The more clients I work with, the more my eyes are opened to the common thread of beautiful humans eager to take their first step on a new health journey, and immediately feeling overwhelmed at the sheer breadth of information and recommendations they are given. To many people, this new lifestyle seems intimidatingly foreign – something they could never begin to understand, let alone adopt in their own lives.

So, to simplify things, here is my #1 Tip to bring you that much closer to achieving your goals:

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

This is the trap I see the most people fall into, particularly women who’ve been caught in the diet cycle or disordered eating behaviors for most of their lives. It was one of the biggest challenges I had to personally overcome in my own health journey, and the most common reason many people have so much trouble achieving a healthy weight.

Meal plans represent the ideal day – a day which, in reality, almost never happens. Life happens. Curve balls happen. More often than not, we need to get creative and improvise when it comes to how we eat and exercise. Maybe we get invited out to Happy Hour with friends and miss our workout, or we get stuck at work and don’t have time to make dinner. That’s okay. It’s healthy to be social and to have other goals and balance in our lives. The important thing is that we make the best decisions we can in any given situation. And if we don’t, to leave it behind us with no guilt or regrets, and with gratitude for the fun we were able to have.

These circumstances are many things – opportunities, experience, gifts, challenges, memories… What they are not, however, is a reason to throw all of your progress out the window. Just because your coworker surprises you with a whipped-cream-smothered frappuccino in the morning doesn’t mean you might as well eat whatever you want for the remainder of the day, “and start fresh tomorrow”. The reality is the damage that could be done by binging out for the rest of the day far outweighs the miniscule dent made by that frozen coffee treat (which, although not ideal, would probably make no real difference at all, in the grand scheme of things).

There is no bigger enemy to progress than an all-or-nothing mindset. You would not empty your entire bank account just because you spent $10 more dollars than you meant to, would you?

We all want the perfect, nutritionist-designed, Tupperware-meal-prepped day. But we probably won’t get it. Life isn’t perfect. And neither are we. Life is not all-or-nothing, black-or-white, triumph-or-disaster. True, lasting progress happens in the middle, when we are just doing our best, learning to surf the waves rather than being drowned by them.

Here are a few Emergency Hacks to help get you through those shades of grey:

• If you don’t have time to meal-prep elaborate Buddha Bowls or bake homemade protein muffins, just grab a bunch of raw, prep-free foods to snack on throughout the day. Whole cucumber, carrots, apples, avocado, watermelon, and nuts are some of my favourites. They take zero time to prepare and will bring you way closer to your goals than that lunchroom donut will.
• Rather than going through a drive-through or hitting up a food court, make a pit stop at the nearest grocery store and pick up a pre-made salad, protein bar, smoothie, sushi or veggie tray.
• If you must eat out, know that it’s possible to make healthy decisions just about anywhere you go. Some great options are: a 6-inch Veggie Sub from Subway, Egg-White Breakfast Sandwich or Protein Bowl from Starbucks, most smoothies or fresh-pressed juices from a smoothie bar so long as they don’t contain too much sugar, and veggie sushi, so long as you avoid tempura and mayonnaise-based sauces.

Confused about coffee? You’re not alone. In our diet-obsessed culture, we like to label foods as “good” or “bad”. But food (especially food that comes from the earth) is just food. It has a diverse blend of phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients that is designed by nature, for nature. Not for your personal health and fitness goals. This means that these foods contain a unique blend of properties, some of which are beneficial, and some detrimental, depending on your body’s needs.

Coffee is brewed from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the coffea plant. Besides being rich in antioxidants, these beans have been shown to improve circulation and liver function. They also boost fat-burning and physical performance, serving as a healthy alternative to preworkout supplements. Coffee may benefit heart health, prevent diabetes, and have anti-cancer properties, studies show. It also supports cognitive function, and has even been studied extensively as a natural treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

We have records of coffee-drinking dating back to the 15^th century. In Chinese medicine, it’s been used to stimulate the liver, regulate menstruation, and prevent gallstones. So, no, it’s not a poisonous devil-drink. But it does have some downsides.

For example, it’s very acidic. So if you are someone with digestive issues, or one of your goals is to keep your body as alkaline as possible, you might want to skip it. It also stimulates peristalsis – the contractions that move food through the digestive tract – which is why you may feel like your morning cup of coffee helps keep you regular. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your personal preferences and your digestive health.

