I hate the word diet. It might just be me but the word ‘diet’ has such a restrictive connotation to it. I have had a few people talk to me about the diets that they are on and what they can and can’t have. Every time I tell myself I can’t have something, that’s all I think about and all I want. I have also noticed that people that follow diets tend to either be on them or off of them. There typically is no in-between. I watch these folks be super restrictive about what they eat, then take a break and go crazy with what they eat. This usually results in gaining most or all of the weight back or even put on weight after these binges. This cyclic style of eating can wreak havoc on our bodies.
Living a healthy lifestyle at face value can seem like exactly the same thing as being on a diet. The big difference, at least for me, is focusing on how eating clean and balanced makes me feel. I’ll be the first to admit that while I’d like my nutrition to be on point 90% of the time I am probably closer to 75-80%. I can’t remember exactly at what point this became a lifestyle for me, but at one point things just started to click. I stopped being a slave to my calorie count and fitness tracker and just started living a healthy lifestyle. For me this means working out for about 30 mins 5-6 days a week. I always need at least one rest day per week and sometimes if I skip my morning workout I just let it go. Staying on point with my nutrition is a little harder because I am definitely an emotional eater and can’t say no to free food. I am usually pretty busy during the week so my meal plan consists of a lot of the same foods every day. I will switch it up week to week but to make grocery shopping easier and to make sure I don’t waste food I try to only buy things that I know I’ll eat on a certain day.
The idea of balanced nutrition is a little new to me. I’ve always had some go to meals and snacks that I’ve relied on in the past, but now I have been really pushing myself to eat vegetable at every meal. This one has been a little harder for me because I don’t like to snack on veggies and in my mind they have to be part of a meal. Making this shift has been hands down one of the things that has made me go from being relatively healthy to feeling amazing. I judge meals now based on their veggie to protein to carb ratio. It is absolutely amazing to me how hard it is sometimes to get a meal that is primarily veggies and isn’t refined carb overload.
I will add a little disclaimer that there can be a time and place for a diet, depending on your goals. I would just caution you to make sure your short term goals align with your long term vision. As always, if you are looking to lead a healthier lifestyle, just send me a message and I’ll help get you started.