Diets – YUCK!!

Diets – YUCK!!

Just google the word ‘diet’ and you will get a list of the best 32 diets.  Google different types of diets and you will get many more starting from the Zone diet, South beach probably a North beach one too, the GI diet, the Dash diet, the Mediterranean diet, the Flexitarian diet, the glycemic index diet and well I could go on…….

Diet according to wikipedia –

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.^[1] Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related).

I wonder how well these ‘diets’ work to have soooo many of them!! 🙂

Lets  look at the word – DIE-T  – interesting isn’t it?  It’s restrictive and not always in our best health interest.  Sure you could probably lose weight, many do, but what happens when you go back to eating the way you did that helped you put on the weight or even got you your health issues?  As we know many health conditions can be helped with proper and healthy eating.  If a diet really worked why are there so many of them?  I know we are all different and not always one thing works for everyone but I do believe in eating real food, nutrient dense food and a variety of food – for anyone.  it also sounds restrictive, can’t have and that creates issues in itself I will go into later on.

Here are a few suggestions if I can share….

Stop using the word ‘diet’ .  We shouldn’t really ever be on a ‘diet’, maybe a cleanse to detox, clear up health issues but dieting especially if you are suppose to eat all kinds of only a few foods, or just one type of food for days on end or having to measure everything or counting carbs, fats, sugars etc is a make work project that your energy could be better spent somewhere in my opinion.

What is cool about eating more whole, real foods, more live foods is the body can easily assimulate and digest it.  And many times you  won’t over eat and because the body is being fed properly you actually end up eating less.  Plus if it’s nutrient dense foods – many health benefits can surface.  The more raw foods you can add in as well is better on on’es health as well.

A way of eating should be a lifestyle not a diet in my opinion.  The more you can add in good and great nutrient dense, real, whole, live or organic (and non-gmo) foods the easier it is.  Maybe you are thinking you don’t want to give up such and such – I’m not saying that.  Sometimes it’s not what you have to or should give up but rather what can you add in or possibly do betteror how could you make a better choice and over time you may switch things out completely.

Here is an example – when I first started doing raw foods the smell of fresh baked bread – oh my – I still enjoyed it and especially when I could smell it fresh baked.  So if I was in a restaurant and they brought fresh baked bread well with lots of butter – yup but I would take a bite or two and savor it.  The interesting part is after doing this a few times I realized I didn’t really enjoy it.  Probably for two reasons – the emotional response of fresh baked bread actually took me back to earlier times when my grandfather taught me how to bake bread in his kitchen – fun times, good times – memories.  I also found the more I was cleaning up my way of eating to eat something like that felt like a brick in my stomach after eating it – there are only 2 more ingredients in bread then there are in glue (well home made anyways lol)  I still love the smell of fresh home baked bread – I don’t even consider eating it now – does not interest me.  So things can shift.

Maybe you like drinking pop (or soda for you Americans) maybe it’s diet soda – first switch back to regular pop – the body can deal with breaking down sugar but the diet stuff is all chemicals – your body doesn’t have a clue how to digest or utilize that!!  Then maybe after a bit switch to carbonated water with juice, then just juice (as we really want to cut down carbonation or not cut it out eventually) then maybe to half jucie half water and finally water – the best thing for your body – as we are over 70% water!!

Here are some suggestions to moving towards a healthier way of eating without feeling like you are restricting.

– aim for 50% fresh, natural, live and real foods at a meal

– drink more water after all we are 70% plus water – our bodies need water

– stay away from hydrogenated oils – the body doesn’t know how to digest or utilize these including margarine

– stay away from artificial sweetners again the body doesn’t know how to digest these

– stay away from low fat, fat free products – they are chemical sh*# storms really, but again the body dosn’t know how to digest these

– stay away from products that have wording on the ingredient labels that you can’t pronounce and have no clue what it is

– stay away from products that have a shelf life longer than your dogs life

– get sunshine every day (lol in Vancouver that can be very hard sometimes)

– get fresh air and exercise

– laugh more and spend your time with people who inspire and lift you up – stay away from drama and chaos

I believe that eating healthy is a good things but cutting out as much stress, drama, chaos, negativity is just as important!!

Check the recipe page for some easy, healthy recipes, as well as my books and please come back as I will be posting a bunch of new recipes coming up!!

Hope this helps and please feel free to leave any comments or share this!!

Here’s to YOUR health

Jodi