The Brain Game called Dieting.

In my journey to finding the nitty gritty truth about health and wellness I have found a sad realization that I have to bring out into the spotlight. Diets Don't Work.  They are nothing more than a brain game!

The shocking truth is that many of those amazing companies that are out there to help us lose weight and get fit, they lie. This is hard for me to type because even the people working for those businesses think they are helping people. This hurts my heart.

The truth is that their businesses depend on us feeling so crappy about ourselves that we can't wait to start another program because "this time it's going to work!"
 "This time is different. The program said I can lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks! I can do this for 2 weeks!"

They need us to feel fat, ugly, hopeless, and depressed so that we will look to them for answers.

Truth is, quick fix diet plans set us up to need more quick fix diet plans. Our bodies are way more intelligent than we give them credit for. They know what we are doing and they know how to play along, they also know how to fight back.

Here's what happens. We set up a new diet plan and we tell our brain to be ready because it's time to get rid of the extra weight we have been carrying around. We tell our body that the extra weight is ugly, nasty, dirty, and gross, and that it needs to leave. The first few weeks on the plan are great. We eat lots of good green stuff and the nutrition is lovingly welcomed. (This is the absolute best part of a healthy diet plan, introducing new healthy foods that you wouldn't normally eat.) But after a few weeks of struggling (insert some guilt eating here) and a few pounds gone you decide that losing 10 pounds is good and you are ready to get off the diet plan. This is where your survival instincts kick in and your brain goes all kinds of crazy. "FOOD!" it screams! "EAT the FOOD!"
Your brain is now telling your body that you are STARVING and that you need to pack on the pounds so that next time there is a famine you will make it through without losing 10 precious pounds of emergency fuel. Your body believes it needs that fat for protection, and as back up. (Most extra weight is more related to emotional issues, rather than just eating too much.)

So you give in here and there to chocolate cake, Dr. Pepper, crackers, cookies, ice cream, etc. and the weight slowly trickles back on.  (More guilt and self-hatred here.)

In my own experience, I had such intense cravings for chocolate after finishing a diet that I would drop by the store on the way home from rock climbing at 10pm to sooth my sweet tooth.

I'm not going to say that every diet is a failure but this is truly what happens in about 90%  of the cases I have seen. The worst plans seem to be the ones with shakes that you drink twice a day. Your body can't comprehend what is going on. A food shortage? Did your teeth fall out? The Apocalypse? (. . .because we will all be drinking powdered smoothies during the Apocalypse.)

So, if diets fail, what do we do? What actually works?

Lifestyle changes!


This is a brain game, folks.


Instead of setting up a diet that has an end, set up a permanent change. Permanent. As in Forever! 

 You can say you want to start eating a fruit or vegetable with every meal from today until the day you die. You can say that you know milk products make your stomach hurt so you will cut out of your diet for good, not just 3 weeks, forever! Only eat cheese once a week. Only have sweets on Saturday. Figure out what works for you and make it stick for the rest of your life!

"But how can I say forever? That's a huge commitment. What if I want to change my diet?"

Then change it. It's your food, your body, your life. Just choose what you know to be the healthiest diet you can sustain every day, then when you learn more and know better, do better! There is always room for improvement.

The best part about the forever diet plan: YOU NEVER FAIL!

If you eat too much junk food one day, you forgive yourself and move forward, keeping your goal as being healthy, not being skinny. If you get off course, you steer back onto the right road. No failure. You just keep going, everyday.  Treat eating healthy like other good habits. For example, prayer. If you forget to pray for one day you don't consider yourself a failure, right? You just remind yourself to pray the next day until it becomes a habit and you don't even have to think about it anymore.



Keep yourself in check and stay on the path. Pray for help from God, and ask your body at every meal what will give you energy and vitality. 

We have really lost touch with listening to our own bodies. Do you realize that we have build in mechanisms that will tell us when we are hungry, when we are full, when we are thirsty, and when we need certain types of foods? WHAT?? It's true. We don't have to finish every bite on our plate, and we can eat the foods we are craving. (But it's VERY important to distinguish hunger cravings from addiction cravings too.)

The best diet is the one YOU set up between yourself, your body, and your higher power. (a.k.a. God) When is the last time you asked for guidance about what you should eat for breakfast?





