"There is no diet that will do what healthy eating does”
How many years have you spent yoyo-dieting?
I must have spent at least 10 years trying different diets and whilst I did OK for some time, I never managed to stick it out long enough to reach my target goal.
I managed to lose some kilos over the years, but it was never straight forward and I had to try lots of different diets to get somewhere and I often lost some to then put it back on again and no matter how extreme I went I always had 3-4kg to go and those last 3 kg always felt impossible.
It was as if my body was fighting it every single time and in the end I had to give up because it was getting crazy. My goal was not unrealistic but my body was refusing to let go of the stubborn belly fat. The only time I felt happy with myself was first thing in the morning when my belly was flat.
I have had issues with bloating even since I was in my 20’s so even before having kids. I would get bloated after food but even if I skipped breakfast I would swell up.
This issue had been following me for years and even after I became a nutritionist and started to clean up my diet, I still could not figure out why I was getting bloated. (Any food could make me bloat, so it was not intolerance)
Last summer during our holiday it got really bad. I looked and felt like I was 7 months pregnant. My insides felt compressed and it was painful. I had never been affected by bloating like this before and I was going to investigate it properly this time.
I actually thought I would have to go and see a doctor but I didn’t instead when I got back to Dubai, I started keeping a picture food diary of everything I ate to figure out what was wrong.
About 2 weeks later, the bloating was completely gone, I was not constipated anymore and even after I ate, I didn’t swell up. When I analyzed the food diary, I realized that it didn’t come down to what I ate at all, it came down to how I ate and when I ate, so that was it.
Once the bloating was gone and I figured out the way to not get bloated after eating, it made those other 3 kg irrelevant. Beating the bloat did the trick! I wish I could have figured this out years ago.
Thinking that I spent 10 years dieting on and off feels like such a waste of time knowing what I know today. I have tried so many different diets over the years both when I stopped smoking but also after the pregnancies. Low-fat-diets, Low-carb-diets, you name it.
Low-carb dieting will need its own post but just to give you a clue. Going low carb was like a trip to hell. Yes great results at first but then all you need is a whiff of some pasta or bread and you blow up again. Low carb diets for me – Forget it!
Then I got convinced that counting calories and going back to basics was the way forward. I found that learning to count calories and become aware of them is an amazing tool and can be incredibly helpful both for people who wants to lose weight but also for people who are trying to tone up and build muscle, however counting calories is extremely time-consuming and it makes home-cooking very complicated so I gave up on that.
Counting calories also deserves its own post, we will have to come back to this one because even though counting calories is not always doable, it can be very helpful in bringing awareness. Keep an eye out for the calorie-counting post
After all these trials and errors I finally came to my senses. No more dieting, I have had enough of it, it didn’t get me anywhere.
I felt restricted, bored, hungry and demotivated. I wanted to be free to eat whatever I fancied in moderation. I want to cook and bake and be adventurous in the kitchen without having to measure and count. I wanted to eat food that I enjoyed and not having to obsess about my diet or feeling guilt for having a slice of chocolate cake. I wanted a healthy relationship to food.
All diets work if you stick to them, but I was having issues with the sticking.
When I decided to stop the diets all together, I started to pay attention to the quality of my food and I also tried to introduce more vegetables, fruit and fiber. I started focusing on complex carbs and healthy fats instead of removing things. The only thing I am trying to remove as much as possible is sugar.
I have a sweet tooth so this is one thing that I have to constantly work on but I am trying to live by the 90/10 rule so I still have it sometime but that’s OK. I am not dieting, I am just paying attention, being mindful and trying to make clever food choices 90% of the time.
A good diet:
Lots of vegetables (Ideally 2 cups per meal)
Whole fruit, not juiced
Whole grains and complex carbs
High quality Meat Occasionally
Fish and Poultry
Seafood
Vitamins and minerals from the food – I am not a fan of supplements unless you have some sort of deficiency or diet restrictions where you can’t get them.
Foods to avoid:
Processed foods
Trans fats
Artificial Sweeteners
This week’s action step:
This week we will focus on vegetables. Try to add 2 cups of vegetables with every single meal. Raw vegetables or cooked vegetables or make a Greek salad with your food. Get creative and have fun.
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