Diet: There is no one size fits all approach

Fad diets, we all know them and likely have tried them at one point in time of our life or another. Maybe they worked for a short bit of time and then stopped working or maybe you ended up feeling worse than when you started the diet. The reality is that these diets usually do not work in the long run or are not feasible to maintain long term. They are fads, just like so many other things in our lives- the colors we paint our homes, the clothes we wear, the hair cuts we choose to get, and the words/slang we use. These sorts of things come and go, but the foods we eat and how we take care of ourselves should, ideally, get better as time goes on. Our bodies change and so our food and lifestyle should change, for the better, accordingly. So just like seasons come and go the foods we eat should also reflect them as best they can, but that is a whole other post on its own.

Let us start by defining what diet is according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “a food or drink regularly provided or consumed; something provided or experienced repeatedly.” With that being said I use the term diet not as a word that should be intimidating or make you go ‘oh no, not more restrictions’, but instead relating to our choices that we make day to day in a habitual way. These choices we make structure the overall function of our body, from how clear our thinking will be, how smooth our digestion will happen, our emotional stability, to the basic livelihood of our cells. Everybody’s body needs something different, what works for me does not necessarily work for you or what works for you does not necessarily work for you significant other. Our genetic and epigenetic (the traits we impact and can change depending on our choices and environment) traits differ from each other making us more resilient or susceptible to different things. This is what is known as bioindvidualtiy.

When we take this into consideration, it becomes easier to understand why someone you know may have lost a bunch of weight of one diet and when you tried it, you ended up gaining wait or maybe only losing a couple pounds. Our bodies are complex, unique, beautiful creations and needed to be treated as such. We are told in scripture that they are “temples of the Holy Spirit.” For me this helps me to understand that ‘awe’ in our creation and motivates me to make better choices. Overtime though, after long periods of stress, whether that be from our environment (financial, world politics, taking care of a sick family member, traumatic childhood etc), emotional, or mental, this wears and tears at our bodies. You could be eating a ‘perfect’ diet and still not feel well because periods of stress can wreak havoc on the digestive track (it places a constant strain on our adrenals and now they are producing excess cortisol and stress hormones) OR the clean diet you are eating is not what is actually best for you. There might be a food(s) present that you actually cannot digest, and it could be a fruit, vegetable, gluten, or dairy, the bottom line is it doesn’t matter. What matters is adjusting your sails and listening to what your body is telling you.

So what is the solution? I cannot provide you with just one thing that will answer this question, HOWEVER, what I can say is that a good place to start is by taking an overall look at your life and daily choices. Grab a journal or piece of paper and note what might be causing stress in you life. Is it finances? Is it a specific person? It may be something that at this point in time you cannot change, but instead maybe look for a way to process or release some of the pent of stress. Getting a blood draw to see what you may be allergic too can also give you a good place to start for dietary changes. Also, creating a food journal and noting everything you are eating and how you feel afterwards can help one to recognize foods that may be triggering for you. Example, drinking caffeine might give you the jitters, this means your system is unable to process it the right way, for one reason or another. Another example could be eating something and then being bloated afterwards. If you feel like this is all to overwhelming, stop, take a deep breath, you can do this. Something that may be helpful so that you do not feel the burden all on you or like you have to try and learn everything in order to feel better is hiring a nutritional health coach or a functional medical practitioner. Working with someone helped me tremendously and it was doing this that led me onto my own path of helping others to feel more optimally balanced in their lives.