How I learned to ditch calorie counting and develop a system to eat like a grown up so I can be healthy in my 40s and beyond. Without obsessive tracking.

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I remember the day my wife called me out for what was becoming an unhealthy relationship with healthy eating.

“It’s been over a year since I’ve seen you eat anything like a pancake.”

She was right.

I was obsessed with calorie counting and macro tracking.

Food started becoming numbers; calorie targets that I needed to hit.

If it didn’t fit my macros, it wouldn’t go on my plate.

In order to break away from calorie counting, I needed to develop a system that worked for me.

One that allowed me to eat healthy without rigid rules and time-sucking measuring of food and logging numbers into a smartphone app.

I was 44 years old and didn’t want to track anymore.

Didn’t want to obsess over every fucking little macro. I wanted to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in peace without stressing over protein.

I decided to really give portion control a shot; to fully trust it and go all in.

“There’s no such thing as halfway crooks.”

– Mobb Deep, Shook Ones, Part II

So I deleted MyFitnessPal … dumped the food scale … stopped worrying about calculations.

And now I’m never looking back.

It’s freed me from the nonstop thinking about food and turning my diet into numbers that I have to hit.

Food is back to being just food again.

Food that I can enjoy.

Food that fuels me.

Comforts me.

Food that powers my health.

And I’m leaner now than I was when I was so fixated on counting all of the time.

My friend, it’s time for you to start eating like a grown up. I’m going to show you how I did it so you can do the same.

Let’s get into it.

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The old way of healthy eating doesn’t work after 40

Think about to that time (or times) when you felt absolutely disgusted with yourself and realized it was time to start eating better.

Activate the “go big or go home” mindset.

The dieting culture had you thinking that in order to change, you’d have to punish yourself.

The carbs are cut.

Calories are drastically slashed.

It’s misery.

That’s what we were taught: Dieting is supposed to be misery and suffering.

It was your penance for years of enjoying too many pizza slices and too many nights vegging on the couch without eating your veggies.

Because if the diet ain’t difficult, it ain’t working, right?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I’m not saying that eating less food and prioritizing more veggies is the most utopian experience ever, but this process doesn’t have to feel like you’re making an epic journey to the hells of Mordor, either.

You are a grown up now. 

It’s time to start acting like one … and eating like one.

Eating like a grown up means freedom

When you develop your own eating systems and approach, you are finally free.

You don’t think about food all day, every day.

This won’t happen overnight, but when it clicks, it’s like a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders.

I eat chocolate every single night. And yeah, I’m in better shape at 45 than I was at 25.

How is this possible? Because I developed a system.

When I overindulged a little too much over the holidays and during a little mini-vacation, I didn’t have that same guilt-ridden feeling that left me wanting to punish myself.

I knew exactly how to course-correct, clean it up, and get back on track.

Let me ask you this:

Are you planning on counting calories into your 70s?

When you’re a grandparent, are you going to be trying to track every bite in your daughter-in-law’s lasagna?

Or are you just going to say “Ah, fuck it” and stop counting without any real method to healthy eating–which just leads to overeating, calorie creep and slow insidious fat gain?

Time to figure out a better way.

Eat like a grown up by asking yourself three questions

What does eating like a grown up even mean?

• It means not being handcuffed by the practice of calorie counting. Including the food scales, measuring cups and smartphone apps.
• Eliminating points systems.
• Avoiding rigid rules that have you skipping entire macronutrients (yes, you can eat like a grown up and still eat carbs).
• It means being able to go to someone’s house or to a restaurant and not freaking out over the food available.

You have a little system that allows you to eat, without overeating in a way that satisfies you and fuels you properly.

It starts by asking yourself three simple questions every time you eat.

What’s my protein?

Starting today, every time you eat, you are going to ask yourself: What is my protein?

Your goal is to include a protein source at every single meal. Including snacks (do your best here).

Protein serves the purpose of:

• Preserving, repairing and helping build muscle
• Burning more calories in digestion than carbs or fats
• Keeping you satisfied (fuller) for longer

We’ll get into how much in just a minute. Just understand that the actual requirement is probably less than what you’ve been led to believe.

The bros will have you thinking that you need to eat three whole chickens, six steaks and at least a dozen eggs per day to meet your protein requirements.

This is pseudoscience.

You do not need to consume one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

The actual science shows that the range is more like 0.7 grams per pound (or even 1.6 grams per kilogram of bodyweight) as the minimum effective dose. For a 150-pound individual, that means aiming for about 105 grams of protein per day.

The extra calories can be allocated to tasty carbs and fats. Rejoice.

See? I’ve already made your life easier.

What’s my plant?

If you’re in your 40s, it’s time to start thinking about your colon.

The number of young adults being diagnosed with colon cancer is on the rise.

At 45, you start getting regular colon screenings. One of the biggest ways to keep that colon all clear and happy is to prioritize more fiber.

To eat like a grown up means to eat your damn veggies. And yes, fruit.

So starting today, after you figure out your protein, you’re going to ask yourself: What’s my plant?

It can be a vegetable. Awesome.

It can be a fruit. Equally awesome.

But what about fruit sugars? Let’s flip it this way: One cup of raspberries is only like 65-70 calories and packs almost eight grams of fiber.

Compare that to one cup of white rice or pasta.

Every meal, including your snacks, must now have a plant.

Try new fruits and veggies. And seasoning is your friend.

How do my portions look?

Now we figure out how much to actually eat.

Calorie counting accurately means:

• Using measuring cups to and food scales to measure/weigh each and every single bite of food.
• Then logging every single bite of food you’ve eaten into some kind of an app. Every single bite.
• And doing the math (or Macro Tetris) to make sure those bites of food add up to some arbitrary calculated number that the app determines for you.
• A calculated calorie target and macro ratio that is not personalized, but rather based on an algorithm.

If you haven’t been doing this, you actually haven’t been accurately tracking. You’ve been guesstimating.

Remember, no halfway crooks.

Skip all of that nonsense now. You’ve got enough on your plate (pun intended).

Every single time you eat you are going to simplify the entire thing:

1) Half of your plate will be assigned to your plant.

This ensures enough fiber and tons of extra nutrients to properly fuel bodily functions.

2) Quarter of your plate will be assigned to your protein.

Now you’re hitting that magical 0.7 grams per pound of bodyweight minimum effective dose of protein requirement.

And if you’d like to cover your bases with more protein, simply add a protein shake around your workouts. No biggie.

3) The remaining quarter of your plate is assigned to your carbs.

Bonus points if you pick more fibrous options like farro or butternut squash, but any carb source is good here.

4) An extra tablespoon for health fats.

Fat is essential for hormonal health and provides an extra boost for satiation (keeps you fuller for even longer).

Make your plate look something similar to this:

Use the 3Ps to finally eat like a grown up

You can take this anywhere. Your mother-in-law’s house. The boozy brunch. Weddings. Buffets.

Now you have a system to eat like a grown up.

No more worrying about how you’re going to start eating healthy.

You no longer have to skip meals or social engagements because you don’t know how the hell you could possibly log everything.

If any meal that is presented to you is not satisfying one of the Three Ps (Protein, Plants and Portions), figure out how you can add it back in.

Order some additional veggie or fruit on the side of your soup.

Slam a protein shake around workout time.

The options are endless.

Play around with it and see what works best for you.

But stop the calorie counting. It’s time to eat like a grown up now.

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.

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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 “eat like a grown up” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete