Growing up with very unhealthy habits, I always thought healthy eating was something you had to try and force, rather than something that came naturally and was standard practice.
I grew up overweight in Brazil, and my favorite foods would be French bread, mayo, cheese and luncheon meat, or condensed milk with chocolate powder in the afternoon, followed by two bags of popcorn while watching Sessão da Tarde (the afternoon movie session, very popular in Brazil). But I didn’t realize that it was making me sick, and by 14 years old I had pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, migraines, depression, and low self-esteem — things a kid shouldn’t have.
When I joined the gym, I first started learning about exercise, and following that, I started learning about food, and that stuck with me. I started learning and realized that you need nutrients more than food. You need proteins, fats, and carbs, and that comes in different ways, but the ways I was having them were detrimental, because first of all they were ultra-processed, and second, they didn’t have the nutrients that I needed, which are mainly found in natural, minimally processed ingredients and food.
To think that 10 years later I would be eating protein with some grain and a side of salad — that would be alien to me, because that’s not the way I was raised. I merely had food to fuel my body rather than to make it healthy and strong. I was just getting by with cheap energy in hyper-palatable foods, forgoing nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Today, I approach healthy eating much more organically and naturally. It’s like using my legs after driving everywhere. We know we have to use the car to go to the grocery store, meet with friends, and do basic things, but the natural way of doing it would be walking, and that’s how healthy eating feels.
My main philosophy of working with people is trying to find what works for them. I don’t have the answer. I can offer guidance, and I can help them get to a healthy diet for them, but I cannot just come up with a “healthy diet” and just hope they follow it. That’s absurd; it simply is not going to happen.
My day usually starts with a nice cup of coffee, and I take pride in making it well, because I believe that if you’re going to do something every day, you might as well do it right. For me, coffee is a great way to start, because it’s delicious, gives me energy and a little bit of protein, and it’s a good routine to get me going. I make sure to have it in a moka pot, add some soy milk and agave, and that’s basically my first food. I know it could be better. I could have a glass of water, which sometimes I do, and have something to eat before that or during, and sometimes I do that too.
I follow with a sandwich with sourdough or whole grain bread, egg, cheese, mayo, sometimes a little salad. But 10 years ago, I would religiously make a smoothie with blueberries, soy milk and banana. I just grew out of it, and today I have a different diet. And, going back to it, there’s no single way of eating healthy.
Then around lunchtime, 1 or 2 PM, I have lunch, and that’s where I usually have more food. I try to have some legumes, protein and more vegetables. That’s usually a piece of fish with black beans, salad and french fries; other days it’s just tofu, poke style. More towards the afternoon, I have some nuts, maybe a dessert, something sweet. And at night I have a nice dinner. It could be some pizza with salad, or a piece of salmon in the air fryer with pasta and a vegetable stir-fry, or sometimes one of my favorites: plant-based tacos with Impossible meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, almond tortilla. Just very simple and delicious.
You see, it doesn’t have to be something hard or different. It’s just natural food, not something coming out of a package — which sometimes I do, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not my main go-to food. I like to cook my own food, and if I can’t, I like to have it as natural as possible and as close to the source as possible.
There’s a lot of flexibility, and I usually eat what I like and what feels good. If I see that I’m gaining weight, I try to moderate a little bit and do more exercise. After studying food and nutrition for so many years, I try to be way more lax with it, but the structure and pillars are way stronger than before. By trying to have natural foods, I exclude most foods that come from a package or a bag, and that usually translates into health.
I do still eat popcorn sometimes. My partner loves it, and she drags me into it. But I don’t have popcorn out of a bag in the microwave. I like to pop my own popcorn and add some butter and salt. It’s way better, more natural and delicious, and it doesn’t have all the additives that these industrialized foods usually have. If I’m at the movies, yeah, I have their popcorn. But again, it’s not a pre-fabricated, rigid way of eating.
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Not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, check with your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet.