Prioritizing the 80/20 Rule

Back in Step 1, we briefly talked about the 80/20 rule but at this point in your journey, it is time to make sure we are implementing this to the best of our ability! First, let’s talk about what we mean by eating 80/20 and then we will talk about the why behind it!

What is the 80/20 rule?

The 80/20 rule means means that you get 80% or more of your calories for the day from real food and 20% or less from what we like to call “fun foods” or If It Fits Your Macros foods (IIFYM). That’s 80% of your calories from foods that have positive effects to our health and 20% that may or may not be great options. We have learned from our own personal journeys that it’s all about balance! A whole lot of good and a little bit of fun makes this journey doable and also enjoyable! Do you have to eat 20% fun foods a day? Sure don’t and that is totally up to you!

• 80% foods: they provide your body with much needed vitamins and nutrients that help improve your overall health and fire up your fat burning capabilities!

  • Think grilled, baked, roasted, air-fried, boiled or blackened meats, vegetables, fruit, rice, beans, quinoa, lentils, mushrooms, whole grain oats, raw or dry roasted nuts/seeds, cheese and healthy oils like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and/or coconut oil. 

• 20% foods have little to no vitamins and nutrients, they don’t help us feel full, they can cause inflammation, they can cause health problems and they can cause us to store body fat. Not saying you can’t have these foods! Just try to keep them to 20% or less of your calories for best overall progress!

  • Limit foods and drinks with added sugar, alcohol, foods deep fried in unhealthy oils, candy, cake, donuts, pizza, pasta, fried rice, sugary sauces/dressings, highly processed meats (spam, hot dog franks, vienna sausages)

Why do we want to follow the 80/20 rule?

By following the 80/20 rule you will see your health markers improve. You will see increases in your energy due to all the vitamins and nutrients you are working in and the most important reason is so you can get to the point where you don’t have to track your food anymore! When we lost all of our weight, we did it eating the If It Fits Your Macros way. We lost weight but when we got to our goal, we couldn’t see a way that we could stay at our goal without logging. It’s hard to fit junk in and stay on track! A little while after we got to our goal, we had some family members get diagnosed with things like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases. I personally didn’t want to put my family through the hard times that can come from those diseases so I went down a rabbit hole, reading everything I could find and the majority of the things I was learning is that the majority of those things can be avoided or the effects can be lessened just by eating better quality foods. Because we want to balance good health and fun, we started following the 80/20 rule and our health markers are near perfect, we have more energy that ever and we are seeing consistent gains in the gym! When we were following the If It Fits Your Macros way of eating, we just lost weight but our health markers still were not in the healthy ranges and we were not seeing the gains we thought we should be! When you eat 80/20, the hard part becomes eating enough calories because healthy foods aren’t as high calorie. The effects are always feeling full, rarely having cravings, your energy will be through the roof and you will naturally burn body fat because your body will be working like God intended! 80/20 for the win!!!!