Wraps, and pills, and shakes OH MY!

So. I am actually here laughing in my head at the latest *Eat this, don't eat that!* garbage being spouted here on FB. I have MANY years of *dieting* under my belt. Up until about hmmm....a year ago? Maybe a year and a half...I too was on that *quest*...the quest for THE perfect diet. It started when I was a young teen. Dieting to be *thin*...which turned into disordered eating, of course, and carried me int adulthood. Then I was on a quest. I still was buying into diets as the miracle cure for ALL life's problems. And let me tell you, there are not many I haven't tried. But over the last few years I started to slowly have epiphanies. I started to get REALLY annoyed by all the pills/shakes/wraps aka *quick fix* garbage out there promising based on VERY biased studies that THIS was THE thing to make ALL people THIN!!! Glory BE!!! Um...about that...

So, through much reading and a FAR broader slice of people's experiences I realized that it really IS pretty simple...there are no BAD foods, if you are eating minimally processed foods in moderation. Sugar is not evil. Fat is not of the devil. Meat/dairy will not give you cancer. Butter will not give you a heart attack. If you are eating enough food to fuel your lifestyle, and your lifestyle includes daily activity, movement, etc...its all good. I don't care HOW fantabulous those shakes *claim* to be, eating real food is better. Wraps? Please. Water weight you will gain back as soon as you LOOK at a glass of H20. Pills? We aren't even going to go there.

I have run the gamut as far as diets and health/stomach issues go. And oddly enough, I feel the best and have the least problems when I simply eat what my body wants. Pizza? Pasta? Salad? Ice cream? Yep. All of it. I do not look at calorie content, fat content and to be honest I have NO idea how many calories I consume in a day(probably not enough)I eat what I want when I want, and stop when I feel full. I do a lot of training, so I could probably eat a lot more(working on it, lol)

Thing is, all the *health foods* out there or lo fat, lo cal, garbage? When they take out something that is supposed to be there, ie fat/sugar/etc they have to replace it with something so you still want to eat it. Changes are it is some chemical cocktail that, honestly? Your body doesn't know what to do with. Newsflash- your body NEEDS fat and carbs. It knows what to do with a reasonable amount of sugar. REAL sugar not garbage fake sugar. Eat real food. Move your body. Throw in some strengthening exercises and guess what? Your weigh will most likely normalize for what is right for YOU. (and you probably are not a size 2 so move on from that) See how much better you feel. How much better you sleep at night. How much more energy you have. It really is THAT simple. I am a complicated medical hot mess and this works even for ME. I sleep. I have energy. My weight is stable. I just had my second illness of the winter and it could have been worse, AND I am normally one who will catch EVERYTHING.

I am not saying that some of these diets are wrong. Paleo/Raw food/vegan/etc DO work for SOME people. You have to be extremely diligent and committed to doing those diets properly. I do not believe (aside from vegan, which I still do not think is right for everyone) that any of these diets/lifestyles is good for MOST people over the long haul. I do know a SMALL, very small actually, slice of people who are doing well on the above diets. Bot for the average population? No. Could you go paleo/raw/vegan for a period of time to switch things up, lose weight, overhaul your diet? Sure. Probably wouldn't hurt for a month or 3...longer than that, unless you are one of those people who just can really do well with that eating? You are going to fall off that wagon right quick. And why set yourself up for failure?

As a PT I am pretty much against prescribing ANY sort of *diet* for anyone beyond eating real food. Are you going to shed 30lbs in a month(if you even needed to to begin with)? No. However, you add some exercise and strengthening to your lifestyle, eat real foods, all things in moderation(forget about cheat days/meals...really? cheat eating? How foolish). If you are an athlete then yes, how you eat, your ratios, would be of more concern as you need to fuel your life AND your activities. But if you are simply looking to live healthy and feel good...it is a lot easier than the diet industry will have you believe. They have you thinking it needs to be a *sprint*...if you want to make lasting changes, you need to treat it like a marathon.

And, if you need any help on that journey....I am available ;)