As a health coach, I’ve researched and, not to mention, tried most diets out there. To be honest, it’s very overwhelming and confusing. Do you eat meat or not? Is fat good or bad for me? Are carbs bad? Everyday, it seems the news is changing about what’s good for you. Who should you believe? There’s always going to be someone to say, “oh that’s a horrible diet. I would never do that.”
Here’s the skinny, (see what I did there?) Every BODY is different. I repeat, every BODY is different. It’s called bio-chemical individuality. What works for some, may not work for others. There is no such thing as the average person. Have you every heard “one man’s medicine is another man’s poison?” It’s true. There is no one specific diet that everyone should follow. It’s all about what works for YOU. This explains why some people can tolerate meat more that others along with grains and gluten.
With my clients, we concentrate on the process of elimination. You have to be the detective to discover what works and doesn’t work for you. What I mean is, you need to figure out what foods trigger certain responses in your body. After eating that spaghetti and meat sauce did you feel bloated? Did you get a headache or have gas? Did you miraculously gain three pounds over night? All these things can be signs that your body isn’t fond of what you ate. This is where a food journal comes in. You want to keep a very detailed list of what you ate that day and how you felt afterwards. Did that turkey sandwich trigger an anxiety attack? Did you want to take a nap afterward? Write it down. Did you have a great day with no symptoms of distress? Great! Right it down.
Once you’ve gotten your journal going, it’s time to be the detective. Now that you’ve discovered the foods that could be troublesome, you now want to eliminate those one at at time. Don’t try to remove everything at once. You’ll never discover what foods aren’t working well for you. Take out one food at a time for at least two weeks and see how you feel. After the two weeks, try introducing that particular food back one day and see if those symptoms have returned. If so, then remove that food! Now, before you get upset and say, “but I LOVE pizza. I can never not have pizza again,” there’s always alternatives. Yes, I know, it never seems to taste the same. There are alternatives that can taste even better! You just have to research. In this day and age all you have to do is type in “vegan pizza” or “no flour crust pizza” and you’ll get tons of hits.
In the long run and for better health, isn’t it worth trying that alternative rather than suffering the consequences of eating that pizza? Easier said then done right? You have to be ready emotionally as well as physically to start your wellness journey. If you’re not willing to change your habits, nothing will change. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
It’s very important to have supporters behind you. Tell everyone you know what you’re up to. It helps to keep you accountable. Find friends that want to lose weight and feel great too. Get them on board! That’s why health coaches are important too. If you don’t have the support of family, friends or co-workers you can call on a health coach to give you great advice, guide and help you discover what works best for you. We also have the experience to find things that you didn’t think could affect your health. Having an experienced coach is invaluable.
So don’t despair if you jump on the hip new diet bandwagon and you don’t see the success that you were hoping for. Just remember what Dr Seuss said, ” “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”