Why We Don’t Eat What We “Should” Be Eating

I need to start with a spotlight on the word “should”…it’s a big pet peeve of mine. We’re constantly weighed down with what we “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing. We “should” all over ourselves! This is not helpful. The moment we use the word “should” we judge ourselves.

Look at these two sentences:

1. I should be eating more vegetables.
2. I could be eating more vegetables.

The latter is a statement, while the former has a big weight of judgment added to it. After a while, all of these “shoulds” we fill ourselves with start spilling out and we start to tell others what they “should” be doing.

“Should” doesn’t help us move forward, it holds us down. When it comes to diet we all know what we “should” be eating, but few of us do it. Let’s throw away the unhelpful word “should” and replace it with non-judgmental words like “could”, “can”, or even “will”.

Ahhhh, that feels better :). So, why don’t we eat the healthy diet that we could be eating?

Chocolate chunks

Our daily diet is made up from a collection of decisions, and I feel that to get to the core of our dietary dilemmas we need to look at what drives these decisions. My hypothesis is that our state of mind when we are choosing what to eat drives what we choose to eat. Let me give you some examples:

Scenario 1: You come home from work and you’re STARVING! You could eat almost anything that’s put in front of you. You’re craving a fast hit of sugar or carbs, and you want it now. Your energy is low and the prospect of spending the next hour chopping, cooking, and waiting for dinner is very unappealing. So…what do you do? Make a big healthy meal, or just grab some chocolate from the cupboard? Or, do you just pick up something quick for dinner on your way home?

HEFEA10305_A.RGB

Scenario 2: You come home from work and you're feeling a bit hungry. You feel like you could eat in the next hour or two. Your energy is pretty good and you would really like to eat a big pile of vegetables (yes, this scenario is possible). You look in the fridge and put together a gorgeous coconut milk curry full of veggies, chickpeas, served over brown rice. The process is enjoyable and ready in about 40 minutes.

What is the difference between Scenario 1 and 2? You might say #2 is almost impossible, or only happens once in a blue moon…or only happens for super-healthy people who don’t eat anything close to a “normal diet”. …what if I said you’re dead wrong?

What if the difference between Scenario 1 and 2 is simply the difference between an imbalance in blood sugar and balanced blood sugar? What if Scenario 2 was possible for everyone with only a few small changes to your diet?

We tend to think of blood sugar issues only in relation to Type II Diabetes or Hypoglycemia, but the fact is many of us are dealing with mild-to-moderate blood sugar issues every day. These are imbalances we feel, but don’t turn up on blood tests. These blood sugar issues lead to weight gain, low or fluctuating energy, sugar/carb cravings, and a lack of motivation. They affect our life every day and are the driving factor behind poor food choices.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you feel Scenario 1 at least one time per week?
2. Is hunger immediate? Do you need to eat relatively quickly (within the next hour) when you feel hungry?
3. Do you have energy dips throughout the day?
4. Do you crave sugar, carbs, or sugary drinks throughout the day?
5. Do you carry food with you all the time just in case you suddenly feel hungry?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your blood sugar isn’t balanced.

Balancing your blood sugar is surprisingly easy and it allows you to make better decisions with your diet. Imagine having one hour or more to make a meal when you feel hungry! If you had this time, what would you make? That big healthy meal sounds more appealing now, doesn't it :)?

The first step towards finding balance is to look at how food makes you feel. How do you feel immediately after eating? How about after one hour? How long can you go before you feel like you're “starving”?

Balanced energy, weight-loss, and a healthy diet are all within reach with just a few small changes! Starting today, stop thinking about what you “should” be doing, and look at how your current diet is affecting your decisions.

Lisa Kilgour Headshot

Lisa Kilgour, Registered Holistic Nutritionist from EatMoreRealFood.com, loves to help others find balance and be happy.

Lisa has clients from all over Canada and consults in person, and via phone and Skype. Contact Lisa today and take the first step towards good health!

3 REALISTIC Ways to Change Your Diet

Many of us start the year with the best of intentions...and after a few months we've found ourselves off-track. We can see the person we want to be (fitter, more energy, a healthy glow) and the path to get there (eat better, exercise regularly, reduce stress)…but frequently we get sidetracked. Why? Because change is hard! Changing our everyday habits can seem very overwhelming, especially at the very beginning.

There are many obstacles that can stand in front of us, and the one I hear all the time is, “I want to change my diet, but my husband/wife/partner/family keep pulling me off track”. Sorry, that's no excuse. Creating a healthy diet doesn’t need to be difficult and it isn’t something you are “on” for a few weeks at a time.

Let's just throw away the word "diet" - eating healthy is a way of life, and you CAN work around your partner or family’s eating habits!

