The 80/20 Rule

To maintain weight or lose weight successfully, you have to be mindful of what you put in your body just as much as the energy you put out. A good way to pay attention to what you eat is to follow the 80/20 rule. This is when 80% of what you eat is clean, whole, and unprocessed. The other 20% can be the foods you crave, treat foods, or anything else that might fall outside the "healthy" idiom. This rule promotes healthy eating as something that is sustainable over the long-term, as opposed to extreme diets that can do damage to your metabolism and cause you to actually gain more weight when you go off them.


Part of the rule is listening to your body and your mind when it comes to food. Take a second to think through your decision before grabbing for the cookie without a second thought. If you know you're going out to eat for a not-so-healthy meal later, make it a point to eat clean and healthily earlier in the day. Or if you have a few meals in a row that aren't so great, just focus on making better decisions for the rest of the week instead of dwelling on any slip ups that have already happened and are in the past. 


The 80/20 rule is all about moderation and sustainability, because living healthily is something that we need to able to do for our entire lives. If our diets are too restrictive, there will be no success because we will feel deprived and eventually succumb to temptation. Living somewhere in that gray area in the middle between two black and white extremes can be difficult, but finding balance and being mindful are two keys to living moderately and sustainably.