Not allowed. Don’t eat. Exclude. That’s why diets don’t work. They’re too negative and they take us out of our comfort zone. I believe, rather, that we need a mindset that expands our options, that gives a positive spin on food.
Everybody can benefit greatly from the spirit of inclusion. This is not saying you can’t have. It’s saying, start with these extra foods. Add this to your diet.
I just keep adding good foods to the foods I already eat. Putting cake out on the table now means putting bananas and grapes out as well. Eating a simple salad is made more nutrient dense with chia seeds, pepitas and macadamia nuts or cashews or almonds. I drink a green smoothie made of fruit, leafy vegies and seeds for my ‘first’ breakfast then have something else later if I feel like it. While I’m preparing food I munch on cucumber. I cut about four inches off a cucumber then chop it lengthwise into quarters and crunch away.
This is very liberating. It’s a delicious, expansive way of living. It stops me falling into the trap that I must embrace some kind of diet (ranging from veganism to paleo eating) to be healthy. I don’t have to become a crank who has an ever-limited range of food that is ‘acceptable’. I simply include more. I have more salad vegetables at lunchtime. I always add chia and pepita seeds. Sometimes I make up a quinoa salad as well, sometimes cottage cheese, sometimes haloumi cheese that I pan-fry dry or in a little coconut oil. Sometimes a piece of bread and butter. I still eat chocolate afterwards. At night I cook meat and vegies as normal, but these days I prepare more vegetables.
Losing weight is no longer the issue. Eating more nutritionally is the grand consideration. I don’t need to ban bread, never eat cake again or eschew the delicious crunch of chips. There are so many wonderful vegetables out there (including sea vegetables), so many interesting fruits, seeds and nuts.
And if, horror of all horrors, I put on weight at first, what does it matter? My poor fat, starved body will at last be getting the nutrients to needs to stabilise, to heal and to work properly in my service for a long and healthy life. That’s how it’s happening for me, anyway.