If you could feel more comfortable in your body (and your clothes) without dieting, would you do it?8/16/2017 Diet has two meanings in the dictionary and I definitely prefer one over the other.The first definition of diet is "the type of food a person habitually eats" and the other is "a special course of food that a person restricts themselves to, either to lose weight or for medical reasons." I bet you can guess which one I don't like. I also don't like the emphasis on weight loss. We are so much more than what we weigh, and the number on a scale doesn't necessarily tell us a whole lot. People have different body types, so their healthy weights can be very different and is not necessarily what society is telling us it is. On one hand, I recognize that we have an obesity epidemic in the United States, with more than one-third of adults being classified as obese. On the other hand, 10 -15% of adults have some type of eating disorder. Clearly there is some kind of disconnect and probably more have an unhealthy relationship with food. A healthy body has more to do with gaining a healthy mindset and less to do with restricting calories.
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Life has sped up and I don't know about you, but dinner, being at the end of the day, often gets less attention that tasks that happen earlier in the day. When I was a kid, somehow my mom got dinner on the table almost every night. Maybe with the exception of going out for pizza or Mexican food after Little League games when they finished late. Our family may not have been perfect, and we probably had breakfast for dinner here and there, but we did sit down together for that one meal every night. Now family life is even busier and sometimes it seems like it's more stressful to get a meal on the table. I'm sure you know the feeling of feeling tired from the day and trying to switch gears and figure out what to make for dinner. On the other hand, grabbing something to eat at a restaurant on the way home from wherever, isn't necessarily less stressful. You have to get everyone to agree on where to eat, the food doesn't come fast enough for whoever's most hungry, and then when you get the bill, it really doesn't seem like it was worth it at all. Seriously, wouldn't you rather save it for special occasions or date night without the kids! Why eat at home?It hasn't been as easy to step back into my life as I thought it would be. I'm finding that I don't want things to be exactly the same as when I left ten months ago. Ten months out of the country and I'm not the same person I was when I left. No one in our family is. Preparing meals has been one of the hardest parts. We tried not to eat out all the time, but for the most part I only prepared simple meals while I was traveling. A friend made me feel better by reminding me that even without going anywhere, you often are cooking and eating different foods than you were a year ago. So I realized I didn't need to step into making the same meals I was making before we left. But that actually meant I wasn't really making any meals for awhile. Oops! For the first week and a half back at home, my kids were complaining about the lack of food in the house and I completely lacked the motivation or creative energy to make dinner.
Eating plenty of veggies will crowd out foods that are less healthy.
There are practically an infinite number of dietary theories out there, with more cropping up all the time. When I say theories, I mean that no one diet works for everyone. Only you can find out what works for you individually.
You have to start somewhere, so start by eating more veggies!
Sweet veggies
Sweet veggies are a good start. They are naturally sweet, so they can satisfy your sweet tooth. At the same time, they have are low on the glycemic index, so they won’t make your blood sugar go sky high.
I've rarely paid attention to the Dirty Dozen or the Clean 15.
Why?
Easy, peasy. Why pay attention when I’m going to buy organic anyway?
Because, sometimes I step my little toe outside of Santa Cruz.
Actually, I just took a big dive outside of my comfort zone and I’m not talking about just swimming in a lake with non-aggressive crocodiles. “Leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone.” That’s another story! I’m at the beginning of a ten-month trip with my family. It seemed like a good idea…
To deprive means to take away something you want or need.
Feeling deprived is no way to live your life. Why would you do that? Do you really want someone to tell you “no,” or “don’t” or “you can’t.” I don’t want that either. It makes me feel like a two year old or a mom of a two year old, if I’m the one doing the telling! Please, do me a favor and don’t deprive yourself…especially in the name of being “healthy!” Do something good for yourself instead. Add something. I have an idea, but by all means don’t limit yourself. If you have a different idea, try it. Just do something that you've been thinking about doing that is "good for you." Just one thing!
My idea…
Tomorrow morning, right when you get up, drink a warm glass of water with half a lemon squeezed into it. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil if you have it. That’s it! Do anything you normally do after that. Drink your coffee or don’t, eat your normal breakfast, have your regular day. The day after, do it again and do it again the next day. Try it for a whole week. Don’t deprive yourself of anything, just start with this one thing.
This past weekend, I was visiting Portland, Maine for a business event with my friend Talya. She's an ayurvedic practitioner. Check her out here. Happily for me, she's also a self-proclaimed foodie. What did that mean? It meant we got to eat good food joyfully. We enjoyed our food and some of the time we ate food that neither of us eat on a regular basis.
Enter Holy Donuts....
Holy Donuts are a Portland phenomenon. They're a healthy donut made with fresh Maine potatoes. They use wholesome ingredients including the highest quality dark cocoa powder and 60% dark chocolate chips in all of the chocolate donuts and glazes, and color their other glazes with only fruit juices or vegetable dyes. No fake colors!
Talya had walked past one of the shops earlier in the day when she didn't have time to stop and spied some of the donuts. When we met later that afternoon, she insisted we stop to try some. They were out! |
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Women's Wellness Circle: Create Your Extraordinary Life AuthorHi, I’m Crystal! If you'd like to access my Farmer's Market Friday posts from 2018, click here!
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