Here is my experience. After doing 3 rounds of 21 Day Fix and gaining my weight back from the after-diet munchies, I started asking for help. Each meal became a game of "What Foods Are the Best for Me Today?" I have started using this strategy with my kids too, though I still have to regulate their sugar intake because sugar is crazy addicting. The foods that honor me are sometimes surprising and I notice a big difference when I give in to a sugar craving instead of choosing what is best for my highest good. I started eating tons of veggies because they sounded amazing! Salad with cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, topped with eggs and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
O.M.G! I'm soooo not a salad girl and here I was scarfing salads because they made my body so happy and they tasted great!

This really works for me.

I still make smoothies a few times a week because they are so good! I make them with real ingredients like spinach, frozen berries, bananas, etc. and they are delicious. I will take a real food smoothie over a powder smoothie any day!



Do you agree with me? Do you think diets set you up for failure and lifestyle changes set you up for success?

After being a Beachbody coach and trying my hardest to make the diet plans work, for myself and others, I realized that the best option is that we learn to trust ourselves. It's also the scariest plan. It's so much easier to place our trust in someone else, but we know our bodies better than anyone. With a little practice we all can know exactly what types of foods we thrive on!


Recap:
Diets = fail
Lifestyle Changes = success

Commit to changes you make in your diet; make them part of who you are and you will see your health change in the best ways. And the best part is that the changes will be PERMANENT!

(Want to talk? Find me on Facebook HERE.)

4 Healthy Eating Habits #2: Find JOY in Food

 

Now that we are practicing being kind and loving to our miraculous bodies, we can start choosing foods that make us feel joyful!

Part 1:

Do you connect your emotions to foods? When I am depressed or angry I dive into a pile of oreo cookies or a giant bowl of Bunny Tracks ice cream. I realize I am trying to fill a hole in my life with food. Food is always there. It never talks back, it never judges me, it never tells me no. Food is comforting. But, in those times of depression, sadness, or anger, is it really food that I need? Most likely not. Though sometimes a lack of food will bring on some of these emotions and food will actually help us feel better, but this isn’t always the case.

What about the opposite? Do you eat when you are happy, celebrating, and joyful? Yes! We celebrate with birthday cake, pizza, donuts, cookies, and cream-filled chocolate-covered pastries.

So it’s quite obvious that we link our emotions to food.

So how do we use this to our advantage when it comes to eating healthy? 

What if we switched things around and instead of eating when we feel sad or happy, we find foods that actually spark joy in our bodies?

God has given us an inner health compass. We are the ultimate authority on what is good or bad for our bodies, we have just lost touch with this gift through years of conditioning. Diet commercials, weight loss pills, mom’s newest diet plan, magazine articles, etc, have told us our whole lives how we should look, what we should eat, and why it’s important to “lose 20 pounds by swimsuit season!”

I want each of you to choose today to take back your authority over you own body! Instead of relying on everyone else’s advice, rely on your inner compass and especially on God’s help (and your doctor, of course). With this in mind, I want you to think about the foods in your kitchen right now. Think about one or two foods in particular right now that would bring health and joy into your life if you ate them. 

Feel free to share with us what those foods are. (This is a judgement free zone.)

Are you surprised by what your body is craving?

 

Here is some back story about me.

I am a health and nutrition fanatic. I love learning about and doing my best to live a healthy life. I believe very strongly that God put foods here on the earth to help us to live to our potential and to heal our bodies.

I started out great, by including more fruits and veggies into our diet, then I started grinding my own wheat and making my own breads and desserts from scratch.

Then I moved on to sourdough starters, probiotics growing on my kitchen counter, soaked and sprouted wheat for my breads, homemade sauerkraut, fresh pressed juice, green smoothies, organic veggies only, grass fed and free range meats, no processed sugar, no natural sugars, switching to coconut and almond flour, only drinking raw milk, only eating raw veggies . . .

I started out on the right road and over a matter of years I spiraled more than a little out of control.

Then I realized that I was spending HOURS in the kitchen everyday OBSESSING about food! I was stressed out and I didn’t feel like my foods were ever healthy enough or clean enough to eat. I ended up eating very little and constantly worrying about whether I was poisoning my kids with the food I was giving them.

This is an actual eating disorder. It’s called Orthorexia and it’s very real. My case was very milk and luckily I was able to take a step back and see what was happening and I saw that my obsession with food was making me so STRESSED that I would most likely die much quicker of a stomach ulcer or stroke from high blood pressure before I would die from some cancer-causing ingredient in that non-organic food I ate.

