Episode 205: Healthy, Not Hellish- Eating Smarter Without Hating Life

Jonathan Ressler

Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast where we take all the confusing, contradictory and downright useless diet advice floating around out there, light it on fire and then replace it with something that actually makes sense and, thatright, useless. The light’s floating around out there, light it on fire and then replace it with something that actually makes sense and that actually works.

If you’ve been following me, you know I have been gone for the last two weeks. I had some personal family business that I’d take care of and I had to do what was most important and that was taking care of that business.

But that actually made me think. That made me think about today’s episode and what I wanted to talk about.

So if you’re new here, I want to say welcome. If you’ve been here before, you already know what’s coming the truth, with no sugarcoating, probably a few curse words that your nutritionist would definitely frown at.

But today I want to talk about healthy eating habits.

And no, I’m not talking about the influencer-approved bullshit where your fridge is like color-coded and you eat six times a day out of a special glass container and your grocery bill looks like a car payment.

I’m talking about real habits and we’re also going to talk about a couple other things and you’ll see why this makes sense, that I was gone for two weeks and why this inspired this episode.

So I want to talk about real habits, the kind that real people people with jobs and kids and bills and stress and cravings, and actual fucking lives can build and keep without losing their mind.

Because here’s the deal Most of what we’ve been told about healthy eating is either wildly unrealistic or completely disconnected from real life.

You’ve got diet culture screaming at you to eat clean or cut carbs, avoid sugar fast until noon, track every morsel, drink your weight in water and somehow still make meals that actually look like Pinterest boards, and people wonder why no one can stick to anything for more than two weeks.

Let’s be real If you’re trying to survive on chicken breasts, steamed broccoli and motivational quotes alone, of course you’re going to end up face first in a bag of Doritos by Saturday night.

That’s what happens when we chase perfection instead of progress.

And, as you know, I’ve been there. I’ve played the game. I’ve done the extreme diets, the 30-day resets. Let’s cut everything fun and call it wellness plans, and every time it ends up pretty much the same way I’m exhausted, frustrated and right back to where I started and, in most cases, usually heavier than when I started.

So in today’s episode, we’re going to throw that whole perfection mindset away and talk about how to build habits that don’t suck.

Habits you can actually stick with long enough to see results not for a few weeks, not until your high school reunion you know those bullshit goals but for life.

We’re going to get into why most people fail at building habits, and I’m going to give you a hint it’s not because you suck, it’s because your strategy sucks.

How to start small without feeling like you’re not doing enough, why healthy doesn’t mean being miserable, and how to make eating well a normal, automatic part of your day, like brushing your teeth, I guess with more protein, though.

So if you ever felt like you’re either on a plan or completely off the rails, if you ever started monday with green juice and end the friday night with pizza and self-loathing, this episode is 100% for you.

Because it is not about shame and it’s not about guilt, and it’s definitely not about being perfect.

It’s about making better, small, smart choices more often and building a life that feels good, not one that feels like punishment.

So get ready. It’s time to stop overthinking, to stop overcomplicating shit and start building real, sustainable, healthy eating habits that can actually fit into your life, not someone else’s life your life.

So let’s just call this what it is.

Most people treat healthy eating like a hostage situation.

Like a hostage situation, they go from eating whatever the fuck they want to pizza, soda, random handfuls of cereal, donuts, to suddenly deciding that starting Monday, they’re a new person, a better person, a person who eats nothing but grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and a sad little container of quinoa that tastes like shit soaked in regret.

So they think, okay, I’m gonna start drinking water with lemon, skip dessert and walk around with a reusable water bottle like it’s a new appendage.

By Wednesday, they’re white-knuckling their way through cravings.

By Thursday, they’re fantasizing about bread like it’s a porno.

And by Friday night they’re face-deep in the pizza box wondering what the fuck happened again.

And if that sounds familiar to you, you’re in the right place. It sounds familiar to me.

I always say I’ve been on over 100 diets and I succeeded on them all, and then I ultimately failed.

As you know, I’ve lost over 140 pounds and kept it off for over two years, doing small, smart choices, by not beating myself up, by not being perfect by knowing that I’m a fucking human being.

And that’s why most people fail on everything else because they go all in on habits that aren’t realistic, they’re not enjoyable and they’re sure as shit not sustainable.

They make every single change all at once, thinking they’ll willpower their way to a new body.

You can’t treat it like a sprint, a detox, a 30-day punishment camp.

You expect to get long-term results from short-term suffering.

It just doesn’t work that way, sorry.

So let me make this painfully clear for you If your healthy habit makes you miserable, it’s not sustainable, it’s fucking stupid.

And before anybody comes at me with that bullshit no pain, no gain. I’m not saying the change should be completely effortless.

I’m saying it should be doable every day without losing your fucking mind in the process.

Look, I get it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the trap of thinking healthy eating has to be extreme, and we’ve been conditioned by social media and the diet culture to believe that we’re not suffering. We’re not doing it right.

I’m guilty as charged. I mean I used to believe that. I suffered through hundreds of diets.

We think that we have to cut carbs or count every macro, prep every meal, skip happy hour, apple cider vinegar, avoid fruit, track every calorie, and then we have to have the willpower of a buddhist to stay on track.

But here’s the truth that no one’s telling you.

You don’t need perfect habits, you need consistent ones.

You don’t have to eat clean 100% of the time.

You don’t have to cook every meal from scratch.

You don’t have to live off fucking green juice and air.

What you need to do is show up most of the time and make better, small, smart choices more often.