A “healthy” amount of caffeine can vary anywhere from 150 mg all the way up to 500 mg per day, depending on the individual. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others. It’s important to pay attention to how it makes you feel, and adjust accordingly. Caffeine stimulates the release of cortisol, a stress hormone. It also has the ability to impact neurotransmitter function and nerve signals. This can be taxing for the adrenal glands, and may exacerbate mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

How do you know how much (if any) coffee is right for you? A good way to tell is to stop drinking it for one week. See how you feel. Caffeine is a stimulant, and can have addictive properties. If you experience headaches, fatigue, brain fog, or irritability when you don’t get your “fix”, this means that your body has become dependent on caffeine, and is no longer producing the proper hormones for energy and balance on its own. Another way to tell is to ask yourself why you drink coffee. Is it because you enjoy the taste, or just like a warm beverage in the morning? Or are you using coffee to mask underlying fatigue, sleep problems, or stress? If this is the case, it might be time to switch to tea or a coffee alternative, and get some much-needed rest.

There are some people for whom caffeine is never recommended, such as people with severe digestive problems, anxiety, manic-depressive disorder, insomnia, ADHD, hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue, and children and pregnant women. The bottom line is that every “body” is different. The decision to include coffee in your daily routine is very personal. It’s important to listen to your body, learn how it responds to caffeine, and recognize when you’ve had too much.

Like any other stimulant, it’s possible to abuse caffeine. It’s also possible to enjoy it, in moderation, as a healthy addition to a balanced, well-rounded diet and lifestyle. If you do drink coffee, some good general rules to follow are to avoid adding too much dairy or sugar, and to buy organic as often as possible, as coffee beans are a heavily sprayed crop.

Let’s talk about soy.

Soy foods have been the subject of controversy for decades now. Put very simply, some medical research has produced concerns about the phytoestrogens in soy and how these might affect human hormones, even linking them to increased rates of breast and prostate cancer. And these studies are valid. However, much of this research does not distinguish between natural and organic soy foods and genetically modified soy products. And there is a very big difference; while processed and genetically-modified soy foods do pose a wide range of dangers, organic and fermented soy are not only safe but also provide a variety of health benefits.

Soybeans have a high phytoestrogen content. What are phytoestrogens? These are natural plant hormones that mimic estrogen in the body. For some people, these estrogens may help balance their hormones, particularly for women in their menopausal years. Others, such as women with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, or people with low thyroid function, should be cautious with their soy intake. Most people with hypothyroidism can drink up to 1 cup of organic soy milk daily without negative consequences. It is important to keep in mind that, unlike soy milk (which contains phytoestrogens), cow’s milk contains very high levels of REAL estrogen, which definitely does disrupt human hormones and poses a far greater risk of hormone-related cancers than do soy products. Phytoestrogens also play a beneficial role in helping the body deal with excessive toxins, as they attach to estrogen receptor sites, blocking harmful xenoestrograns (chemical estrogen mimickers such as BPA that are known to cause hormonal imbalances).

Don’t forget that Asian cultures have been consuming soy foods for millennia, and studies have shown that these populations live longer and have lower rates of cancer than North Americans. In one study, researchers found that daily intake of miso (a fermented soybean paste) was linked to lower death rates from stomach cancer in more than 260,000 Japanese men and women. The main difference, of course, is that these populations are consuming largely fermented, non-GMO soy. During the fermentation process, “anti-nutrient” levels in soybeans are reduced, and their beneficial properties become more available to the digestive system. A notable benefit of fermented soy, particularly natto, is that it is a very good source of Vitamin K2, which is important for blood clotting, preventing cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, dementia, and certain types of cancer.
Isoflavone aglycones are anti-carcinogenic substances found in traditionally fermented soybean products. In non-fermented soy products, however, such as tofu and soy milk, these isoflavones are present in an altered form which has no anti-carcinogenic effect. Furthermore, soybeans contain large amounts of beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids, which are susceptible to rancidity when subjected to high pressures and temperatures, such as happens in processed and refined soy foods.

The unfortunate reality of our modern North American food system is that over 90% of the soy we have access to is genetically modified. Besides these plants being loaded with toxic pesticides, they also contain genes from bacteria that produce a protein that has never before been part of the human food supply. Refined and processed soy foods like soy protein isolate are subjected to a high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion process to produce something called Textured Vegetable Protein (or TVP). Numerous artificial flavourings, particularly MSG, are often added to TVP products to mimic the flavour of meat. These soy products greatly inhibit zinc and iron absorption, may cause enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increase deposition of fatty acids in the liver.

The bottom line is that soy is neither good or evil. It’s just food. And like all food, it is healthy in its most natural form, and unhealthy when it is adulterated. We should always do our best to avoid refined, processed and genetically modified foods of any kind whenever possible, as these pose a wide variety of dangers and long-term health consequences which are still largely unknown. Humans have been eating organic and fermented soy foods for thousands of years with little-to-no health issues and many benefits. It all comes down to eating real, whole plant foods, eating the way our great grandparents did – as close to nature as possible.