Healthy Lifestyle = Perfect lifestyle?
Why is it that a 'healthy lifestyle' equates to 'the perfect lifestyle' where you MUST eat coconut oil and superfoods, or you MUST drink your green smoothies, protein shakes and detoxes and you MUST eat your healthy raw chocolates and everything organic - for it to 'count'?
Is there something in between the raw cacao bounty bars and the kombucha?
Can't you be healthy without kale?
And the million-dollar question: can you REALLY eat Tim tams and still be considered "healthy"?
Abso-fucking-lutley yes you can!
Bare with me before you want to throw all your Paleo bliss balls on my head.
I am going to be gutsy here and say that 'the PERFECT lifestyle’ doesn’t exist - not even on Instagram. However - what we do see on Instagram and social media in general - is all the good PERFECT stuff- so we get the illusion that a 'healthy lifestyle' must be a perfect one and absolutely cannot include anything less than ... PERFECTION.
Well, I am here to tell you that I call it BS.
I believe in BALANCE and I believe that balance can be achieved without consuming raw treats and coconut oil and sugar free everything until the cows comes home. I believe you can eat Tim tams and still call yourself 'healthy'!
So what is 'healthy'? What actually determines your health? The Dictionary simply puts 'health' as the 'absence of disease'.
I do believe that food is fuel for our bodies and that we should nourish it the best we can. But I also believe we EAT for more reasons than just to 'stay alive'. We eat for pleasure, celebratory reasons, cultural reasons, emotional reasons and enjoyment - to name a few reasons.
And it is when food becomes too emotionally attached and too obsessive we create a 'problem' and I believe our 'health trends' absolutely contribute to this. If we have too many 'food rules' or call them 'food beliefs', we sometimes can get very emotionally involved in our food choices and food behaviours.
Everyone knows that 'dieting' is bad. Everyone knows that the answer is not to 'diet' but to lead a 'healthy lifestyle'. Sometimes these get mixed up and a healthy lifestyle becomes a "dieting pattern" - far from anything 'healthy' should be.
It is true that we are all different individuals and all have different backgrounds, genetic makeup and also different lifestyle factors such as what we do for work, daily activity, sleep, alcohol intake, family commitments etc - that is also WHY the 'one size fits all' approach just simply doesn't work. Not everyone will thrive on "Paleo" or "gluten free" or "vegan" or "clean eating" for that matter. All these diet beliefs also mean different things to whoever you ask. Some can be quite extreme and rigid and some not so much (they may even cease to exist on weekends...!).
We are all different. And if YOUR diet choice (whatever you may call it) means you eat more veggies and fresh fruits, more whole foods, more fibre, more nutrients and drink more water, waste less, have a smaller carbon foot print and always chose the best you can - well that is fucking AMAZING - you deserve a medal!
But if your diet choice - your "diet LABEL", makes you feel anxious and stressed out about certain food choices and you don't know "if you should eat X or can't have X" or if using canned tomatoes for your dinner gives you heart palpitations - well then you might want to re-think your 'food attitudes' and what "healthy" means for you. If your "healthy lifestyle" gives you thoughts of "good and bad food choices" and feelings of GUILT when eating certain foods. Well then your healthy lifestyle isn't very healthy in my opinion.
We need to break free from the "diet trap".
There is a difference between a diet and a healthy lifestyle. Dieting requires self-discipline whereas healthy weight management or a healthy LIFESTYLE is about self-awareness. Dieting follows meal plans or food lists whereas a healthy lifestyle require your ability to solve problems. Dieting ignores or denies hunger signals – a healthy lifestyle requires a level of knowledge and skill about nutrition and exercise. Own it.
Dieting want you to rely on an external program or an expert, whereas a healthy lifestyle is all about learning and adjust along the way. Dieting calls foods “good and bad” a healthy lifestyle should be morally neutral. Dieting is valued for nutritional qualities and things it does not contain (eg No sugar, no fat) – a healthy lifestyle is valued for PLESASURE. A diet is often short term (12 week challenge, 30 day cleanse, 8 week bikini body challenge - then what??) – a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have an expiration date – it is for LIFE and your learn along the way and it should not make you feel like a failure or that you lack discipline.
