The Problem with Dieting

And a more sustainable approach!

January is one of the toughest times to avoid succumbing to diet culture. 

 I love the pursuit of fresh wellness goals in the new year, but what if I told you could achieve those without falling to extreme diets?

What if I told you the most vibrant health I ever found was actually when I stopped all the crazy diets? 

For me, a truly sustainable approach doesn’t remove major food groups, is something I feel like I can do on a long-term basis (not 30 days, for example 😉), and is still enjoyable!

When I gave up the endless yo-yo of dieting (to include those very limited “healing” diets even), I finally found true health & freedom.

It’s estimated that up to 95% of diets fail, meaning that people don’t stick to them and/or they gain the weight back they lost.

My “forever diet”, if you will, doesn't feel like a “diet” at all - it includes all real food in balanced and flavorful ways. And my entire family loves it and is healing in the process.

I mean, does it get better than that?!

I think there’s one important thing to remind ourselves of as we enter this “new year, new me” season –  just because you’re losing weight does not mean you’re pursuing long-term health.

Why do I say that so directly? Because I was a victim of this lie for a long, long time. In fact, my sickest and unhealthiest days were when I weighed the least.

Now that doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t pursue both wellness & healthy weight simultaneously!

And that also doesn’t mean it’s inherently wrong to have weight loss goals, I personally have some muscle increase and fat loss goals myself this year! 

But with women in particular, there’s a lot of false information about what a healthy weight looks like.

It breaks my heart to see so many women slaving away to lose 5-10 pounds just to fit a cultural ideal, especially when that extra cushion could actually be keeping their hormones safe and functional! 

 Not to mention, when we are dropping weight quickly in a way that doesn’t support our biology (cutting carbs, massive calorie cuts, etc), we may actually be burning away at muscle rather than fat. Yikes.

Healthy women are not defined as much by their size as their function.

 I've known plenty of women, myself included, who were culturally “the right size” (the measure of which is constantly changing over time and location) and struggling behind the scenes with anxiety, insomnia, inflammation, joint pain, migraines, thyroid and hormone issues, and so much more. 

 And many of those women, to again include myself, have found true healing once they gave themselves the freedom to stop squeezing into a societal mold.

 NOW, I define health in much different terms:  

-Am I able to fall asleep easily and stay asleep?

-Can I maintain a healthy weight without extreme diets?

-Do I feel overall vibrant and truly well?

-Do I have warm hands and feet and am not always freezing?

-Am I feeling mentally well and not internally rushed?

-Can I usually respond to things in a regulated way?

-Do I have energy throughout the day without multiple cups of coffee?

-Am I having daily bowel movements and am I peeing an appropriate amount? (ie not overnight and not every hour - 5-7 times a day is an appropriate range!)

Whatever food path you choose this year, friend, I hope you can keep these tenants: that you feel good, you enjoy what you're eating, & that your whole family feels nourished. 

And as always, if you're looking for recipes that check all these boxes, I've got 'em 😉