Here’s an email that I bet will resonate with some of you:

“Hi Debbie,

I started a clean eating plan on June 1, because I have a wedding to attend at the end of the month.    I did okay at first, but now have totally blown it.  Any advice for me, or should I just wait and start again July 1.  I have a dress that will fit either way.”

Here’s my answer:
If you constantly think about food in terms of “calories” and being on or off a diet, you can’t win.  You’re on the cycle of the Diet Roller Coaster.  If you think about food in terms of what it does to your body, you’ll get healthy and lose weight.  To be successful and healthy and a good weight, it’s not about dieting, it’s about eating right, day after day, week after week, month after month; and it’s ALWAYS the right time to start eating right.  There will NEVER be a better time to begin than TODAY, even if it’s the middle of the week or the middle of the month.   Eating right isn’t about dates that correspond to events;  or your mood, or circumstances.  If events, moods, and circumstances rule your eating, you’re in trouble.  Events have finite dates, and moods and circumstances are ever changing.  They can’t be our guides when it comes to eating well.

You also can’t wait til “things are less busy”,  “life gets a little easier”, or you get done with a big project.  Those are excuses that allow you to eat foods that make you sick, depressed, and keep you weighing more than you want.
If you only want to eat well to lose weight, that’s never enough motivation to stay consistent day after day, week after week. Instead, that mindset gets you on the Diet Roller Coaster.   NOTHING CHANGES WHEN YOU’RE ON THE ROLLER COASTER. You might loose a few pounds, but then you’ll gain them back when your diet-mindset wains.    How many years do you want to do that?

Eat well because nutrient dense foods allow your body and mind to FEEL GOOD, and by default, you’ll look good.  Eat well and if you need to lose weight, you will.  Nutrient dense foods allow you to make nice skin cells, and hair cells, a strong immune system, sufficient hormones, good energy, and brain neurons that make positive connections.  Processed, refined foods full of flour, sugar, and chemicals literally destroy your body and poison your mind: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, auto – immune, mood and behavior disorders – they’re all the product of bad foods.

Did you know that depression and anxiety are HIGHLY linked to poor nutrition in study after study?  Our body builds our brain from the food we eat.

Need more reasons to eat well?  Are you a parent, because if you are, you’re a Role Model.  An eating roll model.  However you eat, you’re TRAINING your kids to eat that way too.  I promise. And they will deal with the same issues, or worse, than you’re dealing with as an adult.   If you don’t have kids, then know that your friends, family, and co-workers will and are influenced by the choices you make.  Ever noticed that if you don’t order dessert at a restaurant, it puts an immediate damper on someone who did want to order dessert?

Back to the wedding.  You were “doing okay til you blew it”, should you wait til July to start again??  Does that mean eat lots of bad foods til July?  Don’t worry about cooking, planning or packing meals to go?   NO don’t wait til July! Eat healthy today, because you always feel better when you eat healthy, because just like not smoking or not taking drugs, IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR YOUR BODY.

If you’re dieting however, you won’t be able to stick to your plan, you’ll be too hungry.  Dieting, low/cal, low/fat meal planning, slows down your thyroid, restricts the amount of nutrients your brain can use to make serotonin and dopamine, and will give you compulsive, obsessive thoughts about food.  NO ONE CAN STAY ON A DIET.  That’s why 95 – 99% of ALL DIETERS GAIN THEIR WEIGHT BACK.  You’ve got to eat plenty of good fats, plenty of good protein, tons of vegetables, and some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy (if all that works for your stomach).

Have you checked out my What I Eat Page?  It is possible to live a life without grains, sugar and chemicals, in the Real World, with 4 kids and a job.  It just takes planning, and practice and fore-thought.  Once it’s a habit though, it’s not an effort anymore.

So instead of dieting, work on cutting the junk out of your life.  Eat less and less fake/processed/refined foods, and more and more Real Whole Foods.  Shop, prep, cook, freeze, PLAN.  Cook in batches.  Make 12 chicken breasts instead of 4.  Make 2 meat loafs, and cut and freeze one in single servings for later.  Make a giant salad.  Cook 10 sweet or white potatoes at a time, and then pull them out during the week for breakfast or lunch.  Slow cook a whole roast, pull it, and baggy servings for the week.  Get used to making PB&Js or a meat and cheese sandwich  for your kids to eat after practice instead of putting poison in their bodies at the fast food restaurants.  (yeah, I hate bread, but for kids, it’s a better choice than fast food.   Plus, they can make it themselves.  )

Being healthy and lean is about the every day choices, day after day, week after week, month after month.  It’s not about “being good” for 5 days or 10 days or 2 weeks or a whole month.

If you haven’t been able to stay consistent, I can guarantee it’s the food choices you’re making.  Take a risk, and CHANGE THE CHOICES.  Eat more fat and protein, cover your vegetables with butter or olive oil, and grated cheese, cook your chicken breasts with the FAT ON, eat your egg YOLKS, pop a couple spoonfuls of coconut butter in your mouth, or add some whole cream or coconut oil to your tea or coffee.  These foods have nutrients that nourish your body and trigger SATIETY HORMONES.  You will be able to go HOURS between meals when you eat like this;  you’ll be able to mentally say you’re not hungry.  You’ll be able to stay out of the fridge or the pantry.  And I swear these foods won’t make you fat!  Excess carbs, from flours or sugars, put weight on you!(they also cause disease and poor health) Traditional, Real, Fats are used by our body for thousands of jobs;  carbohydrates are mostly STORED, because they’re ONLY used for energy, not to build us.

Get off the Diet Roller Coaster.  Don’t wait til July.  Eat well today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week, etc, etc, etc.  You’ll feel and look so much better for it.