“What I eat”

What do I eat? This is actually quite easy to answer; I prefer to eat real food that originates from nature and has not been processed or minimally so. I don’t like to consume refined sugar and grains, pesticides, seed oils, additives and stabilisers (funny that…) If you were to spot me in a super market you would see that in my trolley I have vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts, seeds, whole grains, meat, chicken, seafood, eggs and some dairy products such as kefir and Greek yogurt (organic and full fat). I do also eat SOME processed foods such as hummus for example, but I aim to buy the sort that’s made with olive oil not seed oil and doesn’t include all the other nasty added ingredients. I always read the label of any packaged food as even when it says “organic” or “healthy” on the cover this may not mean much when it comes to added nasties.

This kind of clean, real food does mean that one needs to cook or at least prepare it… You can’t just spoon it on a plate and heat it up in a microwave. Having said that I’m an awfully lazy cook, it’s just not my thing and never has been. However even I do manage to make myself meals that I absolutely love the taste of, that take minutes to make and that are super duper nutritious and satiating. What I’m basically saying is that if I can with my limited skills and interest, anyone can!

I use words “prefer” and “aim” when I talk about food because I don’t eat perfectly 100% of the time nor do I even try to. For example in restaurants it’s difficult to know what exactly has the food been cooked in and what the ingredients are. When eating out I choose according to a few basic principles; I like to have a protein and a variety of veg on my plate. I try to go for vegetables that I rarely cook at home as that way I can add to the variety of plant based foods that I consume as that’s been proven to be very beneficial for gut health plus it’s fun to steer away from that home food when eating out! Protein I choose based on what I feel like and what sounds most delicious on the menu. I avoid dishes that revolve around a refined carb or a deep fried anything. They do me no good at all and luckily I have also lost my taste for them. The way I eat means that I feel very satisfied after my meals so cravings for dessert are rarely present these days. However if we share some dessert when out with friends I will certainly have a few spoonfuls. How many exactly depends on what’s on the plate! I will not hesitate diving into my favourite dessert yet I won’t eat any just the sake of it; it really has to be something I love.

Eating for me used to be linked very strongly to my weight… I didn’t consider other aspects of food pretty much at all. It was all about what that scale was saying and how the food I was consuming was going to affect the number on it. And that approach never worked; I was permanently unhappy with my weight (even though I had no reason to be), I didn’t feel good about me, I didn’t love and appreciate my body or myself, I lived in a vicious cycle of trying to starve myself, failing miserably, binging, and living in regret and self hatred. I tried every diet and dietary direction under the sun. I don’t think I stuck with any of them for longer than a matter of days, maybe weeks at most. Restrictions and rules didn’t work and every attempt made me feel more like a failure.

One could maybe call it midlife crisis but I started a bit of a journey of self development a few years ago (I’m now 45-years old). Quite soon into it I started to see that one can’t live their best life and be the best version of themselves unless they take total ownership of their life and hold themselves responsible for every choice they make in every area, including food. As I embarked on this new journey slowly but surely my eating habits changed and I started to make choices that served me. Weight was no longer the driver; feeling amazing, strong and energetic and knowing that I am looking after this one and only body I was given to my best ability became so much more important than vanity. I am not judging vanity though; of course I like to look good but I now realise that the permanent change with ones eating habits happens once the looking good becomes a very nice perk, a side product, of something bigger.

I could write about this forever but let’s break it down… and talk about HOW and WHEN I eat next time.