I believe that sometimes healthy trends/lifestyles such as "Paleo" and "I quit sugar" etc, can actually do more harm than good - because they tell you that certain foods are "bad" and "should not be consumed"- 'Food rules' can add guilt and a level of striving to 'being perfect' ("consuming the perfect foods at ALL times").
If you would chose something classified as "unhealthy", when in reality - I think the saying "the portion makes the poison" fits perfectly.
I am NOT saying you should never eat coconut oil or never make "healthy treats". I am also NOT saying you should all go wild and eat Tim tams and lollies everyday.
What I am trying to get across is the EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS and feelings of guilt these kind of 'trends' and 'healthy lifestyles' brings about.
It is a learning curve to find BALANCE and what works for YOU. All I am saying here is - to THINK about how it makes you FEEL and how you can change your own food attitudes and decide for yourself what 'healthy' means.
For me - letting go of 'perfect' and letting go of 'always eating clean' opened up my mind and lessen the guilt for foods. I no longer became obsessed with that I "couldn’t have" or I didn't have the need to make sugar free brownies - I just ate a brownie. And enjoyed it.
That has taken me years to get rid of old food beliefs and guilt. And in terms of my own health, my 'absence of disease' - I have spotless blood works, perfect cholesterol levels and thyroid levels and feeling happy overall - of course with the seasonal colds and shitty challenging days we ALL endure because we are HUMANS not robots. I have come to realise that PERFECT doesn't exist - but I’m perfectly happy with my balance and that is GOOD ENOUGH.
The trends of "healthy GUILT FREE treats" and myriad of sugar free/paleo/glutenfree/whatever'free' cakes, slices, bliss balls and what not is exhausting! But what bothers me the most is the attitudes attached to these types of foods and the BELIEFS that they are HEALTHY and GUILT FREE (why any food should EVER make you feel guilty is the biggest worry!) and therefore many thinks that means 'all out' and eat these types of foods on a daily basis.
I am a firm believer on 'everything in moderation' - INCLUDING MODERATION.
And these ‘healthy treats’ are no exception.
It is true that all calories are different - in how the body process them. It depends how you eat them (alone or together with other foods and many foods are mixes of nutrients so a combination of carbs/fat/protein). What is still a fact though is that they still contain ENERGY (in the form of calories/kilojoules) - and yes - you can over-eat healthy foods too.
So be MINDFUL when you are making 'healthy treats' - yes you may have increased the NUTRIENT DENSITY with a few grams - but you may have also DOUBBLED (OR TRIPPLED) the CALORIE LOAD. I am NOT saying DO NOT make them or do not eat them. I am saying you just need to be mindful of this and be mindful about what kind of ‘message’ it sends to your own brain in terms of ‘food rules’ and beliefs and if it’s really “helping you” or if it’s just another way of covering an underlying ‘food guilt issues’.
Is your "healthy lifestyle" full of 'unnecessary rules' that dictates your day to day?
Does your "healthy lifestyle" cycles in an on and off season with detoxes and getting a summer body with periods of binges of both alcohol and too much food? Why is that you can’t be healthy 'all year around'? Have you set the bar too high for 'perfection'? Does your healthy feel like it’s impossible to keep up?
It shouldn't feel that way. Healthy should be ENJOYABLE and easy enough to 'do' all year around.
Maybe it's time to re-assess what it really means to be healthy? Or at least try and ditch the guilt for now and aim for GOOD ENOUGH?
> > If you enjoyed what you read - share or tag a friend! I'd love to get my 'voice' out there and start a healthy discussion about what you consider healthy and not!
> > I am new in the Blogging world - please be kind. I am not a writer, just a first time mum enjoying all things health - doughnuts obviously included. And I am Swedish - English is my second language so there might be some grammatical errors in there. Laugh with me ;)
Picture below is borrowed from the Instagram account by @fitnessdietitian_em
Is there something in between the raw cacao bounty bars and the kombucha?
Can't you be healthy without kale?
And the million-dollar question: can you REALLY eat Tim tams and still be considered "healthy"?
Abso-fucking-lutley yes you can!
Bare with me before you want to throw all your Paleo bliss balls on my head.
I am going to be gutsy here and say that 'the PERFECT lifestyle’ doesn’t exist - not even on Instagram. However - what we do see on Instagram and social media in general - is all the good PERFECT stuff- so we get the illusion that a 'healthy lifestyle' must be a perfect one and absolutely cannot include anything less than ... PERFECTION.
Well, I am here to tell you that I call it BS.
I believe in BALANCE and I believe that balance can be achieved without consuming raw treats and coconut oil and sugar free everything until the cows comes home. I believe you can eat Tim tams and still call yourself 'healthy'!
So what is 'healthy'? What actually determines your health? The Dictionary simply puts 'health' as the 'absence of disease'.
I do believe that food is fuel for our bodies and that we should nourish it the best we can. But I also believe we EAT for more reasons than just to 'stay alive'. We eat for pleasure, celebratory reasons, cultural reasons, emotional reasons and enjoyment - to name a few reasons.
And it is when food becomes too emotionally attached and too obsessive we create a 'problem' and I believe our 'health trends' absolutely contribute to this. If we have too many 'food rules' or call them 'food beliefs', we sometimes can get very emotionally involved in our food choices and food behaviours.
Everyone knows that 'dieting' is bad. Everyone knows that the answer is not to 'diet' but to lead a 'healthy lifestyle'. Sometimes these get mixed up and a healthy lifestyle becomes a "dieting pattern" - far from anything 'healthy' should be.
It is true that we are all different individuals and all have different backgrounds, genetic makeup and also different lifestyle factors such as what we do for work, daily activity, sleep, alcohol intake, family commitments etc - that is also WHY the 'one size fits all' approach just simply doesn't work. Not everyone will thrive on "Paleo" or "gluten free" or "vegan" or "clean eating" for that matter. All these diet beliefs also mean different things to whoever you ask. Some can be quite extreme and rigid and some not so much (they may even cease to exist on weekends...!).
We are all different. And if YOUR diet choice (whatever you may call it) means you eat more veggies and fresh fruits, more whole foods, more fibre, more nutrients and drink more water, waste less, have a smaller carbon foot print and always chose the best you can - well that is fucking AMAZING - you deserve a medal!
But if your diet choice - your "diet LABEL", makes you feel anxious and stressed out about certain food choices and you don't know "if you should eat X or can't have X" or if using canned tomatoes for your dinner gives you heart palpitations - well then you might want to re-think your 'food attitudes' and what "healthy" means for you. If your "healthy lifestyle" gives you thoughts of "good and bad food choices" and feelings of GUILT when eating certain foods. Well then your healthy lifestyle isn't very healthy in my opinion.
We need to break free from the "diet trap".
There is a difference between a diet and a healthy lifestyle. Dieting requires self-discipline whereas healthy weight management or a healthy LIFESTYLE is about self-awareness. Dieting follows meal plans or food lists whereas a healthy lifestyle require your ability to solve problems. Dieting ignores or denies hunger signals – a healthy lifestyle requires a level of knowledge and skill about nutrition and exercise. Own it.
Dieting want you to rely on an external program or an expert, whereas a healthy lifestyle is all about learning and adjust along the way. Dieting calls foods “good and bad” a healthy lifestyle should be morally neutral. Dieting is valued for nutritional qualities and things it does not contain (eg No sugar, no fat) – a healthy lifestyle is valued for PLESASURE. A diet is often short term (12 week challenge, 30 day cleanse, 8 week bikini body challenge - then what??) – a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have an expiration date – it is for LIFE and your learn along the way and it should not make you feel like a failure or that you lack discipline.
I believe that sometimes healthy trends/lifestyles such as "Paleo" and "I quit sugar" etc, can actually do more harm than good - because they tell you that certain foods are "bad" and "should not be consumed"- 'Food rules' can add guilt and a level of striving to 'being perfect' ("consuming the perfect foods at ALL times").
If you would chose something classified as "unhealthy", when in reality - I think the saying "the portion makes the poison" fits perfectly.
I am NOT saying you should never eat coconut oil or never make "healthy treats". I am also NOT saying you should all go wild and eat Tim tams and lollies everyday.
