The More You Cook, The Better You Look

This week T-Nation released a great article titled My 8 “Ah-Ha!” Moments by Chris Shugart. In fitness you consume data, try and test ideas, filter out the noise, make progress, have plateaus and along the way, if you stick to it, you will have “Ah-Ha!” moments.

Someday I might list all my “Ah-Ha!” moments, but for this post I want to highlight Shugart’s 6th moment.

Ah-Ha Moment #6: The More You Cook, The Better You Look

The title of this one says it all, but let me add this:

Since I’ve been flexing my culinary muscles I’ve never once come across a recipe that called for trans fat, high-fructose corn syrup, or any of that other garbage you find in packaged foods and even some restaurant meals.

I had this same “Ah-Ha!” moment this summer. I was upset with food inflation and tired of getting sick, so I decided to attempt a strategy of nutrient loading. The theory was that if load up on SuperFoods then my immune system would be stronger and I wouldn’t get sick. The only way to affordably get those high levels of nutrients was to cook almost all my meals.

Not only did I stop getting sick, but I lost 10 pounds and almost 3 inches off the waist. And I did it without changing my portion size. The More You Cook, The Better You Look. Ah-Ha!