What busy people get wrong about healthy eating
Low-carb, high-protein, intermittent fasting.
Keto, plant-based, flexitarian.
Detox, fibermaxxing, Mediterranean, gluten-free.
Paleo, GLP-1 friendly, fermented, snackification.
Atkins, Zone, Grapefruit, Master Cleanse, Whole30, Special K.
It’s no wonder we get it all wrong. Because everything has to be perfect all the time. Get the thing right and all the other things will be good. That’s the promise of nearly every single ad you see on social media.
Do this. It’s the only way. No, not this. This other thing, the new thing. THIS is the new only way. And so we try and we fail and we try again and we hate it and perhaps it works for a while and so we get that t-shirt saying “Ask me about (insert favourite new thing here)” and then it stops working and we throw away the t-shirt or repurpose it as an oil rag where it spends the remainder of it’s once-useful life as a petrified clump in the corner of the garage.
Am I coming across a little strong? Yeah, sure. Because I see this all the time. Not the list of diets, oh no. I have not even begun to scratch the surface. There are a hundred or more diets and fads and eating plans and whatever else out there and they’re great, I suppose, if they work for you.
Most of the time, though, they actually really don’t. And you know why?
Because we have been sold the all-or-nothing approach to health. We gotta do this thing and do it well. It’s got to be-e-e-e-e-e-eeeee..perfect. Skip one day, lose track of one meal, “slip up” and have that cupcake…and we are back to square one. Yet another thing that didn’t work.
And, actually: that’s not true. It’s not that the diet failed to work, or that the approach was wrong or that the promises did not pan out. Mainly, it’s because you’re busy. You are. I am We are. Busy. Life is what happens between meals. Or during them, mostly. And so they’re easy to forget. And when we forget, we feel guilty. We stop. We give in and give up. And move onto the next thing because, you know, “this time it will…”
So what do we do, then, I hear you ask? When I try so hard for perfection and fall so hard the following day, when everything seems stacked against my health journey and “try as I might I just can’t seem to stick to this”…
Perhaps the trick is to stop trying so hard. How about, instead of aiming for a perfect run of three meals a day, five veggies and two fruits and three bottles of water…instead of the perfect colour-coded plan with the sticky tabs and the shopping list and the prep…all of which you know you’ll probably give up after three days…how about…
…we do just one thing today?
Are you struggling to get an exercise habit started? Walk ten minutes today. Worrying about eating right but can’t seem to find the time? Add one fruit. Drinking too much coffee? Replace one cup with a glass of fresh water.
One thing. That’s not so hard, is it? Just one little thing? And when that ten minute walk is done and you sit down and you think: “well, I did that”…then yes, you did. You did do that.
And guess what? Doing it again tomorrow is just one thing. Just one little action.
Next month it’s a habit.
Next year it’s a lifestyle change.
Just. One. Thing.