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What are your best healthy eating habits?

People can argue about food forever.

They’ll argue about carbohydrates, cholesterol, vegetables, fiber, calories, supplements, and a thousand other things. One expert will tell you one thing, and the next expert will tell you the complete opposite.

I don’t give a shit.

I know what works for me.

The best healthy eating habit I have ever developed is also the simplest: steak, salt, and water.

That’s it.

No complicated recipes. No counting points. No fake “health food.” No staring at nutrition labels trying to understand a chemistry experiment. Just real meat, good salt, and water.

It’s called the lion diet, and I’ve followed it for an entire year straight before. Not for three days. Not for a trendy thirty-day challenge. I lived it long enough to see what it actually did to my body, my mind, and my life.

It changed everything for me.

My Body Told Me Everything I Needed to Know

When I ate nothing but meat, salt, and water, I felt incredible.

My body got leaner. My energy felt more stable. I wasn’t constantly hungry or thinking about my next snack. The cravings disappeared. The inflammation and aches felt better. My mind felt clearer, and eating became almost effortless.

There was no daily negotiation.

I didn’t have to wonder whether something was “healthy enough.” I didn’t need a cheat day every weekend because I didn’t feel like I was being punished. I ate until I was satisfied, and then I moved on with my day.

For me, that simplicity was freedom.

Most people spend an unbelievable amount of mental energy deciding what to eat. They bounce between diets, chase the newest health trend, and buy products covered in claims and promises.

Meanwhile, my grocery list could fit on a Post-it note:

Steak. Salt. Water.

I’m Talking About What Worked for Me

I’m not a doctor, and I’m not telling anyone else how they have to eat. Everybody has to pay attention to their own body, their own health, and their own medical situation.

But I’m also not going to pretend that my own experience didn’t happen just because somebody on the internet disagrees with it.

I did this for a straight year.

I know how I felt before it. I know how I felt while doing it. I know how my body responded.

That real-life experience means more to me than another stranger yelling about nutrition online.

People love to say, “You can’t live like that.”

Well, I did.

And I didn’t merely survive it. I felt better than I had felt in years.

The Power of Removing Everything Else

Maybe the biggest benefit wasn’t only what I was eating. It was everything I stopped eating.

No processed garbage. No sugar disguised under twelve different names. No late-night junk. No mystery ingredients. No food engineered to make me eat the entire package and still want more.

When you strip everything down to meat, salt, and water, there is nowhere for the bullshit to hide.

You eat when you’re hungry. You stop when you’re satisfied. Then you get back to living your life.

There is something powerful about that kind of discipline. It doesn’t stop at the dinner table, either. When I control what I eat, I feel more in control of my training, my work, my energy, and my direction.

That’s why I don’t see the lion diet as some temporary weight-loss trick.

For me, it is a standard.

It reminds me that I don’t need endless options. I don’t need constant stimulation. I don’t need to complicate everything.

I need quality, consistency, and discipline.

Simple Is Hard—Until It Becomes Who You Are

People assume eating one way every day must be boring.

I see it differently.

You know what’s boring? Feeling like shit. Starting over every Monday. Losing the same weight over and over again. Making promises to yourself and continually breaking them.

Consistency might look boring from the outside, but the results aren’t boring.

Doing push-ups every day for more than a decade isn’t exciting every single morning. Publishing content every day isn’t exciting every single time. Building anything worthwhile requires doing simple things repeatedly, even when nobody is watching.

Eating is no different.

The lion diet taught me that discipline doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes the most powerful habit is the one that removes all the unnecessary decisions.

I Know What Works for Me

Nutrition will always be controversial. Someone will read this and immediately tell me why I’m wrong.

That’s fine.

I’m not looking for permission, and I’m not trying to win an argument.

The question was: What are your best healthy eating habits?

This is my honest answer.

I have tried different ways of eating. I’ve paid attention to how my body reacts. I’ve done the lion diet for an entire year, and it was the best I have ever felt.

So when I want to get serious again—when I want to sharpen my discipline, clean up my eating, and feel like myself—I already know the answer.

No gimmicks.

No confusion.

No bullshit.

Steak. Salt. Water.

The lion diet, baby.

It works for me.

Nicholas Francis
NFA | MDD