Embedded Files
Written by Michelle Shelton
March 5, 2024
We live in a diet obsessed culture, continually focused on restriction. We're counting calories. Counting carbs. Counting fat. Feeling guilt when we lose our will power and eat something we shouldn't. Vowing to get back on track tomorrow. We're a culture hyper aware of what we're eating…or maybe more accurate, hyper aware of what we believe we should not be eating. We restrict it, crave it, obsess about it.
This restriction mindset with eating causes a lot of guilt and stress. It's not helpful and even potentially harmful. You don't nourish your body by excluding foods. You nourish your body by including foods. And nourishing your body is, afterall, what eating is for. We eat to nourish our bodies to sustain life and promote health. And yes, it's ok to enjoy it, too.
A nourishing diet includes an abundance of the key nutrients you need to grow and heal well, recover from stress, and fight disease. Focussing only on avoiding carbs or avoiding fats will not do this for you. A nourishing diet also includes a positive relationship with the foods you eat. Food restrictions lead to guilt, anxiety, and food obsession that hardly paint a picture of overall wellbeing and health. So instead of focusing on avoiding and restricting, try focusing on including. More specifically, what can you include to nourish your body more.
Focusing on including foods leads to much different outcomes than a focus on restriction.
First, it promotes a stance self care. Your body is strong and beautiful, and worthy of care. It deserves to feel good. What does it need to be at its best? It needs enough energy to perform its daily tasks, enough protein to grow and heal, enough vitamins and minerals to support core metabolic processes, enough antioxidants to protect against daily stressors, enough fat to maintain cellular health, enough water to stay hydrated. Nourish it. Care for it. Be intentional about what you put in it so your body can be its best.
There is no guilt over what you ate because you're not focusing on that. Instead of asking how can I avoid, you're focusing on how can I nourish. It's fundamentally a different way of looking at your food. If you focus first on how you will nourish your body at a meal, your plate is full of nutrient rich foods. When you lead with that, you have room to include less nutrient rich foods in a proportion that won't have a significant effect on your health. Guilt has no place in this approach because all foods are allowed.
It opens up more options, more variety, more creativity. Have you been on a diet where you get so tired of your “allowed” foods? When you're nourishing your body, you focus on including MORE colors, MORE variety, MORE flavor. And if you're not feeling a certain food, maybe you normally nourish your body with an apple at lunch, you can just pick something else…nourish it with grapes, or peaches, or mango, or berries, instead.
I put this into practice recently on a family trip. The hotel we stayed at had a breakfast buffet included with the stay. Buffets are a great place to practice the principle of more. I always like to include some protein, complex carb, and healthy fats at every meal. I started with scrambled eggs for protein, and oatmeal for carb. Then a started to add more…more nutrients, more color, more flavor. The buffet had sautéed onions, mushrooms, and peppers that I added to my eggs…more vitamin A, C, B-vitamins, fiber, antioxidants. There was a bowl of cut melons and pineapple. More vitamin K, folate, phytonutrients, antioxidants, and fiber. And bananas. I love bananas. More flavor, more potassium, more magnesium, more yum. And for my oatmeal, a little brown sugar and granola on top for a little crunch. My pate was properly full, as any good buffet plate should be. Full of nutrition, full of flavor, full of color. And when I was finished, I was full, too. Full and perfectly satisfied. I felt strong and nourished rather than heavy and sluggish.
You can easily put this into practice, too. At home, on vacation, at lunch with friends. You don't need to know the nutritional profile of foods to make this work for you. The basic principles are simple. Try to include a source of lean protein, complex carb from whole grain, heart healthy fat from nuts or avocado at most meals. Then add a variety of colors from fruits and vegetables. The more color the better - for your health, for flavor, and for visual appeal.
The next time you find yourself enticed by diet culture, drawn to the promises of restrictions and exclusion, give it a try. Try focusing on MORE. How can you nourish your body MORE? How can you you include MORE antioxidants, phytonutrients, nourishing fats, high quality protein, energy sustaining carbs, heart healthy fats? How can you include more flavor, more creativity, more color? Your path to better health starts with the principle of MORE.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse