Along with breathing, sleeping and drinking; eating is one of the foundational building blocks upon which everything else is built. It has a direct correlation to focus, potential productivity and mood. We focus on getting 8 hours sleep, meditation to control our breathing and drink 2 litres of water each day before we think to monitor our relationship with food. With something so integral to our success, why isn’t it of primary concern?!
When was the last time you took a log of what you ate each week and then reflected on what’s working? This applies to all of us regardless of weight, activity or diet. Use an app or write down what you eat every day for a week, simply to see what you’re consuming. It might help to also note times you wake and go to sleep along with when you’re eating. With this you will have a more balanced picture of your habits.
We come to think we need certain items such as coffee or bread. It then becomes a part of our routine and becomes hard to break. We then focus on adding on top of a lacklustre diet to meet basic nutritional needs. How many people do you know that take a plethora of vitamins before looking at how to get these from their diet? This is the perfect example of our culture. It’s always adding instead of taking away. Taking the path of least resistance. We think this is efficient but don’t know how effective it is.
There’s no doubt that eating differently has the potential to improve your quality of life. Use foresight and be conscious of what problems you will run into further down the line if you continue to eat the way you do. Too much caffeine, too much takeaway, too much refined carbohydrates or processed food. It is challenging to exercise self-control but it will be too late in 20 years time when you’re being given medication by your doctor to reduce the strain on your body.
If you don’t know where to start, one aspect that is universal to all diets is vegetables. Are you eating enough veg? Two other easy questions are: what are you eating too much of and what do you actually not need? I’ve cut back portion sizes this past 3 months due to over-consuming in general. I’ve also cut out coffee in the past few days because I have been consuming mindlessly and telling myself that I need it. Again, most of this has been about removing instead of adding. This combined with more vegetable consumption and intermittent fasting is a simple way to create healthy boundaries.
We over complicate and tell ourselves lies backed up by articles we read to justify whatever it is we consume. That’s your narrative and it’s up to you to reflect to see what’s actually working for you.