Building a healthy diet in today’s world is a true hero’s journey — an epic battle past legions of sugary, fatty, and salty temptations to the ultimate prize of a long life enjoyed in optimal health.

Sometimes, especially when life gets us down, resisting these temptations can feel impossible. There are setbacks, as there must be in any good adventure. But if we pick ourselves up and persevere, the experience will upgrade our physical environment and our habits, taking our diet to the next level.

Having been on this journey for over a decade now, it was interesting to look back through all the levels that shaped the near-perfect diet I enjoy today. Interestingly, I found a nice round total of ten.

But before we start this epic level-up journey, we need to understand the SAD place most folks will need to start from.

Level 0: Standard American Diet (SAD)

Every hero’s journey involves a powerful villain that pushes the hero to their limit. In this case, it’s the SAD (a.k.a. the Western diet).

The SAD is a prominent member of an incredibly destructive league of supervillains I like to call the Instant Pleasure Industry — a multi-trillion dollar behemoth whose business model relies on addicting us to carefully engineered dopamine hits with little or no regard for the associated health, productivity, and sustainability problems.

All the refined sugars, saturated fats, and excess salts inside the colorful packets of empty calories lining the prime real estate in your local supermarket work on this principle. They were purpose-built to send our primitive food cravings into overdrive with disastrous results:

Research finds that poor diet is linked to almost half of all deaths from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes in America. My estimate of the global damages caused by all these highly processed foods comes to $6.4 trillion. It’s truly one of the most harmful elements in our society.

Our mission is simple: “level up” and vanquish this villain.

Level 1: Fruit Bowl

The first level in any adventure should always be a bit of a gimme. This adventure is no different with the first level only requiring that you have a bowl of fruit in your house at all times (and eat it before it goes bad). Make it past level 1, and you’re already in a better place than 88% of Americans!

Ideally, you’d also convince your boss to sponsor a fruit basket at work. Any reasonable employer will understand that the savings from reduced absenteeism will far outweigh the cost of a regular basket of fruit.

Be careful of fruit juices though. Those with added sugar are an especially big no-no. Rather get your hands on some freshly squeezed juice (with pulp) and drink it with a fiber-rich meal so it doesn’t spike your blood sugar.

Level 2: Clean Home

The next level presents a substantially bigger challenge: Keep the SAD out of your home. Sometimes it feels impossible, but remember; it only takes a few seconds of intense bravery to resist the allure of the empty-calorie aisle at your local supermarket or the junk-food drive-through on your daily commute.

Human behavior is heavily influenced by the local environment. And your home is the one part of your environment over which you have genuine control. So, if you can be brave for a minute or two each week, your home will become SAD-free, giving you and your family a guaranteed health boost.

Level 3: Craving Busters

Once you manage to clear level 2 on a regular basis, you’ll likely experience the SAD’s dark mind-control magic dragging you to your car to buy some junk food to satisfy some irresistible craving. That’s what level 3 is about.

The best weapon against the SAD’s mind tricks is a good craving buster. These are healthy, high-volume-low-calorie foods/fluids you can indulge in with no adverse effects. In fact, I recommend setting a rule that you must eat a craving buster every time you find yourself on any kind of snack hunt.

Aside from the fruit in level 1, my premier craving buster is a bowl of peeled carrots in some water front-and-center in the fridge. Whenever I find myself mindlessly staring into the fridge, this bright orange display is the first thing I see. And since it’s zero effort to grab one of these ready-peeled snacks, it usually happens naturally.

Fluids are also very effective craving busters. My favorites are rooibos tea (if it’s cold) or water (if it’s hot) with either a slice of lemon or some chia seeds blended in. The green smoothy we’ll get to later also works well.

Much like level 2, level 3 plays out in just a few seconds at that moment when the craving hits. If you manage to wolf down your chosen craving buster right away, the craving will probably vanish soon. SAD cravings can be persistent though, so you might need to tough it out for a few reps.

Level 4: Home-Made Meals

The great escape from ultra-processed foods in levels 2 & 3 brings our adventure to level 4: replacing all this junk with healthier alternatives. This level is a tough one because the SAD is just as convenient as it is addictive.

Preparing whole-food meals at home is your best bet for passing this level, even if you think you hate cooking. If you do it right, homemade meals really take very little time and skill.

Breakfast is a great place to start. If you make sure you have some (unsweetened) yogurt, seeds, nuts, and berries at hand, mixing them into a healthy and tasty breakfast is a surprisingly quick and rewarding job.

