Food, So wonderful – so worrisome! Something we love. Something we lament over. What to eat, when, how much, how often? Lose the dietary drama, and stick to your plan!
This fabulous substance we so revere can enhance our well-being or hinder it. It can augment our health or make it hell.
What you eat matters, and it matters a lot. You know this even though at times you like to pretend it’s okay to deviate and slip into the crazy-eating mode. Consider this: your body houses your mind, spirit, and soul, and it needs appropriate nourishment. Many know how to eat well and do just that. Many are confused. Many are stressed over eating and have dreadful relationships with food.
What’s your relationship with food? Do you fully grasp its impact upon your health? There are decades upon decades of scientific evidence validating the impact of diet and disease. How you choose to digest this information is totally up to you. It’s as personal as your dietary approach.
I am not about to force feed you anything. That is not my style. Never has been nor will it be. I intend to inform, inspire, empower, and enable healthier eating habits in you, in all of us.
Most know they need to eat better yet still choose poorly. Sure, some of us do pretty well, even really well with habits. The point I make is that we know these habits as ours. Our dietary choices are one of the few areas of our life we have a good amount of control over, and we don’t welcome anyone messing with this.
How we choose to eat is deeply personal, and we are very protective and attached to our beliefs about our eating habits. And therein lies a crucial key – our beliefs about healthy eating.
The Standard North American (SNAD) diet is accepted as the norm and revolves around a strong appetite for animal products, refined and processed foods, sugar and stimulants such as coffee and caffeine, fast foods, excess consumption, alcohol, and all the other bad-for-you stuff. It is also linked to our top diseases that either impair the quality of our life or take it too earlier.
Our relationship with food is powerful, and any angst over what and how we eat adds to that very toxic substance we already ingest too much of: stress. It’s health debilitating in a caliber of its own ranks. Chronic stress is linked to chronic inflammation. Research is showing how stress may be at the heart of all of our most deadly diseases. The irony of this is that stress can further impair our eating habits, yet a nutrient-dense diet enhances our ability to deal with stress.
If you aren’t feeling optimal: full of energy and vitality, boasting a strong immune system and warding off diseases, sustaining mood stability and ability to focus, enjoying a sound rejuvenating sleep, and awakening energized, you need diet and lifestyle revamping. Read on for some basics to make eating great, easier.
If you want to eat better, I mean you really want to eat better and decide this is now your must-do, then the current standards you’ve set for yourself must change. First, you’re going to need to determine what eating well is and how you’ll adhere to this new standard even in the midst of utter chaos and extenuating circumstances.
Before you say, I really am ready, let’s clarify just what the commitment is. Without clarification, curve balls will likely you knock you off course for we all know life rarely rolls out exactly as planned.
Currently, you have standards on what you will and won’t eat, and you’ve likely convinced yourself that you haven’t had time to eat better. Until you set that must-do dietary approach for yourself, all great intentions are likely to fall wayward when life challenges you, and let’s face it, we know it will.
Think of it this way. If you’ve intended to avoid wheat or flour for weight management, you might find occasionally you’re eating it anyway. You justify it: “The bread is home-made and warm,” or maybe you’re starving, and there are no other food options, or maybe it’s the excuse that your neighbors made those brownies just for you, so you HAVE to eat them. Justifying compromise is easy if you don’t see this new dietary approach as an absolute essential. You get the idea?
If, however, you have just been diagnosed with celiac disease, you are not going to bend. You’ll adhere to your intentions because now avoiding wheat (gluten) is a “must do!” There is no room, no option to deviate without enduring rather severe consequences. Your new standard with your dietary approach is absolutely no wheat! Just as it would be no peanuts if you were severely allergic.
You’ll be very clear about this no matter where you are and what the circumstances, temptations, and reasoning may be.
This is the way to new dietary standards. If you’re ready for this, then you must adhere to your new must-do no matter what.
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