link.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “healthy eating for life” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete