My relationship with food has been a roller coaster ride. After being overweight, I have lost weight, gained it, and lost it again multiple times. If you can name a popular diet, there is a good chance I tried to follow it at one point or another. These experiences, combined with years of working with clients, taught me many hard lessons about what really matters in nutrition.
I believe all the nutrition information floating around these days has actually done people a disservice when it comes to getting and staying in great shape. Most of us have too many rules we try to follow which sap our willpower and don’t leave us looking or feeling any better.
In my quest to pare back the steps it takes to live a healthy life, I work with clients to help them get rid of the BS and instead focus on the few factors which really move the needle: caloric balance, food quality, balance, and eating in a way you actually enjoy.
This week’s blog post shares 3 big ideas about nutrition I’ve changed my mind about since I began my own fitness journey. If you’re struggling to identify which food rules to follow and which to ignore, I think you’ll find this information helpful.
If you missed last week’s post sharing 3 training ideas I no longer believe, check it out here.
There are “good foods” and “bad foods.”
Almost everyone has a mental list of good and bad foods. Our bad foods lists vary widely and could include anything from fast food, gluten, dairy, sweets, carbs, fats, fruits, and meat.
When I was first dieting, I got swept up in some of the popular nutritional dogmas floating around the internet. At various times I followed a paleo diet, keto diet, carb backloading, intermittent fasting (more on this below), and did a Whole 30.
In retrospect, following these restrictive diets was very destructive for my long-term relationship with food. I always struggled with emotional and bored eating, but placing certain foods on a do-not-eat list took it to a whole other level. Now, these foods became even more appealing precisely because they were off limits. When I did break my strict rules (and it always happened eventually), I felt compelled to eat as much of these foods as possible all at once because I knew they would be off-limits again soon. This led to a battle with binging and restricting that I’m still working through.
These days, I’ve completely done away with my do-not-eat list. Instead, I follow a moderation-based approach. I can eat any food at any time, but I only eat enough to feel satisfied. This usually means eating just a few bites of a formerly forbidden food as opposed to gulping down as much as I could eat and not paying attention to how full I felt or if I even wanted to continue eating. Taking foods off a pedestal actually reduces my cravings because I don’t feel a sense of urgency to eat ALL the things at once.
Furthermore, much of the “science” behind restrictive eating plans is misleading. While it’s true our bodies behave in certain ways, there is a ton of individual variation regarding food tolerance. We all have different immune, digestive, and hormonal systems. Some people are very sensitive to many foods; others have no food sensitivities whatsoever. For example, I’ve learned I don’t have any negative reactions to eating gluten, even though some people report feeling dramatically better when they remove it from their diets.
There is no magic that happens when you follow a restrictive diet. In most cases, the impressive results you may experience happen simply because you’ve eliminated a lot of calories from your normal diet. You can achieve this same effect without the unnecessary suffering caused by highly restrictive diets. Additionally, the psychological benefits of taking a more moderate approach will continue to serve you long after you hit your goal.
Takeaway: You don’t have to remove certain foods or food groups from your diet just because someone else told you to. Experiment to learn about your body and decide which foods leave you looking, feeling, and performing your best.
You have to eat (or not eat) certain foods at certain times to see good results.
There are a lot of ideas surrounding the best time to eat (or not eat) certain foods. Here are a few ideas I once believed:
- Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
- You should skip breakfast and fast for 14-16 hours each day.
- If you don’t eat within an hour of your workout, you’ll lose all your training gains.
- You should eat as little fat as possible on training days. On off days, eat as little carbs as possible.
- Don’t eat carbs before bed.
- Eat more frequently throughout the day to stoke your metabolism.
Reading all of these in a single list reveals just how silly this is. How can all of these ideas be true when some of them contradict each other? The answer is many of them are not true, or at least not important for every person at all times.
For elite athletes and physique competitors, nutrient timing is an important part of results. But at most, nutrition timing makes up about 10% of your results. It’s just not a big rock for most people. If you’re not consistently nailing your calorie balance, getting enough sleep, training hard, and eating mostly high-quality foods, it doesn’t matter when you eat.
Takeaway: Don’t worry so much about the most ideal time to eat. Instead, find an eating routine which controls calories, works with your schedule, manages hunger and cravings, and provides consistent energy and focus throughout the day.
Food issues are always about food.
I’ve learned through my coaching and personal experience that many times, issues with food are rooted in deeper psychological and emotional problems.
If you’ve been yo-yo dieting for many years without much to show for it, another diet is likely not the solution you need. Many people use food as a coping mechanism to deal with deeper personal struggles. Going on a diet treats a symptom rather than going after the root cause.
I used food for many years as a way to numb uncomfortable feelings like anxiety, boredom, and loneliness. Some of my clients have used food to exert control when they felt powerless to change other areas of their lives. There are a million reasons why we may have learned to use food to cope with or get through difficult situations.
If you truly want to change the way you eat, you need to realize these behaviors are no longer serving you. This requires you to get more in touch with your thoughts and emotions to determine what’s really going on. When you can more clearly notice and name your emotions, you can respond to them appropriately without food.
Mindfulness practices like meditation have helped me get more in touch with my feelings and recognize when I’m using food as a tool to blunt or numb uncomfortable emotions. Meditation was challenging for me at first – I’m a very wired person most of the time – but taking time to sit with myself without distractions has taught me to be less reactive to my feelings and environmental stimuli. Journaling can also be a helpful tool to get out of your head and look at things more objectively. (You can learn more about these and other tools in my Beat Emotional Eating blog here).
Takeaway: You may not need another diet. I encourage you to take some time to learn about yourself on a deeper level. Aim to be less reactive and rely less on food as a coping mechanism. Also, learn to get more comfortable in your skin. If you don’t like yourself now, you won’t like yourself 20 pounds lighter.
Food is an important part of life. We eat not only to survive, but also as a way to celebrate, try new things, and get in touch with our roots. If you’ve struggled with your relationship with food, or simply haven’t experienced success changing your body because you never know what advice to believe, there is hope for you. By filtering through the noise and learning to listen to your body, you can create a nutrition approach which balances calories, works with your lifestyle, and is enjoyable and fulfilling.
If you want some help figuring all this out, please reach out to me here.