How? Try this:

1. Stop thinking your diet is either on or off, black or white – A healthy lifestyle lives in the “grey”, it doesn’t need to be 100% perfect to be healthy. A treat in the morning is no excuse to eat junk food all day!
2. Change the meals you eat alone FIRST! – Dinner (the meal most of us share with our family) is only one meal of the day…what about the other 2 meals and snacks? A healthy lifestyle can be created without ever touching dinner! Plus, dinner tends to be the healthiest meal of the day for many of us as most of our eating pitfalls happen in other meals and snacks.
3. Eat consciously, whatever you’re eating– Sit down, relax, and enjoy your meal…no matter what it is you’re eating. A meal eaten consciously is healthier than a meal eaten on the run, no matter the quality of the food. Plus, it’s impossible to overeat while eating consciously (try it, I can guarantee you’ll be too bored to eat too much). Sit quietly, relax, chew well, and ENJOY what you’re eating! There’s no prize for finishing your meal first…well, except if you count indigestion.

Your ideal way of eating can’t be found in a book and it won’t be the same as your neighbour. We are all unique, and it makes sense that what our body needs for fuel is also unique. When you find YOUR healthy lifestyle you feel great, are full of energy, and you don’t feel deprived or hungry. You just feel good!

In my practice as a Holistic Nutritionist, I’ve seen many people make dramatic changes to their diet and lifestyle…and happily without too much difficulty. Together we have a plan as to how they’ll reach their dietary goals, and we work through it step by step. Within a few months their energy is up, they’re feeling great, and they’re still right on track!

Take a few minutes to imagine yourself 4 months from now. How do you want to feel? Do you want to feel energetic? Full of life? Fit and strong?

By making a commitment to yourself and by making a few changes to your diet and lifestyle, you could be well on your way to health goals. Do you feel sluggish? Do you spend your day on a blood sugar rollercoaster, feeling your energy and mood go up and down all day? Do you suffer from frustrating digestive symptoms like heartburn, bloating, pain, or gas that take a toll on you everyday? Make 2012 your year to regain your health! It’s easier than you think!

There Are Pigs in My Yogurt?!

Yup, you heard it correctly - there may be swine bacteria in that yogurt you're enjoying! But, don't get me wrong, yogurt can be incredibly healthy. Knowing what is healthy and what isn't is the question.

Yogurt can be very confusing! This is mostly because the mass marketing of yogurt products have made it confusing. All yogurt is made with good bacteria (probiotics) and the good quality yogurts still have the probiotics in them when they're on the grocery store shelves. The problem is with the over processed yogurts.

Highly processed yogurts (low-fat, high in sugar) kill off the probiotics in their high heat processing. But, good bacteria is important so they needed to fix that. What they did was they found a probiotic that can withstand the high heat of processing...and they found it in pigs. This was a few years ago... remember how the media was suddenly all over probiotics and their health benefits? They've always been healthy and an important part of a healthy digestive system, but I find it interesting that it didn't hit the media until the big food manufacturers were able to patent specific strains.

Now things get interesting..."Bifidus Regularis", the bacteria promoted in a certain popular yogurt that promotes regularity, used to be called "Bifidus Animalis" - and it's swine bacteria. Does it help with regularity in the short-term? Possibly, I've heard some good things. Does that help our digestive system in the longterm? We don't know, we've never had swine bacteria in our yogurt before. As well, Danone was just sued for incorrect marketing, specifically for promoting their patented probiotic strains as being more beneficial than they've been proven to be.

And to top it all off, they remove all of the blood sugar balancing fat and piled in tons of high-fructose corn syrup. Exactly what studies have found to raise cholesterol and increase arterial damage. Not exactly the health food they promote it to be.

It's not all bad news, there are still very healthy yogurts on the market. The problem is they don't have the best shelf space (that costs a pretty penny). When you're at the yogurt section of your favourite grocery store, look up or down. They'll be on the very top row, or in a corner at the bottom. They'll be unsweetened (sweeten it yourself with honey and/or berries) and have at least 5% fat. The best yogurts are made with unhomogenized whole milk, although these yogurts have become very hard to find. 

Most importantly, the best yogurts have "active bacteria cultures" in the ingredients but don't scream "I have probiotics!" on the label. If a yogurt just says "bacteria culture" in the ingredients then it had it, but it was killed off in the high-heat of processing. The ones who advertise they contain specific probiotic strains usually contain some form of patented swine bacteria (yummy!). 

We have 4 - 10 times more cells of bacteria in our gut than cells in our body! This organism is very important to our overall health and an imbalanced gut bacteria (too few good guys, too many bad guys) can lead to digestive issues (including IBS, Crohn's, and colitis) and immune system irregularities (allergies, etc). Take care of your gut bacteria by removing refined sugars and refined grains from your diet, supplementing with probiotic supplements (necessary to rebalance an imbalance), and eating fermented foods daily like healthy yogurts, sauerkraut, and miso.

