 Question is from Nan Duff 61. How often should you take diet breaks and how long should they last? Okay, so if you're doing everything right, then there isn't a break. And there isn't a diet. There isn't a diet. Yeah, there isn't a diet either. It's just eating. It's like that. It's eating, it's eating. It's like the scene from the Matrix, you know, and when Neo's waiting in the waiting room for the Oracle for the first time. Oh, the spoon, yeah. Yeah, and the kid's bending the spoon with his mind, a little bald kid or whatever, and Neo's like, you know, how do you do that? He's like, I can't do it. And he goes, the key is to realize there is no spoon. There is no spoon. He's like, oh, yeah. That's really the key to proper eating is to realize that you're not on a diet, you know. It's just how you eat. And what does that mean? That means that sometimes you're gonna go to a birthday party or you're gonna enjoy yourself with your spouse and you're going to eat food for the sake of its hedonistic value. Because yes, that is a value for the sake of enjoying it. So sometimes, you know, we just came back from a trip with, we all had our families together and, you know, there were a couple meals that we ate and we drank and the entire value of that meal was hanging out with you guys and the hedonistic value of the fun of eating. When we were at the slope snowboarding, we all had, you know, carne asada tacos and chips and guac and beers, like, because that sounded amazing after riding and burning 3,000 calories, you know what I'm saying? And I'm going to enjoy that at that time and not worry about it. And I'm not taking a break from the diet. It's just- That is part of your diet. Right, and I think how I try and help somebody who asks questions like this too is to understand that doesn't mean too that I'm giving you carte blanche to go do whatever the fuck you want. Just eat, well, every time you want bad food, you eat bad food or whatever. Every time, now that I said, you can have chips and guac and beer, you go have chips and guac and beer all the time. There's moments where I make the decision that then there'll be, you know, three days before that where I'll come home from work and it's been a day where I've been at my desk all day long. I didn't get my workout in this night. And Katrina goes like, hey, I'm craving five guys tonight. Do you want some? I'm like, oh man, that sounds so good, but no. And I go, no, because I know I didn't move all day long. I didn't get my workout in. Yeah, it sounds good right now because I haven't eaten much and a burger always sounds pretty damn good. But I also know that I'm also, it's not a major sacrifice to pass on it. And you know what? I'll have, you know, some taco salad tonight instead. Or I'm going to have the chicken breast that's in the refrigerator from yesterday instead. And it's not like I'm fucking sacrificing a lot right there. But if I feel like it's always on or off all the time, then you're playing this game that you can or you can't. It's not that you can or you can't. It's just, no, I don't want to do that right now. The root of the problem with it is not realizing the total value of food. So I'm going to give you two scenarios, both unhealthy. Scenario one is the nutrition freak, the fanatic. The only value they see in food is the macronutrients, like proteins, fats, carbs, the calories and how it fuels their body. Now, why is that unhealthy? They have an unhealthy relationship with food. They can't enjoy themselves with their friends. They probably have, you know, missed lots of opportunities to develop relationships. They never enjoy food for the moment for the pleasure of it. I've worked with a lot of these people. You see a lot of them in the hardcore fitness space. They're dysfunctional with their eating because they only see food for its, it's nutritional value. Now on the flip side, which is most people, cause that's not a lot of people, but they exist. On the other side, you have the other people who only see food for its hedonistic value. Yes, all the value of food is how it tastes and how enjoyable it is. And you know this because when they decide what they're going to eat, that's what they base their decision off of. What do you want to eat? Let me think about it. Oh, I feel like Mexican or I feel, and it's all based off of its hedonistic value, how, oh my God, the taste of it, the smell, the enjoyment. Now that is a value, just like the nutritional values of food are also a value. But if you worship one and you don't understand the others, you have dysfunction. What you really need to do is understand the total value. So in the example that Adam that you gave, it's like you came home and Katrina says, let's get five guys. And you recognize the hedonistic value. Oh yeah, that does sound like it's going to taste good. But then you realize the other value, the nutritional value. And at that moment, it's more important to you. That's how you develop balance. This is why you won't need a diet break because this is the internal dialogue that you have with yourself when you're deciding what to eat. What is more valuable to me at this moment? Right now I'm with Adam, Justin, Doug and our families. We're up in Lake Tahoe. We're at a ski lift. We haven't hung out together in a way that wasn't business related. And right now what I value is I want to enjoy this beer. I want to talk to my friends. I want to have this carne asada taco and have a lot of fun. Most of the time that's not the case because most of the time I'm just feeding myself and so I'm going to value the nutritional stuff for food. But if you have that approach, then you don't have a diet break because here's what a diet break encourages. It encourages you to go on your diet and off your diet which looks like restrict and binge. That's exactly what it looks like. It's like right now I'm on a break. What is a break? Anytime you take a break, what does a break look like? I'm going the opposite direction everybody. I'm on a break. I'm going to eat everything I want. I'm going to go crazy with the cake and the alcohol and then I'm going to go nuts and then uh oh, got to get back on the diet. What does that look like? Perfection. Looks like restriction and perfection. And we all know how that relationship works out. And it takes a lot of extra calories just to put one pound of body fat on. So it's, you know, you may be thinking right now like the two coronas I had and the four carne asada tacos, that's what maybe a thousand calories, you know? Maybe or so. That's not even enough to put one pound of body fat, especially considering that I'm going to be riding and moving around like crazy. It's the compounding effect and the spiraling down that ends up happening to people when they get on and off. And that's what that relationship promotes to the I can or can't have or I'm on a diet break. That diet break now turns into a I'm going to eat whatever I want because I'm on a break. And then now it goes from the thousand calorie lunch that I'm enjoying with my friends because I'm on a ski lift to the everyday, every meal for the next five days, I'm over consuming and now I've over consumed 7,000 calories. Here comes the two pounds that I added. It's just too neurotic. I mean, people just need to relax. Like it, like all, like for me, it's about seeking foods that I know like the nutrients of it I need. And I want to like get foods that make me feel good and help to promote, you know, like better movement and keep me active and healthy. Like foods that make me healthy. Now there's going to be times where it's not available whatever, I don't want to sweat about that and like hammer myself about that. The more you hammer yourself about it, the more again you get into that, that like, okay, well I'm going to go off the rails and then it just becomes more of this accelerated thing. It's like- I've known lots of people I've known lots of people in our space who are fanatics about their nutrition and exercise but it's such a stressful way to live. And that it's in the fact that they don't have lots of deep relationships. The only relationships they have are with other fanatics. They don't like to go out with friends. They don't like to go to parties. They don't like to connect with people or they judge people for not being as fanatical as they are. And so what they end up doing is harming their health because stress, relationships, documented. This is documented. Scientific studies have shown that those things are as important to your health as your diet. So it's like, you're going to take one and completely destroy the other one. You just traded one for the other. So you might as well eat bad and have good relationships. It's not that big of a difference. So it's really about, look, if you want to navigate in a modern, prosperous world where you have access to all these foods all the time because I mean, let's be honest for most of human history, we're kind of forced to eat healthy because that's all that was available. You know, when you're a caveman you're not walking by a McDonald's or Chinese food. It's like, what do we have to eat? I don't know, go kill that or pick that thing over there. And that's what you can eat. So we live in a very prosperous world. The only way you're going to navigate it right is to have that type of relationship with food. Otherwise you're screwed. You are screwed and you're going to go on and off and you're going to have breaks and you're going to get on the wagon and now I'm serious and oh, now I'm off and it's just going to end up with poor relationship and poor health and the long term.