If you’ve set yourself a New Year goal to get fitter and healthier, and maybe drop a few pounds, how are you finding it so far? Are you already feeling deprived and out of your depth? What is a healthy diet anyway?
Let’s face it, there’s so much conflicting diet advice out there that it’s a nightmare even knowing where to begin. Do you go fat-free, Keto, Paleo, or plant-based, or try intermittent fasting? And have you given any thought at all to adjusting your mindset, while you work on improving your diet?
Over the years, from both a professional standpoint as a nutritional therapist and personally for my own health and well-being, I’ve followed no end of healthy diets, searching for the nutritional equivalent of the Holy Grail. But the truth is, there isn’t one. There is no one-size-fits-all diet. There simply can’t be, as we are all unique individuals with very differing requirements for nutrients and calories.
Of course, we can generalise over what constitutes a healthy diet, but in reality, it’s largely down to common sense and trial and error. Only YOU can really know what foods make you feel healthy, vibrant, and alive. And those foods that don’t! Even if you choose to ignore what your body is trying to tell you… Similarly, only YOU can decide which weight loss regime works for your body type and metabolism. I’m not saying you won’t lose weight, even on the faddiest of diets, but how easy will it be to maintain in the long term? And without making you feel utterly miserable?
I still believe that one of the best-kept weight loss secrets is a healthy diet, combined with exercise and an understanding of self-worth, limiting beliefs and mindset…
To go back to the diet, sadly a lot of our current nutritional advice is very outdated. For example, we’ve been conditioned to become very fat-phobic and yet, despite all the low-fat guidelines, the incidence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease continues to soar. Why is this? Should we continue to judge a healthy diet based on the fat content in our food, the amount of sugar, or how many calories it contains? Or should we consider other factors?
I think it’s fair to say that most of us appreciate that a diet rich in processed, refined foods, takeaways, and ready meals is not ideal. Not only low in essential nutrients, but it will also almost certainly be high in sugar, salt, and damaged fats. Worse still are all the chemical additives and preservatives it’ll likely contain, giving your body the mammoth task of breaking them down. The result? Not only potential health implications but a detrimental effect on your weight and mood. Food is addictive and sugar especially, and the food industry has utilised this knowledge to its best advantage …
While YOU are the expert on what your body needs (whether you believe that or not), the principle behind an optimum, healthy diet is simple – eating food as close to its natural state as possible, while cutting back on all that is not. This means increasing raw and lightly steamed vegetables, fresh fruits, quality protein (like grass-fed meat, poultry, fish and eggs, or vegan sources like quinoa, pulses and avocado), and essential fats from nuts, seeds and their cold-pressed oils. It’s also important to appreciate that the more varied your diet, the greater your overall intake of essential nutrients will be and the less susceptible you’ll be to food intolerances.
Staying optimally hydrated is another key factor, especially as we often mistake thirst for hunger! And this could be a really great place to start your healthy new year regime. If you know you don’t currently drink enough water just add one glass over and above your norm. You may be pleasantly surprised at the difference this one simple change can make since dehydration can affect us in any number of ways including low energy, brain fog, and joint aches and pains.
It’s important to understand that your diet not only provides fuel for your body but it also affects your mood and emotions, how efficient your immune system is, your hormones, and the health of your gut (often referred to as our second brain). Your diet even affects you on a spiritual level, as everything you eat and drink carries a vibrational frequency.
And there’s more … Have you ever wondered how much your dietary choices are influenced by your mindset? The answer is, HUGE! Think about it now. You desperately want to get your diet back on track and be healthy this year, but you can’t stop thinking about that half-eaten Christmas cake, or the leftover chocolates. Do you give in and eat them anyway? And if you do, how will it make you feel?
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat the cake and chocolate, in fact, quite the opposite! The minute you tell yourself you shouldn’t have something, you’ll only want it all the more. Well it’s true, isn’t it? And anyway, life is too short to deprive yourself of everything you fancy. Moderation is the key. But I bet if you really tune into your self-talk when you’re faced with those healthy (or otherwise) food dilemmas, you’ll realise the influence your mind has. It’s a no-win situation. If you eat what you perceive to be a forbidden food you end up feeling guilty, weak and lacking in willpower, and this will likely trigger a downward spiral of continuing poor choices. Or you stick to your guns, don’t eat the food and are left feeling miserable and deprived. Sound familiar?
The trick is to not fall prey to the food police but instead acknowledge the huge influence your mindset has around your food choices. Once you grasp the enormity of this, you’ll realise the power is within YOU, because ultimately YOU have a choice. Choose wisely and according to what your body needs and you’ll feel happy, healthy, energised, and empowered to step fully into your power in 2023 and beyond. Choose poorly and it could be an entirely different story! But the bottom line is this. The more in tune you become with your own body, the more you’ll instinctively be drawn to make healthier choices for YOU. You just have to listen. And one final tip:
Remember to love who you are NOW while you transform into the healthy fit YOU you want to become!
If you’d like more support nourishing your body, mind & soul and stepping boldly into 2023, then why not join my 6-week online coaching programme, Your Secret Power New Year Reset?
With love,
Debbie x