A Diet Riot...

This last week I spent some quality time evaluating my life--well habits anyway.

I came to a few conclusions: I can make really healthy and delicious meals (like the sumptuous shrimp stir fry you see to your right), I enjoy exercising (to an extent, I'm not sure I'll ever be on board with swimming for anything other than recreation--wet, meh), I have a pretty serious sugar addiction post kiddo, and I'm too tired to meal prep more than a day ahead of time (and seriously, I generally regret whatever I've packed for my lunch the night before...Tuesday Me doesn't feel like eating Monday Me's idea of a delicious salad).

I also had some thoughts on these conclusions and inadvertently did a little research (I know, most of you don't stumble into research, but hey, it can happen). Foremost, I have to figure out some way to eat better without diet guilt. What, you say, is "diet guilt?" Diet guilt is a term I just made up (because if George W. Bush can do it, so can I--I'm the decider)--n. the distraught feeling a person gets when they have gone off their diet, often resulting in complete nutritional sabotage.

A study I recently read, revealed that diets, in and of themselves, are unhealthy. Any longtime followers of my blog (and life) know that I agree wholeheartedly with this. All things in moderation. Carbs are not evil. etc. etc. This study proclaimed that when you restrict your food intake--whether by calories, carbs, whole foods, or whatever--you are more apt to break free from this restriction with major consequences--i.e. I already ate one cupcake that I shouldn't have...so I'll eat six more and start over again tomorrow. In doing so, you feel incredible guilt--diet guilt--and like a failure. 

This is the story of my life for the past few years. I stayed away from the wacky diet trends--because I know they're only a temporary (if at all) fix, and tried to focus on eating low calorie--but it was hard. I was thinking to myself, "Self...how did I manage to do this before and lose weight without starving?" The answer has two parts: 1) I was dedicated and it took me six months of being careful and exercising religiously to lose the initial weight, and 2) I eventually started running (like, a lot) and was able to eat more without thinking too much about that calorie count. Part 1 did allow me to focus on real food instead of the processed junk I was used to, and that was a good thing overall, but 2 made me feel good mentally and physically--and it wasn't about the calories.

So, I should know how to eat right, right? I do, but it's clouded by sugar cravings and tiredness (and I'm going to go ahead and blame my kid here, because keeping another person alive is more serious work than I realized, and I have never been so exhausted in my life--that's how kids change your life, right there.) What can I do? 

Eat more intuitively.

Huh? My research revealed that the answer to most people's dieting problems is

to get off the diets and eat. Eat when you feel hungry and what you really want to consume--if you don't love it, don't eat it. Stop. Think about what your body wants and needs, then decide what and when to consume it. Reading about intuitive eating was a revelation for me.  It should be obvious to us all, but we get sidetracked by modern life, the abundance of food here in the U.S. (what exactly are impossible burgers? veggie straws?), and our all too busy lifestyles--Americans are, in fact, the hardest working people overall in the world.

For most of my life, I think I've ignored the cues my body gave me about what to eat or drink and when. I snacked. I ate three meals a day. I skipped meals. I ate healthily. I ate not so healthily. Just what did I want to do? What out of the last 30-plus years did I really want to eat? Time to refocus.

So, this next week and beyond, I'm going to give the intuitive thing a shot. Stop, hey, what's that sound? It's my stomach rumbling. When I feel hungry I will eat something--something delicious and nutritious--until I'm not hungry anymore. It should be interesting because I'm headed on a work trip tomorrow to sunny Key West. (Follow my daily travel adventures HERE). Luckily, eating intuitively should work anywhere.