I haven’t talked yet about food yet because it is such a big topic. What should be so simple has become quite complicated and confusing for most people.
I want to eat things that are good for me, taste good, are affordable, hasn't been caused unnecessary cruelty and don’t destroy the planet in the process. Health is my profession and yet admittingly I can struggle to hit all those targets.
Most people have goals of wanting to lose weight, gain muscle mass or just wanting to feel healthier and more energetic.
There are actually thousands of diets out there; thousands and every year there seems to be a “new” one and it becomes the trend for everyone to follow. Examples of these latest trends are Keto, Raw Food Diet, Veganism or intermittent fasting, to name a few.
Stats would tell us that in general diets don’t work in the long term.
The trend is for people to initially lose weight when they make a change but when those changes aren’t sustainable, i.e. the diet can’t become habit, people go back to their old ways of eating and often gain back more weight than they started with. Have you ever met anyone that is still following the “Beverly Hills Diet” from the 80’s or the “Atkins” or the “South Beach” diets from the 90’s?! From history we can predict 10 years from now no one will be on "Keto" or the "Whole30" there will be a new craze that everyone is trying.
Sadly, we have to remember this is an industry trying to get your hard-earned dollars by buying their book, signing up for their plan, buying a cookbook, joining an app etc.
We have to ask ourselves with all the years of diets and books and schemes shouldn’t there be one that just worked by now?!!! Why is there always a new one? Just like how many new “Tides” can they come up with, Tide Ultra, Tide Studio, Tide Heavy Duty, Tide Gentle and I could just go on and on here. Any way to reinvent laundry detergent, just the same way we are getting marketed to with diets. Sadly, we are the ones that are losing here and it’s not weight, but rather our money, our efforts and time.
What do we know?! Nutrition is still an emerging science and we are still learning so much. Our bodies are extremely complex but I don’t believe eating has to be.
We know that the same way of eating does not work for everyone.
Why? For starters we lead different lives, have different ancestors, we have different activity levels and stress but probably the biggest factor is because, for many underlying reasons we are “bio individuals”!!! What does that even mean? Each person is a unique individual with highly individualized nutritional requirements, we are chemically different inside. Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best with the best outcomes.
We have all lived this on some level. How many times have you tried a diet or workout and not had the same results as your friend. People might even be selling something that worked for them but it does not mean it is going to work for you.
How do you find out what works for you?
This is where the work comes in. Yes... I said work! I don’t have the magic answer but I do know the answers are inside of you!!!
Here are some guidelines:
- Start with when you have felt best and think of what you were eating and what you were doing.
- I recommend a food journal for a few weeks. When we eat the good news is, we know pretty quickly how that felt in our body and shortly after how that effected our energy, take note of that.
- When choosing food, ask yourself first how do I want to feel?
- Take time to eat, chew, they don’t call it rest and digest for nothing
- Trust yourself and your intuition.
Did you ever notice that wild animals do not normally become overweight, unless they are gorging for hibernation (and then by definition it’s not overweight)? How have they figured out this key behavior? They have an inbuilt, intuitive way of eating as and when their bodies need it, and depending on food availability in their environment. But we live in a world where food is everywhere, including those that used to be rare, such as those rich in sugars and dense in carbohydrates, and our instinct to get these while we can over all else causes addiction and dependence. But underneath we have the animal smarts to eat according to our body’s needs too; we have just been so far removed from the environment of our ancestors, and also being mindful of what we are eating, why, and how fast, that we have allowed some of those instincts to take over in our new environment of rich processed foods, abundance and availability. We put our trust into others to make our habits better when actually that trust needs to be turned back to ourselves. We too have this inner wisdom that can guide us to a healthy place of being happy with our bodies and how we feel, if we can also be mindful of the process.
Does this still sound confusing or hard? Do you want support through this process? So THIS is what I sell! I sell my services to support you to finding out the answers. I don’t sell a program that worked for me or what worked for some of my clients. With your guidance and body feedback we work together to put something together that will work for you. This is a lifestyle, there are no more diets from here forward!! This is a process and can take some time and trial and error. I’m not offering a magic pill, or way that will have you shed pounds and feeling great overnight. If there was that one answer or juice or pill, we would all know about it and be taking it!! Imagine not worrying any more or spending mental energy wondering what you should eat next, imagine what it would feel like to have the confidence that you know?
From this place of inner wisdom and learning we can stop looking to Social Media and the ads that keep dropping out of somewhere to offer you a new solution, diet, tea or pill to find the way to the body you want. The answers are within you and the results are ever lasting, imagine that?!