If you’ve ever been on a tasteless and frustrating diet, you might have seen only temporary results. Time to eat for pleasure. Let’s see how you can build your lifestyle without avoiding your favourite foods.
Frustrating Diet, Anyone?
How many can say that they’ve never been on a diet? Honestly.
It’s like a rite of passage, especially when you’re a woman, with the idea that the body should be one shape and one shape only. When you think about it, how absurd is this?
Who decided what size your thighs should be, or that your stomach should be flat? Ideally, we don’t want too much fat on our body because it’s not healthy, of course. But that doesn’t mean that everyone will look the same.
Among healthy bodies, you have every shape, size, colour, height, smell (yes, smells too 😀 ), skin texture, etc.
But there it is. Some industries exploit people’s insecurities and make them believe that they need to fit in a box. The diet culture has existed since the beginning of the 1900s, how mad is that?
I went on my first diet when I was 17 (17!), I went to see a nutritionist, and she told me what to eat for 6 weeks. It was all good, I could have done it probably, I had my mum’s support (bless her), and she bought the foods that were allowed on the diet.
But my stomach was rumbling when I went to bed, I had a list of “forbidden foods”. And most of all, it had an expiration date. So I jumped on the occasion and stopped early.
When I think about it, it makes me laugh because the way the nutritionist told me to eat is probably the way I eat now, but I love it. That mindset thing might have something to do with it …
Alternatives for a Happy Diet Lifestyle
So what options do we have? If we’re not happy with the way our body looks like, if we objectively know that we could lose some fat? Of course you can lose the fat, your body is a wonderful machine. And it’s never too late or you’re never too damned to look like what you want.
First, you need to know about the concept of crowding out.
You’re more likely to adopt healthy changes if you focus on the positive. And that can’t happen when you think of aaaall the things that you can’t eat. Instead, focus on what you should add to your diet to feel good.
Vegetables are the first addition. They bring you minerals and vitamins, health benefits right left front and centre. Then add other plants like fruit, grains and beans, nuts and seeds, olive oil. Try and fill more than half your plate with vegetables. Naturally, you will get rid of foods that don’t nourish you, that make you bloated, that are nasty for you (sodas and transfats, I’m looking at you).
Second, make your plate colourful and fun.
Find what can do that, whether it’s with colourful vegetables, adding hummus or a spread on the side, sprinkle seeds, toasted nuts. Play with textures and taste: crunchy and soft, gooey and melting, add spices and herbs, roast or smoke your food, put a tangy note, go with Thai cuisine or Ethiopian, Mexican or Nordics. Try new things !
Play with your imagination, find a blog or a cookbook that you’re going to stick to, and do most recipes.
It’s a lifestyle, not a diet. That is, for me, the most important thing you can remember.
If you decide to eat healthy but only for a period of time, it means that once the period is over, you’ll go back to what helped you put on weight in the first place. Eat well and you will reap the benefits: for your energy levels, the inflammation in your body, your skin, the diseases and pain that creep up.
Eating well is the foundation to a healthy body. It’s not everything, but without eating good foods you can’t go far. You can adopt the famous 80/20 method. This is essentially eating well 80% of the time and other foods 20% of the time. Otherwise, if you were only eating good foods, it would turn to obsession, and that is what we want to avoid.
This means that will eat your favourite foods that 20% of the time. Or what I love to do, is to transform what could be deemed as “unhealthy” foods into healthy versions. Most of the time, they’re even tastier because they’re made with real ingredients, real foods.
Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle, Lose the Weight
If your objective is to lose weight, it will be slower with this new lifestyle of eating well 80% of the time, but it will be sustainable. If you’ve been on diets like me, you know it’s way too easy to put the weight back on, plus a little extra for the road. Now THAT is a frustrating diet !
So let’s stop the frustrating diet culture and focus on feeling good. On feeling our best self.
Full disclaimer: your weight is not only the result of what you eat, there are other factors to take into account like your stress levels, hormonal health, inflammation levels, and so much more. To explore this topic further, check out the 7 Reasons Why You’re Not Losing Weight.
