There is a tremendous amount of stress around what we eat or what we shouldn’t eat these days.  Marketing creates a great deal of confusion for consumers.  Low Carb diets, high protein diets and paleo diets are all out there and people are actually making money off of you and your beliefs and disbeliefs.   

First, let’s start with the word diet.  Diet is eating in general so essentially everyone is on some sort of diet.  As a noun, according to Google, a diet is the kinds of food a person habitually eats.  As a verb, Google defines a diet as a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.  So, there lies the difference.  One’s diet is different than dieting.

Most people have a goal or something they want to be dieting for.  Isn’t it interesting that most people don’t want to be dieting just for the sake of their health?  Unfortunately, not.  Even when a person achieves the goal of losing weight and feeling better, they don’t maintain the same eating habits.  

Dieting is really simple on its face.  Move the head in a no gesture when offered cake, sweets or any food when you are not hungry.  Then, the food itself, keep it basic.  Don’t add the extra salt and butter.  And, keep to whole foods. If it comes in a box, it probably doesn’t have that much nutritional value regardless of what the deceitful packaging says.   You can get creative without having to bake.  You can create delicious complex meals by just letting food be food.

If it’s on social media it’s probably a fad that someone is making money off of by selling you coaching and books so you can look like them and have their lifestyle.  Most people can’t afford the amount of money that those people spend on personal trainers and chefs.  There is so much fake stuff out there.  How do you know what to trust? 

Trust that a tomato is a tomato and onion is an onion.  Get to know your local farmers and find out what they are growing.  Most of them are worried about their impact on the food chain and want people to be happy and healthy.  See if you have a local produce box or mealkit service in your local area.   These are great ways to try new things and be a part of the process and economy of food.  

My diet is mostly comprised of fresh vegetables and lentils.  I am not dieting and keep a really good physical regimen of cardio, exercise and yoga.  You don’t need a gym membership to go for a walk.  Heck, you don’t even need tennis shoes depending on where you live.  Try to think about what you do out of routine and start a discipline of being good to yourself and taking care of the one body that you are going to get in this life.   Most of the time, it starts with loving yourself.