So I let out the reins and I realized that food can be healthy, taste good, and also be easy and stress free. I chose to keep some of my healthy food practices and dump others that were not serving me well in my life. Life is meant to be lived, not just lived in the kitchen cooking all day.

So I’m going to share with you what works for me. I’m not a licensed nutritionist. I am a nutrition groupie and I have read and learned a lot, and I believe I have a lot of useful insights to share. 

#1. Ask your body what it wants and follow the Word of Wisdom. If it’s been a while, re-read the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants section 89). Then, ask and pray about what you should be eating, and listen with the intent of knowing what would be the most useful foods for your body. If you are craving chocolate it is ok to have a little, just don’t overdo it. If your cravings are really intense you may be missing out on some vital nutrients. For instance, an intense craving for chocolate may mean that you are low on magnesium, which is found in chocolate.

 

#2. Try new things! I just learned about 6 months ago that I LOVE sweet potatoes! I eat them mostly for breakfast with coconut oil and cinnamon and they make me feel great! I would have never bought them 6 months ago because my hubby isn’t a fan, but I wanted something new for breakfast and lunch and I knew they were full of good vitamins and minerals. They are now one of my favorite foods ever! Don’t be afraid to try new foods, especially fruits and veggies. Maybe you can ask your friends and family about their favorite veggie recipe and try it out. Also, remember that some foods take a few tries for your taste buds to get used to.

#3. Don’t obsess about food. If you are talking and thinking about food constantly it’s usually a sign that your body needs something. You aren’t getting enough calories or you are missing nutrients, or you possibly could have an addiction. Pray about it and try to see why you are obsessed. When I cut all sugars out of my diet I felt great, but I was super obsessed with food and I talked about it to everyone. It was because my body and brain were being starved of vital carbohydrates and that’s all I could think about. Now that my diet is more balanced I still LOVE to talk about food but I no longer feel like I am obsessed or that I need to tell anyone else what they should be eating.

#4. ENJOY IT! Food should be fun, right? We love the tastes and textures. I noticed that the more processed, sugar and salt laden food I ate the more I couldn’t appreciate the subtle sweetness of a fresh strawberry, the pleasantly bitter taste of romaine lettuce, and even when I was drinking soda I couldn’t even appreciate how refreshing a cold glass of water is.  I like to compare processed food to an eardrum-busting Rock and Roll song playing over a quite symphony. The Rock song takes your eardrums to their limits, and for hours or even days later your ears will continue to ring and you can’t hear or appreciate the small quite sounds of the symphony. Once you turn off the Rock music you can finally start to repair your ears so you can hear and enjoy the beauty of the symphony.

 

Food should bring you joy and energy! Pay close attention to how you feel as you are eating and in the minutes and hours you are finished eating. Your body will tell you if what you ate was good or if you could have made a better choice.

 

Part 2:

The other side of finding joy in food is finding joy in the preparation of food.  I consider food as a hobby for me. I love to cook and bake when I have the time and energy. I do find that cooking can be a burden when I am not prepared or if I am in too big of a hurry.

I recommend starting out by doing what you love in the kitchen. If you love to bake, make it a goal to try new ingredients that are more nutrient dense and have fun with them! And an occasional batch of mom’s homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, with the right ingredients, can be fun, and much healthier treat than a box of grocery store cookies.  The most important ingredient we can add to our baking is love.

Find meals that are fast and tasty. I’ll talk about this more in the next section. Pick recipes that look easy and delicious and be brave enough to try new things. This will keep you out of the monotony of cooking every day. I make my kids breakfast every day of the week. I have chosen recipes that I enjoy making, that are quick and easy, and that are nutrient dense. Those seem to be the 3 most important factors for me: 1. Is it fun? 2.Is it fast? 3. Is it healthy?

Your most important factors may be different than mine. I am a SAHM or 4 active kids, I run my own children’s clothing business out of my home, and I am an avid fitness junky. Throw in church,family, school obligations, and hobbies and you get a little bit of chaos and a lot of fun! I have to be able to throw together a meal in no time flat! I’m sure you all can relate!

 

Now that you are feeling more joy about food and preparing it, let’s move on to step 3: An Ounce of Preperation. (coming soon.)