Dieting? Nourishment? Healthy Eating? What Should Be My Mental Approach To Food?

Let's begin by defining what diet means according to the Webster's dictionary. Diet is a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons. I don't know about you but just hearing the word restricts makes me want to avoid using it when I am referring to eating right. I understand if you have certain food restrictions due to illness or allergies and even then you can enjoy foods that are not only delicious but nourishing. Unfortunately the word diet is being used to promote multimillion dollar businesses and we have bought into the idea that in order to lose the weight or look certain way we "must" follow certain trendy diet. I tried all kinds of diets; the low carb/high fat, the high protein/low fat, the only vegetables/protein, the shakes/bars, the no animal flesh and the no this and no that etc. etc. I think you got the point.

For years I jumped from diet to diet hoping I would land on the right one. Until one day when I thought no one was watching and I was redressing my self (after weighting my self naked for the second or third time during the day) my daughter looked at me curiously and asked "why are you always doing that?" I did not know what to say I was confronted with a question I was afraid to answer to myself. After that soul impacting moment I took some time to release all the emotions in paper and in tears. I did a reasonable amount of introspection work and was courageous enough to admit all that I was doing wrong. The lack of being a good example to my young daughters, was what hit me the most.

From then on I decided I was going to ignore every thing I thought I knew about dieting/healthy eating and instead I was going to nourish my body with everything that needed including the fat and all. I continued studying and applying the knowledge but this time I was doing it from a loving and caring heart towards myself. I went down to my Guatemalan roots and the nourishment/nutrition I had as a growing child. I remembered my beloved grandmother who was wise, fit and healthy never counting calories or depriving me or herself of any foods instead she would often say "eat it, it is good for you, you need it". I had three meals and two snacks every single day- and at the exact time every day! Every plate she served me was adorned with color from vegetables or fruits, some sort of protein (animal flesh or legumes) corn tortillas or bread and fat -usually avocado, Guatemala grows the biggest ones!

And what does healthy eating mean? As a personal trainer and health coach I work with people from different food preferences and one thing most of them have in common is the way they look at eating healthy. They would describe it as boring, tasteless and depriving oneself; something that is done temporarily. And I can totally relate. Eating healthy may mean one thing to the person that is trying to avoid animal flesh than to the bodybuilder who is adding the extra portion of lean chicken breast to his/her meal. One person may not enjoy eating fruits or vegetables but loves legumes, nuts and seeds that contain many of the essential minerals he/she needs to nourish his/her body. In the other hand, another person has no problem eating vegetables and complex carbs but does not enjoy animal foods or legumes and finds it difficult to keep his protein intake high. Are they eating healthy? Yes they are! They are both eating healthy foods.

The point here is that we are going to have food preferences and will gravitate to have more of one food than the other. I'd tell my daughters when they were younger "it is not about keeping the taste palate happy all the time, it is also about giving your body what it needs". And I must add now, in the right amounts in order to leave room for the other foods that contain the other essential nutrients. Next time when you are tempted to think of someone as the "eating healthy" person because he/she is eating a bunch of kale, stop yourself and remember that our body needs a lot more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than a certain food can have.

How about nourishment? Let's see what the dictionary says about it. Nourishment: the food or other substances necessary for growth, health and good condition. Provides what is needed for someone to be healthy, developed and strong. That is exactly what I would want for you my awesome people! no deprivation, confusion or limitations. I embraced this mind set and my life changed. I no longer struggle with food, I love food and eat everything that nourishes my body. Do I eat the cake once in a while? of course I do! Do I get the extra slice of cake? Probably not. But I have learned to enjoy all foods because I know they help me get and stay healthy and strong in a daily basis. I am all about teaching people what foods their bodies need and their portions and number of calories according to their current weight in order to lose weight, gain weight or maintain.

If you are interested in losing weight, gaining lean muscle mass or maintaining check out my programs. I have worked and developed these courses to help you look and feel great where ever you find yourself at this present moment and the goal at hand.

Know that I love you and genuinely care for you. I look at each and everyone of you as a family perhaps a brother or a sister dealing with the things I once dealt with for years and now has the opportunity to create a new life starting with self care, self nourishment.