Preparing a daily warm meal can be impractical, but if you cook in bulk and freeze your portions, the time spent per portion can drop below 10 minutes. Here are some ideas. You might also be able to find some local diners serving genuinely healthy food that could save you those 10 minutes at a fair price.

There are many other quick and healthy recipes out there (like my favorite salad). Finding the ones that work for you will take some time and effort, but once that effort is invested, your new healthy and practical diet will stay with you for the rest of your (considerably longer) life.

Level 5: Nutrient Density

Up to this point, we’ve been fending off the SAD with all our might. But level 5 marks the point where we transition from defense to attack.

This level is all about nutrient-dense superfoods. For example, leafy greens like kale and spinach are some of the most nutrient-dense things out there. They can be tough to swallow though, especially if all those SAD treats are still fresh in your memory. That’s where a green smoothie can help. It tastes quite OK and, like the warm meals from level 4, your green smoothie can also be made in bulk and frozen for maximum convenience.

You can also find various powders and teas that will shower you with a range of additional nutrients. Three of my favorites are amla powder (with breakfast), chlorella powder (with my green smoothie), and matcha tea with oat & almond milk (as a substitute for morning coffee).

Level 6: Little or No Meat

The world eats too much meat, leading to a host of health conditions, serious environmental problems, and some disturbing animal cruelty concerns. Level 6 is about addressing these issues.

Although vegetarianism will get you some serious bonus points on this level, reducing meat to a minimum also counts as a pass. For example, meat still makes up a little under 5% of my calories, and it plays a major role in helping me eat loads of veggies. This “meat as a vegetable dressing” philosophy is a great strategy for painlessly clearing level 6 (with a bonus health boost).

Level 7: Banishing Sugar

If level 6 wasn’t intimidating enough, let me introduce you to level 7: giving up everything with added sugar. Luckily, quitting sugar may well turn out to be easier than you expect (it was for me, at least).

Refined sugar is the SAD’s weapon of mass destruction. It works by warping our perception of sweetness so that nothing tastes good without loads of added sugar that destroys our health in a dizzying number of ways.

But the good news is that it doesn’t take very long to reset this broken system to its natural state. Do this, and you’ll discover that naturally sweet foods like fruits become truly delicious, while the occasional sweet treat on a special occasion turns into a magical experience.

Level 8: Time-Restricted Eating

Level 8 happens within an 8-hour eating window. It took me a long time to properly commit to time-restricted eating. But the evidence presented by well-known longevity expert, David Sinclair, finally got me to take the plunge.

Like the sugar cleanse in the previous level, this one also turned out to be significantly easier than feared. My body quickly adjusted to the new eating pattern of unlimited whole foods in the morning and fasting for the rest of the day (although you can also have your eating window in the evening).

Cravings outside my eating window are rare and usually easily handled with one of the fluid craving busters from level 3. In short, there’s no good reason to skip level 8.

Level 9: Home-Grown Meals

Our penultimate level is a fun one: growing some of your own food. Once you start looking, you’ll find some interesting options that require very little time and even less skill.

I got my start with sprouting broccoli seeds for my salad. This requires nothing but a simple little container with holes in the lid (available online) and a few seconds to rinse it with clean water every day.

Recently, I also started to play with hydroponics. It also takes almost no effort, although my lettuce did have a small aphid problem. Of course, you can also go the traditional gardening route if you have sufficiently green fingers.

Overall, it’s fun to be able to harvest my own lettuce and sprouts for my salad. I’ll definitely be expanding my little hydroponic garden over the next couple of years to score some bonus points on this level.

Level 10: Holistic Wellbeing

The boss level must always be the most difficult, and this adventure is no exception. Level 10 requires such a degree of life mastery that emotional food cravings become a thing of the past. The key step is removing chronic frustrations and stressors from your life. And since these issues are normally deeply ingrained, this will most likely be a long-term project.

Next time you get a serious food craving, stop to think about where it’s coming from. Then invest a little more introspection to discover what you might do to remove that trigger. With some patience and bravery, this exercise could end up improving your life far beyond just a better diet.

Final Thoughts

Epic journeys always take time and never play out without setbacks. So, stay the course and don’t be disheartened when you fail to clear a level on the first (or the fifth) attempt. With the right mindset, every (good or bad) experience becomes a valuable guide for informing your next move.

Also, you can take genuine pride in your heroic quest for a lasting healthy diet. Not only does it involve overcoming great obstacles, but it also benefits those you love and society at large. Everyone who breaks their dependency on the SAD weakens its economic might, reducing its power to harm others.

The very best of luck on your healthy diet adventure, and I sincerely hope that you and everyone you care about manage to slay the SAD!