Want to know a secret about me?

I love to eat ridiculous amounts of pizza in one sitting.

Seriously.

Anthony's Gourmet Deep Dish.  Mushroom & chicken.  Each slice at least an inch thick with all of the cheese and toppings in the middle with what I can best describe as a "smoky" pizza sauce on top smothering everything below it.  The crust is delicious with its whole grain wheat crunchiness that in my opinion is only second in crust quality to Pequods in Chicago.

On Anthony's website it says a small pizza can feed 2-3 people.  I eat 1 small by myself.

I LOVE Anthony's Gourmet Deep Dish!!!!

Now, you may be thinking, "Mike, you're a personal trainer.  Shouldn't you be practicing healthy eating habits and behaviors?"

And to that I say, "yeah, you're right."

But, there's a couple of things to touch on here. 

1)  Nutrition isn't only about what food can do for your body, but for your mind as well.  For me, it would be extremely unhealthy if I completely cut pizza (really, Anthony's, because I won't eat any other pizza) out of my life.  I'd stress about not being able to have it.

2)  80% of the time, I eat "healthy".  I use quotations because everyone will have a different definition of what "healthy" is.  Low-carb zealots would think I don't eat healthy.  As would vegans.  As would keto people.  As would Whole 30 advocates.  To give you an idea of what I normally eat though, for breakfast this morning I had 6 ounces of bison, 2 cups of cubed white potatoes, 1/2 cup of spinach, 1/2 cup of peppers, a tbsp of beef tallow all mixed in a bowl.

3)  When I do eat like this, it's a one-time thing.  This doesn't lead to a succession of poor meal choices and overconsumption. I do a couple of things here to make sure that I'm not being wreck less with my eating here.

                              A)  I make sure that I limit pizza to no more than a pizza night once every six weeks on average. 

                              B)  If I do know that I'm going to eat a LOT of pizza (I always do it for dinner if I have pizza.  I won't have it for lunch), then I'll manage my calories throughout the day.  I don't starve myself, but I definitely am aware of how many calories I've consumed prior to eating pizza.  On these days, I'll typicall fast until noon or so before having my first meal.  I'll have a normal sized (for me), healthy meal and that will likely be my only meal before pizza time at night (outside of a protein shake after lifting).  No hunger pangs.  No stress.  No problem.

                              C)  I do my best to not overindulge on anything else that I enjoy that might not be the most healthy for me.  If I get a burger, then I get the side salad instead of fries.  I don't go with a burger that has bacon on it, and then get the fries…and then a beer….and then desert. 

Living a "healthy" lifestyle doesn't mean you can't enjoy the things that you love. 

It simply means that you should do the basics of being healthy really well the majority of the time (i.e. break a sweat every day, eat protein and plants most of the time, get an adequate amount of sleep, etc) and when you do decide to enjoy yourself you're not beating yourself up mentally or repeating a chronic behavior cycle that is detrimental to your short & long-term happiness and health.