I hate the word diet. I absolutely can’t stand that 4 letter word. The word diet down to its very core means to restrict oneself from eating. Should we feel like we need to restrict ourselves from food? Absolutely not. Yes portion control is a part of eating but there is an important component missing in the rules of food that have been laid out for the past 30 years. NOT all calories are created equal. What we are eating is more important than how much we are eating. We do not need to restrict ourselves from food when we are eating the right kinds of foods.
Like many of us, I grew up on lots of fast and processed foods. I spent most of my adolescent years insecure about my body, believing that I needed to eat “diet” foods, believing that I needed to starve myself or feel guilty for eating delicious junk food. If I ate in public I felt insanely insecure like everyone was staring at me and I was too fat to be eating. Needless to say regardless of what I ate I still battled with my weight and had a NEGATIVE relationship with food. When I say negative I mean I looked at food as a necessary evil that if I enjoyed too much of would make me fat. However, it took looking at and experiencing food in a “whole” new way to begin to develop a positive relationship with food and a healthy weight and body image.
Developing a positive relationship with food is not only a good idea but a necessity in feeling completely comfortable being around food and putting it in our mouths. It has become so easy for many people to develop a negative relationship with food due to the ways in which our food system has transformed.
It’s not your fault
All around us are restaurants, fast food, convenient stores and the media telling us how delicious everything is as they advertise mouth watering foods on billboards and television commercials. We begin to look at food as enjoyment, as comfort, and as something that is suppose to be beyond satisfying. And yes being surrounded by an inescapable amount of junk food makes it much harder to make healthy food choices and many have succumb to this American way of eating. In our hurried lives many of us have chosen convenience and pleasure over nourishment and our waistlines are expanding and our physical and mental health seem to be deteriorating.
Yet at the same time, we see celebrities flaunting their hot bodies, and stick thin models walking the runway. We see diet advertisements everywhere we turn, as if to keep reminding us that we are not thin enough. We aren’t beautiful enough. We aren’t perfect enough. We have no will power. So we tell ourselves we have to “diet” and learn how to restrict ourselves from all these foods that our in our faces 24/7…. This is simply NOT true. It’s not your fault. There is nothing wrong with you. There is however something wrong with the way we have been conditioned to view food as a way to comfort ourselves or feel guilty about eating.
What if there was a simple way to begin to lose weight, get healthy, and learn to have…wait for it…a positive relationship with food?
Well there most certainly is. You don’t need a diet- you need real food. Real whole, unprocessed food. This way of eating looks at food as nourishment.We need to go back to a simpler time, when we ate the foods that grew from the earth and from animals that were roaming freely. A time when we prepared our meals and took the time to sit down and eat and enjoy them. In modern times, we have strayed away from this view and experience with food. Our ancestors spent long hours working in farms and gardens connecting with the foods we put on our plates in a positive way. When we eat whole real foods we are are giving the body what it needs to fuel our cells and help our pathways to run smoothly in our bodies and our brains. In this way we are giving ourselves exactly what we need to maintain our health and naturally maintain our weight.We need to focus on a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. This is by no means a secret. In fact it just comes down to a simple choice.
Taking control
As a Nutritionist, I can help you to navigate and apply a new way of eating to your life but, the bottom line is you have the power to start somewhere. You don’t have to be afraid of food. Let me rephrase that…you should absolutely be afraid of fast foods and processed foods. You should be afraid of lots of fake chemically ridden ingredients that you can’t pronounce filled with bad fats and and lots of sugar. You do not however, need to be afraid of whole unprocessed foods. Foods that are grown naturally from the earth that were made for the human body to consume. You can begin to think about the actual ingredients in your food, where they come from, and how they are made. You can chose to eat foods that make you feel happy, satisfied, and free from guilt. You can be satisfied with nourishment and truly be content. This is the beginning of a positive relationship with food and this can begin to change your life more than any quick fix “diet” ever will.
Warning: Side effects of eating whole foods may include improved health, weight loss, more energy, improved body image, better moods and reduction in medication
Yours in Health & Happiness,
Lisa