I’m often asked about my diet, what I eat, what I don’t eat…
The answer is simple: I (now) love eating, I eat often – usually 5 times a day – the only thing I strictly exclude from my diet is meat. I never had meat in my whole life, so for me it’s easy to leave it out. Not knowing what it tastes like and being aware of where it comes from made me never desire to try it, ever.
I spent the first half of my life so far, with no interest in food. I ate to survive, and found no pleasure in it. As a teenager, I started appreciating food and learning how to cook. I begun reading books about nutrition, learnt plenty about food preparing meals with my mum and helping out at my auntie’s vegetarian restaurant during high school summers.
I was lucky to be brought up eating healthy, freshly made vegetarian food and to develop an interest in nutrition and educate myself about it.
Only a few years ago, I started to integrate some fish in my diet and I now have it about 3 times a week. All other meals are vegan or vegetarian.
For me eating healthy is a pleasure, not a pain. I often indulge in delicious desserts and the occasional drink… It is all about balance.
The “secret” to staying healthy and in good shape, is not about dieting or forcing yourself to eat what you don’t like or depriving yourself from what you love. It’s about discovering the pleasure of eating a balanced diet. One full of fresh products, rich in nutrients and homemade, when possible.
Eating healthy is a way to show love to your body, to appreciate it for what it does for you.
If you treat your body with love, it will change for the better.
There are so many diets out there, and maybe you tried some of them in the past.
Often people diet for a short term goal, like the holidays or in preparation for a special occasion and then gain back the weight quickly. Diets only really offer lasting results if they are a way to learn good habits and make them part of your lifestyle.
Think more long term health and less short term diets.
Sometimes food and weight take up so much of our attention that it prevents us from living our lives to the fullest. Weight isn’t the most important thing! If we eat a variety of clean, unprocessed, nutritionally balanced food, everything falls into place of its own accord. The body knows how much it is supposed to weigh, but it needs the right food to reach that optimal number.
A few tips:
Keep it whole
The food you eat should remain as close to how nature intended it to be. Eat it in the state it was found, or close enough to it.
Unprocessed
This is about avoiding industrially manufactured food and often contain an endless list of ingredients. Avoid reduced fat products as they are highly processed and ultimately less healthy than their full fat version.
Organic and clean
Prefer organic products to avoid filling the body up with the toxins that come from pesticides. One of my favorite quotes from Louise Hay says: “Toxic bodies are fat, healthy bodies settle at the perfect weight”.
Seasonal
When choosing to eat according to the season, you eat fresher, more nutritious food that nourishes your body.
Prefer vegetarian food
It doesn’t mean you can’t have a healthy diet if you eat fish and meat. Just try to reduce animal products. For example, could you start by making one of the main meals each day vegetarian?
Freshly made
Try to prepare your food daily. Freshly made food, cooked with love, contains more prana, life force. Prana rich food nourishes the mind, the body, increases our physical energy and promotes positive thinking.
Trust you body’s signals
Ultimately your food choices should reflect your own needs, as different people react differently to the same food. The best way to judge whether something is good for you or not is to observe how you react to it. How do you feel after eating certain types of food? Do you feel energized or do your energy levels drop? Do you feel bloated if you eat certain types of food? How does your gut respond to what you eat? Learning to observe and trust the signals that the body sends us can be a life changing discovery that guides you on the path of health.
Rather than starting the next seasonal diet, start to make small changes, step by step move towards a healthier lifestyle. Take pleasure in eating what’s in your plate and remember to treat yourself too. It’s all about finding your balance.
Remember eating well is just one aspect of building a healthy lifestyle. Make sure you drink plenty of water and keep active!