Your Best Diet is Right Here

What’s the best diet?

You actually already know.
The best diet that works for your life and your lifestyle is the one you are already eating.

I don’t have to persuade you that there is a lot of conflicting diet advice out there. And I likely don’t need to say out loud that most diets fail. Meaning that maintaining them for life is rare. So, it makes sense not to jump to an extreme change in your eating if you want any benefits to last.

But what other choices do you have?

Inherent to us asking what is the best diet, is our desire to eat better. Healthier, than we are right now.

Stay with that thought of better or healthier, rather than eating in a whole new way or ‘perfectly’.

Then you can begin with what is already easy and what seems to work in the midst of everything you live.

Keeping parts and tweaking parts. And building from what is familiar, toward where you want to be.

If I wanted to run a marathon (and believe me, I don’t, but let’s just suppose), I wouldn’t start by running 20 miles tomorrow, but I could try running for ½ a mile. No wait, this example is breaking down already, because I can’t even see myself doing that. I have run before. I don’t like it. So, it isn’t going to last. But if I wanted to learn to run, I could do a walk/jog on my normal walk tomorrow. Now that sounds much better. I could do that. It’s just adding to what I am already doing. To work towards my goal.

See the comparison?

A reasonable add-on to what you are doing right now, you can picture achieving.
Completely changing from my usual, filled me with dread (even in a hypothetical example!) and would totally use up any willpower I had to spare.

And if I’m being honest, the work, and the gumption required, would keep the covers over my head.

The alternative to a reasonable add-on requires squishing your family into a one-size-fits-all diet regime. Or making separate meals and missing out on family connection. Either option will rely on willpower to maintain.

And I don’t know about you, but my willpower stash is limited. Committing to use up that spare willpower every day for the rest of my life is a heavy thought. That’s what a new diet program will require of you.

Let’s explore some options that can fit into the life you’re living so that when life happens, the new strategies still stick around.

Begin with a 5-minute investment.

And a realization that,

Awareness always precedes change.

You know how to eat, of course. We tend to be the ones that get the groceries, cook the meals or order the delivery. But are you aware of how you eat?

There’s a difference.

To determine what your first eating tweak will be, you need to be aware of:

What and why you eat so you can know what’s affecting it.

And, why you make the food decisions you do.

This insight will inform all your steps to eating healthier. And set you up for permanent change.

Let’s identify a customized goal for your family. A goal that takes a step from where you are, to where you want to go.

5-minute To-Do:

 Quickly jot down everything you ate and drank today or yesterday as well as the times you did. This step alone can be the most enlightening of them all. No self-judgment. You are just exploring here and gathering information.

Now that you have the info, you are going to look for foundational pillars on which healthy eating is built.

Like a house needs a sturdy foundation, healthy eating builds from these. How each family achieves them is individual. When you try to superimpose a diet change without them, you are building your diet foundation on sand.

 Which foundational pillar is not yet a habit? Look at the foods recorded, and at the following list to compare:

1) 3 meals a day – never been a breakfast eater? Skip lunch? Enter here to see how this can sabotage the very thing you are trying to achieve.

2) Meals have 3 food groups – usually leave out a food category? See how this can backfire.

3) Eating regular meals/snacks about 3-4 hours apart – does the craziness of life trump eating regularly? Find out the key to eating the amount your body needs.

So, before we get into any other diet tweaks, these 3 pillars are what you work on to become a habit. They just can’t be skipped to have your best diet. If all 3 pillars need tweaking, start with #1 and work your way through.

This post includes Step 1. Steps 2 and 3 posts will follow. We will explore why each step is foundational. And look at some easy tweaks to get started. If I included them all here, I would need to be transitioning to chapters of a book!

STEP 1) 3 MEALS A DAY

Occasionally when I text my husband, Collin, the text starts like this:
“PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS”.

He is a guy on the go, and God-love-him, he reads every text, but we’ve had important parts missed that are at the end of a text. And I can be wordy which doesn’t help. Sometimes, this prelude is needed to make sure he gets it all. Anyone?

So, when I start with, this is the most important, most boring part of eating well, I’m smiling as I say, please read all the way to the end of Step 1. If you skip the foundation, all else you try will be shaky at best.

Review what you wrote down that was eaten in the run of a day. Do you usually eat 3 meals? 1? Or 2?
Never mind snacks or grazing right now. We will get to that. Let’s look for 3 main anchor points when you are intentionally nourishing yourself.