Don't stop eating yogurt just because it's been invaded by swine, simply choose differently and read the labels! Remember to look for: Active bacteria cultures in the ingredients, at least 5% fat (fat won't make you fat ), and no added sugar. 

Eat More Real Food

Right off the bat I need to admit to something - I tend to become, well, I guess "passionate" is the polite way of describing it, when discussing food. I get quite frustrated with all of the media and advertising surrounding what is healthy and what isn't. But you might be thinking, this product has the "Health Check" symbol on it so it must be healthy? No, no it does not.

If a food says it's healthy, it probably isn't. 

I say this quite a lot, and it pretty much sums up all my frustration with the food industry. What do I mean by this? Let me explain with a few examples:

Kraft Dinner

The next time you're at the grocery store, swing by the Kraft Dinner section and check out the new addition to the pretty blue box. Yup, that's a "Sensible Solutions" symbol on it. Kraft has let us know that if you make this incredibly processed food product with skim milk and margarine (2 more incredibly processed food products), then according to their standards, it's a healthy choice! Or, as they like to call it, a "better-for-you" choice. Wow, thanks for letting us know Kraft!

Margarine

This processed food product is a pet peeve of mine, especially the "healthy" margarines. You know, the ones with the "Health Check" symbol on it. That symbol costs a lot of money and they're very proud of it. (btw, the standards aren't nearly as high as the price paid for that symbol). The healthy margarines claim to be trans-fat free (although chances are high they still contain some trans-fat), high in omega-3s, and everything else under the sun. My problem with all margarines is a basic one - for polyunsaturated fats to be solid at room temperature they MUST under go quite a lot of processing. These fats are not very stable and do not handle this processing very well....so how could it possibly be better for you than butter?

As well, a new study that followed over 300,000 people was published in March 2010, and found no increased risk of heart disease with the consumption of saturated fat. This is a significant finding (but not a surprise to whole food community :). So what would you choose? A minimally processed saturated fat that has been in our diet for millennia, or a highly processed polyunsaturated fat that is new to our diet? I will choose butter over margarine every time.

These are just 2 examples of very unhealthy foods that are screaming to us that they're healthy. Most realize that no matter how you cook it, Kraft Dinner isn't healthy, but these "healthy symbols" just add to the confusion at the grocery store.

Make it easy - any food that is being advertised, healthy or not, tends to be processed and is no longer a whole food. Why? Simply put; products have advertising budgets, and whole foods don't. An apple can't afford a multi-million (or billion) dollar ad campaign. Broccoli can't afford (and doesn't need) fancy new packaging that screams all of its health benefits. When a food says to us "Pick me! I'm healthy! See how I'm high in fibre, low in fat, and healthy!” they are actually telling us that they are processed and are no longer whole foods. As always, there are exceptions to this rule, but it's always a good place to start. :)

Let's make grocery shopping easier! Eat whole, unprocessed food. Fruit, vegetables, whole and fresh meats (instead of processed or frozen), full fat dairy, and whole grains. Eat FOOD! Real and amazingly tasty FOOD!

If you'd like to know more about your food and the food industry, check out the documentary "Food Inc." It has some wonderful insights and solutions to our food problems.

And, remember, Eat More Real Food!

How to Change Your Diet Without Annoying Your Partner/Family

I hear it all the time – “I want to change my diet, but my husband/wife/partner/family keep pulling me off track”. Sorry, that's no excuse. Creating a healthy diet doesn’t need to be difficult and it doesn’t have to be something you are “on” for a few weeks at a time.

Let's just throw away the word "diet" - eating healthy is a way of life, and you CAN work around your family’s eating habits!

How? Try this:

1. Stop thinking your diet is either on or off, black or white– A healthy lifestyle lives in the “grey”, it doesn’t need to be 100% perfect to be healthy. A treat in the morning is no excuse to eat junk food all day!
2. Change the meals you eat alone FIRST!– Dinner (the meal most of us share with our family) is only one meal of the day…what about the other 2 meals and snacks? A healthy lifestyle can be created without ever touching dinner! Most of our eating pitfalls are with the other meals and snacks anyways :).
3. Eat consciously, whatever you’re eating– Sit down, relax, and enjoy your meal…no matter what it is you’re eating. A meal eaten consciously is healthier than a meal eaten on the run, no matter the quality of the food. Plus, it’s impossible to overeat while eating consciously (try it, I can guarantee you’ll be too bored to eat too much).

Your ideal way of eating can’t be found in a book and it won’t be the same as your neighbour’s. We are all unique, and it makes sense that what our body’s need for fuel is also unique. When you find YOUR healthy lifestyle you feel great, are full of energy, and you don’t feel deprived or hungry. You just feel….good! Believe me, it works and I can help you find your ideal balance :).