What to Eat to Feel and Look Your Best
Coaching
By Nike Training
Try this super-simple system that's 100% personalised to what, and how, you like to eat.
When we think about eating healthily, rule-based diets come to mind. You know the type: "Don't eat this!" and "Do eat that". Often, these diets focus on macronutrients (prescribing how much fat and protein to have versus how many carbs), or they focus on specific foods groups (say, telling you to load up on veggies and avoid grains).
These prescriptive, restrictive diets aren't inherently bad. But they focus on the crowd, not the person, says Brian St. Pierre, a coach at Precision Nutrition, a company that designs wellness programmes for elite and everyday athletes. "Rule-based diets work for some people, but not for everybody", says St. Pierre. He and the experts at Precision Nutrition advocate a different, personalised approach, called the red-yellow-green system.
Red represents the stop-and-consider foods—maybe they're super indulgent, or they make you feel physically or mentally bad after eating them. Yellow represents foods with some kind of contextual condition. You only eat these when you're celebrating, or during the festive season. Green foods are any-time, anywhere, these-foods-will-always-make-me-feel-good fare.
"The colour designations are different for everyone", says Krista Scott-Dixon, Director of Curriculum at Precision Nutrition and a nutrition educator with 20 years of experience. "For instance, I have ice cream in my freezer, and it's been there for six months; I don't crave it. But someone else might crave ice cream so much, they can't control themselves around it. Just having it in the house means it's going to get gobbled up in five minutes, and the person will likely feel guilty afterwards. That's a red light".
"The goal is to continually improve your intake—more greens, fewer yellows and reds".
Nike Training
To begin categorising your reds, yellows and greens, take a few minutes to think about the foods you eat most often—your breakfast, lunch and dinner staples, along with your on-the-fly choices—and what colour those are for you. The aim is simple: Eat more of what makes you feel good, less of what doesn't. There's no perfect or prescribed amount of greens, yellows and reds. The goal is to continually improve your intake—more greens, fewer yellows and reds.
Don't worry, if you love cookies and chips but know they're fire-engine red for you, no one expects you to stop eating them completely. "We only see no-reds for people who are paid based on how they look or perform", St. Pierre says. "For the rest of us, you don't need to be indulgence-free to be healthy, fit and strong".
St. Pierre and Scott-Dixon have used the red-yellow-green method with hundreds of Precision Nutrition clients and found it does multiple positive things. Firstly, it's empowering. You decide what foods go in what category, without anyone telling you that you can't eat one thing or that you have to eat something else to be healthy. "This allows for self-exploration and discovery—what are your personal nutritional needs and what works best for you?" says St. Pierre. While we might know it subconsciously, we rarely take a moment to define the foods that make us feel at our best. "This takes nutrition out of the realm of abstract magical formulas about superfoods and makes it based in real life—your life", says Scott-Dixon.
What many people don't realise is that the majority of nutritional recommendations are based on calculated averages that come from research—the average response for the average individual. So, while we know that wholegrains can be good for our bodies, that doesn't account for the coeliac who has a terrible reaction to eating wholegrain sourdough. If you're someone who struggles with a particular food group, be it grains, cruciferous vegetables, or nuts and seeds, and you see those foods included on a diet's "must-eat" list, it can make you dismiss the whole plan, says St. Pierre.
"As you change, evolve and grow healthier, know that the way you categorise your foods will too".
Nike Training
As you change, evolve and grow healthier, know that the way you categorise your foods will too. This is another way in which the red-yellow-green concept can allow for the kind of flexibility and personalisation that blanket recommendations can't, says St. Pierre.
The consistent theme running through everything, he says, is thoughtfulness. No matter which colour category a food is in, pause first and ask yourself, "Why am I eating this?" Employing this questioning method will help you in situations where there are only red-light foods. You can still enjoy those foods, he says. The key is to tell yourself: "I'm going to make the conscious choice to eat some crisps and cookies, but I'm going to do it slowly, enjoy it and stop when I'm satisfied".
This is what makes the red-yellow-green system so doable. There's no "never eat!" list, and you're not vilifying food groups, which both St. Pierre and Scott-Dixon say is a sure-fire way to make you want to eat them even more. Instead, you're calling the shots and reaping the feel-good, look-good rewards for every smart decision.
Make It a Habit: Make eating more green-category foods part of your routine by anchoring the behaviour to a habit you already have, like taking an afternoon snack. When you reach for a snack, think, "What colour is that for me?" Each time you take the second to ask the question, remember to congratulate yourself. This will help ingrain the habit.
Join Nike Training Club
Get access to our world-class experts and trainers to help you stay active and healthy.
Join Nike Training Club
Get access to our world-class experts and trainers to help you stay active and healthy.