In the last post, I tried to put on pixels, if you will, some things I’ve been thinking about as I learn more about how best to fuel this body God gave me.
What it seems to boil down to for me is this:
Discarding the unrealistic and unsustainable, and then learning through practice how to effectively fuel your body in a way that you not only can live with, but actually enjoy. Selah.
That sentence sounds simpler than I’d have thought — maybe deceptively so. Some people might read this, nod, and think “that makes sense,” and go on with the day. Other people, like me, might think “Easy to say, harder to do.”
I know, for example, that I will need to reread this post and revisit this topic at least a handful times in the future when I find myself needing to make some adjustments for the sake of my health. So I want to put some meat on the bones of this definition while it’s fresh in the hopes that it’ll be here for me (and anyone else it helps) when I need it again.
To that end, let’s break down this recipe for success into its component parts: first, “Discarding the unrealistic and unsustainable.”
Discard everything unrealistic and unsustainable.
This is my approach to winnowing the hundreds of diets, plans and protocols that are out there. There are just so many, I needed a way to narrow it down to what just makes sense in my life. Because to be honest, these get-trim-quick schemes get to me. They have distracted me and sucked me into time- and money-wasters that do more to hurt my health than help it.
Unrealistic. Look. You didn’t earn your overweight body or unhealthy eating habits in 7 days of hardcore binging. You’re not going to undo it in that amount of time either. So just rule out anything that promises unrealistic timebound results. Those programs are telling us what we want to hear, but not necessarily the truth. Along these lines, I have vowed to just discard anything that makes big promises followed by the disclaimer, “* results not typical.” They’re lying. So basically, I rule out every diet advertised on television. That may be too black-and-white for some, but it helps me clear the clutter of choices and more importantly, it keeps me from getting distracted from the things I know I need to be doing but don’t always want to do.
Unsustainable. In this category, I put any program I wouldn’t commit myself or my family to for the rest of my life.
The. Rest. of. My. Life.
So if I’m not willing to shell out $30-$200 a month on supplements, shakes, pills, powders, packages forever, it’s not for me even in the short-term.
Short-term solutions are such a temptation. We want fast results. Or at least a jumpstart that motivates us to keep going when the going gets tough. I am such a sucker for these, and I have tried A LOT of them.
Here’s the thing: they don’t work because the results don’t last because they don’t actually train you to effectively fuel your body over the long haul. They just don’t. They just waste a bunch of time you could be spending learning how to treat your body right.
So if we’re looking for a lasting solution, we need to focus only on things we know could have staying power in our lives. If you don’t like it or you won’t stick with it, don’t do it.
A friend reminded me of a very important exception to this rule, however, for this simple reason: life is full of seasons, and our body’s needs can change as we move through those seasons. There is a place for short-term health measures such as fasting from one or more types of foods for a period of time, either for spiritual reasons or as a detox for your system. For example, some people opt to fast from certain foods or beverages during the month of January to recoup some balance after the holidays. Others set aside a couple weeks each year to fast and pray, seeking the Lord on various matters. Those who suspect food sensitivities or allergies may undergo an elimination diet for a period of time to isolate the cause of their discomfort. Some commit to extended water fasting or intermittent fasting to heal the body.
These are all individual decisions and valid considerations depending on someone’s needs. The difference is that we undertake these types of efforts as targeted short-term efforts for a specific short-term purpose — we’re not fooling ourselves into thinking a short-term solution is going to solve a long-term problem. The key here is having our heads on straight. Having committed, then, to making long-haul changes necessary to sustain the results we’re looking for, it’s time to put our plan to work.
Learning through practice.
Once we have a game plan in mind, it’s time to take it off paper and put it to work in the real world. Some things about it will work well for us, some things won’t. We’ll need to find ways to adapt it to our lives.
Odds are this is not your first day when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating. We all have a body of experience … so to speak … from which to draw. We know people who have lost weight successfully and kept it off. We know people who lost weight and gained it back. We’ve possibly been one or both of those people. We know people who do not in fact struggle with their weight at all. We can learn from all of them.
Ask yourself and/or the people around you some questions that can help you make some decisions or at least get a start on figuring out the best way to eat. How and what did you eat when you were at a healthy weight or felt healthy in your skin? How is that the same and different from what you’re doing now? Are there foods you eat that you tend to overeat every time? What are they?
