How I Found the Perfect Diet
OOOOhhhh food. How I love you. And in the past have hated you. Anyone else?
Up until around college, I had a great relationship with food. I ate when I was hungry - basically whatever my parents had at the house. I had ice cream every other night, I loved vegetables, I said Taco Bell would be my last meal if I had a choice, and I ate until I didn’t need any more food. #balance
But then college came. I gained 5 pounds and weighed what I actually weigh right now LOL. But at the time I freaked the ef out. My Hudson skinny jeans were a little tight! God forbid!
Before I changed anything about how I was eating, I found running. I liked running because it gave me an outlet. I played sports my entire life and loved to physically push myself. I was (LOL was, I still am don’t worry) super competitive and loved that it challenged me to improve, i.e. get faster. The thought of racing pumped me UP. I still look at race morning as game day; blasting music in my headphones and calling my dad for a pep talk - but I’m getting off track. FOOD.
After I had been running for a bit I realized I could feel better running longer by cleaning up my diet and eating less. My diet wasn’t terrible though. I’ve always had an idea of roughly how much my body wanted to eat. I also knew if I had eaten a lot of carbs, that I would crave more of a protein or fat source later in the day. Ya, maybe I could have stopped eating everything in front of me, and then going out of my way to get a cookie every day (GET out of my way it’s double fudge day!!), but when I was increasing my mileage, I didn’t realize how limiting my food would cause my body to drop weight fairly quickly. I’d never had to lose or gain weight before.
So then it happened. I was nutrition-obsessed. Making sure I only ate “clean” foods and limiting how much I should eat for the “perfect” diet. Being that annoyingly highly competitive human, I was LoViNg ThIs. I was hitting my running goals and liking how I looked. It started to become an issue when I started limiting my calories SO much, that I had a difficult time focusing. I had lost control of what I thought was “good” food and I forgot how to eat, basically.
I went vegan to try to eat cleaner. Oh man, I wish later in my life I made this decision (when I knew how much food I should be intaking and how to properly attempt it) because when I went this route I had 0 energy, I lost even more unnecessary weight, and my B12 levels got sooo lowww. Like Flo Rida and T-Pain low.
A lot of people don’t understand this. I was addressed by a good amount of very rude people who made me feel like crap.
What helped me was time. Over time I ate more. Over time I brought “no” foods back into my diet. Overtime I allowed myself to maybe have a cookie and wine on the same night (omg!) This is SO hard for so many people. If you’re struggling with this, feel free to reach out for support! There’s a way out, I promise.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve researched my a** off on different diets and attempted them during the process of finding the right diet for myself. I can confidently say I found the PERFECT diet now.
There’s no single word that defines it, so I’ll try my best to hyphenate something to make it one word: the-no-diet-diet-where-you-eat-whatever-the-hell-you-want-because-you-know-your-body’s-craving-it-and-there-are-no-”no”-foods-because-if-you-want-a-cookie-you-should-eat-the-cookie-but-at-the-same-time-you-have-a-foundation-of-knowledge-around-nutrition-and-from-trial-and-error-you-can-realize-what-your-body-needs-to-maintain-optimal-levels-of-health-and-fitness.
Some may call it intuitive eating but I like to refer to it as the above. Why? Because I’m extra.
I honestly believe that once you have a decent understanding of nutrition and learn your body, this is the best way to live. No need to count macros. No need to limit your carbs. No need to snort protein powder (wait wut).
Getting here is not easy, but I’d really like to help others attempt to, because I finally feel at peace. Ok bye, going to eat some pumpkin bread! ❣️
