A friend of mine recommended a great article The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn’t Working. It’s about why diet fads don’t work for everyone. I’d be lying if I didn’t include my newly adopted veganism as a fad. The truth lies in the fact that no one diet works for everyone.
A particular diet that used to work at one stage of your life, may no longer serve its purpose later in life. For example. Most teens and young adults simply exercise more and restrict calories to for weight management as oppose to most middle aged adults who tend to utilize a more nutrient dense approach.
As we grow, age, and live in this world with its many exposures to toxins and chemicals what we need to maintain a healthy weight changes, and our perception of health in general changes. Ultimately we tend to gravitate to what makes us feel the best.
Recognizing the need to change is key. It’s not a one size fits all or even a one lifetime fits all approach that we need to take. We must constantly reassess how our body is reacting to the foods we eat and adjust accordingly.
As I teach my patients, make your own recipe for life. My recipe will not work for your health and weight loss goals. Your goals can only be met by an effort that is reflective of you, something custom built—so custom, you are the only one that can do it.
The TIME HEALTH article points out that, dietary staples such as eating breakfast every day, daily exercise, weekly weigh ins, and limited screen time consistently contribute to a healthy weight. Everything else is quite variable among individuals to produce success.
From my perspective there are several key questions to ask yourself when assessing your diet:
- How is your inflammation today? I check to see how easily my rings come on and off, how easily my knees can bend.
- How is your overall pain today? If I make a poor food decision for my body, I’m often achy and have increased pain.
- How is your mood? Is it fluctuating? Do these fluctuations occur before or after eating?
- What are your energy levels like throughout the day? I take note if I am experiencing mid-day or early evening crashes.
- How is your sleep, and how do you feel when you wake up? I notice if I slept solidly or tossed and turned as well as whether or not I wake feeling rested or exhausted.
By making it more about how you feel, you will gravitate to a diet that will naturally promote a healthy weight.
This is not an exhaustive list but can be applied to any diet or health decision you may be making from quitting coffee, to cutting gluten or dairy. Some people function perfectly fine on 3 cups of coffee a day, others have severe mood fluctuations. Some can drink alcohol, some can’t, some can enjoy chocolate daily, and others can’t.
For me, right now, I feel veganism is the right way to go! Please note that I have tried many dietary approaches, that produce effective results; however, it’s a constant evaluation process—don’t forget change is the key when something doesn’t feel quite right.