Look objectively at your own eating habits and compare them with one or two healthy people you know. Compare and contrast. These don’t have to result in hard and fast rules for you, but can be instructive. For example, I used to work in an office building with a cafeteria. You could draw some insightful hypotheses from watching who went to the comfort food line versus the salad bar, and who brown-bagged it from home.
Talk to your healthcare provider. Remember theirs is just an opinion, too, but it’s generally an educated opinion and offers an important perspective. There’s valuable science out there that can guide us on calories, macronutrient (fat, protein, carbohydrate) ratios, and the nutritional content (or lack thereof) of various foods. You don’t need to become a nutritionist, but it wouldn’t hurt to talk to one.
Check labels, especially of the foods you eat a lot. Learn what’s in the food you’re eating and keep track of that as your eating habits evolve over time. If you don’t do this regularly, chances are there are a few surprises hiding in there for you.
Read up. If there’s a way of eating you’re interested in, read up on it. Check at least three sources, and if you’re Googling, intentionally search for not just the pros of a way of eating but also the cons. A lot of information on the internet is more infomercial than anything else, so use common sense and a healthy dose of discernment.
Pay attention to what, when, where and how you’re eating. Write it down every day and look back over it now and again to find patterns. What do you notice? What worked well? What didn’t work well?
As I began to do this legwork and answer these questions for myself, two things have become really clear:
- At first, I needed some firm guardrails to help me acclimate to what amounted to significant change. Like most kids will need tricycles and training wheels before working their way up to mountain biking, I needed a period of rigorous rule-following to get the hang of my different way to eating.
- Once I got the hang of it, I needed to adjust the rulebook to fit my life. We can’t wear someone else’s shoes. We can’t make someone else’s decisions. We don’t see the world through anyone’s eyes but our own, and we can’t follow someone else’s recipe for taking care of our body. It’s personal, and we have to make it our own. With practice, we learn which rules to keep, which to bend and which to break as we adopt strategies that fit our lives.
One key to this second item, for me, has been journaling. I am a writer to begin with — not everybody is. Maybe it’s easier for you to do post-it notes or video blogging or meditation to accomplish the same thing. For me, something about deliberately reflecting on what I’m learning and then committing it to paper (or its electronic equivalent) helps things “stick.”
By reflecting on our practice over time, we can find patterns that help us learn and adapt. I generally keep some type of food log. Sometimes this is hardcore tracking with macronutrients, time-stamped and cross-referenced with the weather. Much more often, it’s an accountability step of writing down what I ate over the course of the day and what influenced it. I also note any other factors that might contribute to my health — activity, stress level, how I spent the day. Believe it or not, this simple step has sometimes helped me to realize I’ve spent way too many hours in front of the computer working this week, prompting me to carve out time to get outside.
Journaling exercise efforts has helped me figure out what works for me (yoga and cardio I can do at home, preferably outside, usually by myself — hello, Introvert!) and what doesn’t (most workout classes, anything I have to drive to).
One last note on the topic of practice: nobody gets it right on the first try. Even the most gifted writer, musician, artist, dancer, singer, stunt-biker has to put the time in to hone his or her craft. Most of life, in fact, boils down to practice. It’s natural that we experience failure or results that aren’t what we set out for. Instead of letting that derail us altogether, we regroup and adjust our approach and keep going.
I love this video — nothing sums up the purpose of practice quite like this. It inspires me when I feel like I might be a failure. Watching it reminds me that every fall, every fail, every time we get up, we get stronger and just a little bit better. Those little movements transform us over time.
This adaptability and resilience are important especially as we progress through different stages of life where our needs and bodies change, with age, pregnancy, activity levels, injuries, new or different demands on our time, etc.
The next post will tackle the last half of the healthy eating definition — effectively fueling our bodies, in a way that we can not only live with, but enjoy.
This is all so true. It really does take a long while to change one’s everyday habits! In more ways than one. But it does, however, work if one adheres to the plan faithfully. I, too, loved the video. I have seen some of this child’s training videos in the past–she is amazing! But, again, we are all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit to be able to do as well as time and training and WORK to do so! Good articles on changing life style habits.