That’s it.

That’s what actually works.

Eating better doesn’t mean overhauling your life overnight.

It means making small, smart choices that fit into your schedule, into your budget and, honestly, your taste buds, so you can actually stick with them.

It means learning how to eat like a fucking grownup without treating food like it’s a moral test.

Because here’s what happens when you try to be perfect.

You burn out.

Then you binge.

Then you beat yourself up.

Then you start over Monday.

And then you repeat that cycle for months, for years, for your whole life.

And all while you convince yourself that you just don’t have enough discipline or willpower to lose the weight.

But the truth is it’s not you.

It’s the plan.

It’s the toxic idea that healthy eating has to suck.

That it has to be boring.

That it has to be bland.

That it has to be restrictive.

That it means saying no to everything you enjoy and white-knuckling your way through life just to fit into a smaller pair of pants.

Let me be the one to break that bullshit for you.

Healthy eating should fit into your life, not take over your life.

It should make you feel better, not worse.

It should give you energy and not drain it.

And yeah, it should still leave room for pizza and wine, chocolate, donuts and the occasional greasy bacon, egg and cheese sandwich when you’re hung over and questioning your life choices.

The key is finding the balance point where your habits support your goals without turning your life into a never-ending episode of nutritional survivor.

You want to know what real, sustainable healthy eating looks like.

It looks like consistency over chaos.

It looks like building habits that are so normal people barely even notice them.

I said that when I started this journey of losing all this weight, people didn’t even know I was on a diet.

I would just eat.

I wasn’t meal prepping and doing all kinds of crazy shit.

It looks like ordering grilled chicken instead of the fried one, not because you have to, but because you want to feel better later.

It’s about choosing meals that serve your goals most of the time.

Hear that.

Most of the time.

And also knowing that one meal won’t make or break you.

I get it.

That’s not sexy.

It’s not flashy.

It’s not great for Instagram.

But it’s the shit that actually works.

And it works because it doesn’t rely on willpower or perfection.

It relies on systems, simplicity and choices you can repeat without losing your fucking mind.

So if your current version of healthy eating feels like suffering, here’s a newsflash.

That’s not health.

That’s a punishment plan in disguise.

So let it go.

Let’s build something better.

Start small.

Start real.

Start now.

And for the love of carbs, stop trying to change everything at once.

So let’s talk about the changes that actually stick.

Because let’s be honest, most of you out here trying to build your new healthy lifestyle like it’s a Netflix documentary montage.

Day one, you clean out your pantry.

Day two, you meal prep like a contestant on Top Chef.

Day three, you’re posting your green smoothie with a motivational quote about discipline.

By day five, you’re in a fucking Chick-fil-A line ordering fries with extra sauce, wondering what the fuck happened.

And what happened is simple.

You went too big, too fast.

You tried to do everything all at once.

You replaced your old habits with aspirations and not systems.

Aspirations are fine.

But they don’t get you through a stressful Tuesday when your kid is melting down or your inbox has 9,700 messages or you haven’t taken a piss in six hours.

So let’s flip the script.

Let’s talk about the real secret to building healthy eating habits.

It’s simple.

It’s small, stupid changes.

Yeah, I said it.

Small, stupid changes.

Start stupid.

Small.

So small it almost feels pointless.

Because that’s how habits work.

Not with grand gestures.

But with small, repeatable actions that compound over time.

You want to know what a good day one looks like.

Honestly.

Swapping your afternoon soda for flavored water.

Adding a protein source to your breakfast.

Eating one vegetable today.

Not five.

Just one.

Not eating dinner over the sink like a fucking animal.

Guilty.

And that’s it.

That’s the kind of stuff that creates actual momentum.

Because you don’t need to earn your way into health by suffering.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire personality.

You just need to stop eating like a fucking freshman in college with a vending machine addiction.

And start making decisions that feel slightly better than yesterday’s.

My whole thing is about small, smart choices.

And small changes are powerful because they’re doable.

And doable means repeatable.

And repeatable is what gets you results.

We’ve been brainwashed to believe that small equals weak.

We want results now.

We want dramatic before and after photos.

We want the Instagram story.

But the reality is you’re still going to wake up tomorrow and crave junk food.

And hate your alarm clock.

And wonder why your jeans fit weird.

But you’ll have made one better decision.

And then another.

And another.

And that’s where it starts.

Let me give you an example.

If your normal lunch is a fast food combo meal, keep the burger and skip the fries.

Or keep the fries and add water instead of soda.

One change.

That’s it.

Those small tweaks are gateway habits.

They lead to bigger changes without forcing them.

You don’t need 37 new rules.

You need one small rule you can follow for the next seven days.

Big changes look sexy.

But they crumble fast.

Small changes slip into your routine.

And one day you wake up and realize you’re living like a healthy person.

Not because you forced it.

But because you became it.

I always use the example of overnight oats.

I had them one day.

Then another.

And before I knew it, it was just what I did.

So if you’re still trying to detox or cut out everything fun.

Stop it.

You don’t need to do more.

You need to do less.

But do it better.

Repeatable beats impressive.

Simple beats extreme.

Small smart choices beat doing nothing.

If your changes feel too easy to matter.

Good.

That means you’re finally doing it right.

Perfection is a fucking lie.

Flexibility wins.

You will fuck up.

Get over it.

You’re human.

The goal isn’t perfection.

It’s consistency.

The people who win aren’t perfect.

They just don’t quit.

So if you’ve stuck with me this far.

You already know what to do.

Shut up.

And choose.