What I am trying to get across is the EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS and feelings of guilt these kind of 'trends' and 'healthy lifestyles' brings about.
It is a learning curve to find BALANCE and what works for YOU. All I am saying here is - to THINK about how it makes you FEEL and how you can change your own food attitudes and decide for yourself what 'healthy' means.
For me - letting go of 'perfect' and letting go of 'always eating clean' opened up my mind and lessen the guilt for foods. I no longer became obsessed with that I "couldn’t have" or I didn't have the need to make sugar free brownies - I just ate a brownie. And enjoyed it.
That has taken me years to get rid of old food beliefs and guilt. And in terms of my own health, my 'absence of disease' - I have spotless blood works, perfect cholesterol levels and thyroid levels and feeling happy overall - of course with the seasonal colds and shitty challenging days we ALL endure because we are HUMANS not robots. I have come to realise that PERFECT doesn't exist - but I’m perfectly happy with my balance and that is GOOD ENOUGH.
The trends of "healthy GUILT FREE treats" and myriad of sugar free/paleo/glutenfree/whatever'free' cakes, slices, bliss balls and what not is exhausting! But what bothers me the most is the attitudes attached to these types of foods and the BELIEFS that they are HEALTHY and GUILT FREE (why any food should EVER make you feel guilty is the biggest worry!) and therefore many thinks that means 'all out' and eat these types of foods on a daily basis.
I am a firm believer on 'everything in moderation' - INCLUDING MODERATION.
And these ‘healthy treats’ are no exception.
It is true that all calories are different - in how the body process them. It depends how you eat them (alone or together with other foods and many foods are mixes of nutrients so a combination of carbs/fat/protein). What is still a fact though is that they still contain ENERGY (in the form of calories/kilojoules) - and yes - you can over-eat healthy foods too.
So be MINDFUL when you are making 'healthy treats' - yes you may have increased the NUTRIENT DENSITY with a few grams - but you may have also DOUBBLED (OR TRIPPLED) the CALORIE LOAD. I am NOT saying DO NOT make them or do not eat them. I am saying you just need to be mindful of this and be mindful about what kind of ‘message’ it sends to your own brain in terms of ‘food rules’ and beliefs and if it’s really “helping you” or if it’s just another way of covering an underlying ‘food guilt issues’.
Is your "healthy lifestyle" full of 'unnecessary rules' that dictates your day to day?
Does your "healthy lifestyle" cycles in an on and off season with detoxes and getting a summer body with periods of binges of both alcohol and too much food? Why is that you can’t be healthy 'all year around'? Have you set the bar too high for 'perfection'? Does your healthy feel like it’s impossible to keep up?
It shouldn't feel that way. Healthy should be ENJOYABLE and easy enough to 'do' all year around.
Maybe it's time to re-assess what it really means to be healthy? Or at least try and ditch the guilt for now and aim for GOOD ENOUGH?
> > If you enjoyed what you read - share or tag a friend! I'd love to get my 'voice' out there and start a healthy discussion about what you consider healthy and not!
> > I am new in the Blogging world - please be kind. I am not a writer, just a first time mum enjoying all things health - doughnuts obviously included. And I am Swedish - English is my second language so there might be some grammatical errors in there. Laugh with me ;)
Picture below is borrowed from the Instagram account by @fitnessdietitian_em
First "TEST Blog"
So before I post my first "official post" I thought I do a TEST RUN and see if I put all the links in the right places.
Bare with me guys. This has only taken me 3 years o figure out ;)
In the meantime go read my 'ABOUT' section and let me know if there are any particular topics you would like me to cover, in future Blog posts.
It can be anything nutrition related, pre - post partum, general nutrition or fitness and training - or even #mumlife, anything! Leave a comment on Instagram ;P
Okay - let's get this BLOG started !!
Bare with me guys. This has only taken me 3 years o figure out ;)
In the meantime go read my 'ABOUT' section and let me know if there are any particular topics you would like me to cover, in future Blog posts.
It can be anything nutrition related, pre - post partum, general nutrition or fitness and training - or even #mumlife, anything! Leave a comment on Instagram ;P
Okay - let's get this BLOG started !!