Here is a common pattern:

"I have no time for breakfast, I just grab a coffee and go. I have never been a breakfast person. I am trying to eat better though, so I pack some almonds for a snack and a salad with some chicken for lunch and that satisfies me. But I can’t stop myself from picking at food from the time I get home until I get supper ready. I do pretty well at supper but then I crave snacks every evening. If I could just stop snacking, I would be fine."

I think you know where I am going: Your best diet starts with breakfast.

5 Convincing Reasons to Eat Breakfast

 1. If you don’t eat breakfast, you make up for the missed calories by the end of the day but usually not the missed nutrition.

When you are not fed during the day, you tend to snack more later. And in general, snacks tend to not be as healthy as breakfast foods. 

2. Your metabolism jump-starts for the day once you eat.

Otherwise, your body’s engine so-to-speak stays in sleep mode. If your body senses a fast, it lowers how much energy it uses on whatever you are doing. Sitting or active. Break-the-fast i.e. breakfast, gets things ramped up again. You want this.

3. Your body requires more energy when at rest if you eat breakfast, than if you don’t.

Often in defense of not eating breakfast, I hear:

“Whenever I eat breakfast, I’m starving a couple hours later. And then I have to fight hunger. All morning. It’s easier to skip breakfast than to have hunger grate on me until lunch.”

See? Clear evidence that after eating breakfast, you are burning more energy doing the same thing. You often get hungrier sooner. You want this.

4. Having breakfast will set you up to respond to natural hunger, rather than responding to cravings later in the day.

Your body knows what it is doing and will drive you to eat the energy it needs. Don’t see this as negative. You are going to use this to your advantage to work with your body rather than fight against it. God’s design is perfect and incredible when you stop to ponder. We go into more detail about hunger and fullness in steps 2 and 3 in the posts to come.

5. You miss an opportunity to nourish more than just your bodies.

Pausing with food is said in this space frequently. Because it is that important. Our culture rushes through meals and a part of us is not nourished. You miss the rest and restoration of being in the moment, investing in relationship with your family, and with God. It happens when you pause and sit at your table together.

• You can learn more about this in the freebie, 7 Steps to Bring Peace to Your Table.

If breakfast isn’t your jam, start your best diet with this experiment. Eating breakfast allows the eating that follows, to fall into place. All else hinges on starting the day with nourishment.

The 30-day Experiment for the “I’m Just Not a Breakfast Person.”

The great thing about an experiment is you can always go back to what you were doing before. No harm in giving it your best shot for a month.

(Need inspiration? Watch this 3-minute TED talk)

Here is what you are committing to:

Eat something for breakfast 6 days a week for the next 30 days.

Sound too ambitious? Reign in the target and set a goal that is more than last week.

Eat breakfast within 1 hour of waking.

This may require setting the alarm 10 minutes earlier, so you have time. Experiment until it settles into your routine.

Name something you can see yourself eating tomorrow morning and plan for it.

Reminder: you are starting small, not perfect. And building from there.

Don’t change what you are doing now, add-on:

• Can you grab a banana and eat it in the kitchen with your family?

• Face a handful of dry cereal to start?

• Maybe yogurt with some frozen blueberries tossed on top?

Anticipate the increased hunger mid-morning after eating breakfast and plan a small snack so you can make it to lunch.

Eating breakfast regularly will result in your body waking up hungry for it. The rhythm of your metabolism will change for the better. Your body will trust that it will be fed in the morning and no longer has to conserve energy. It wakes up in anticipation.
I have witnessed non-breakfast eaters exclaim after this experiment,

“I can’t go without breakfast now. I’m hungry when I wake up! I don’t even know how I did it before.”

We are talking about people who don’t remember ever eating breakfast before.
The same goes for lunch or dinner. If you skip a meal regularly, our body goes into conservation mode and the result is a lower metabolism. And you usually make up for the food deficit later. Usually in larger portions or more snacks.

This all starts with a change in viewpoint.

Instead of stating “I am not a breakfast eater”, try out, “I am not a breakfast eater…yet”. What has always been, does not have to always be.

Experiment for a month. If breakfast is consistent, you will discover new energy and be well on your way to working with your body’s design.

Eating 3 regular meals daily trains our bodies to be hungry during the day rather than at night.

It sets you up to then learn how to listen to your hunger and respond to it rather than try to control it.

This discernment is intuitive, but many of us have lots of reasons why the last time we ate like this was in preschool. You can get it back though. Trusting your body’s ability to regulate your appetite and working with how God designed you is possible.

Trying to fit into someone else’s idea of the best diet for everyone and their sister, works against your unique self. 

Keep with this journey to eating well, one step at a time. By starting your day with breakfast, you will bring Peace to your table and rest to your spirit.

Let’s encourage each other. Share breakfast experiments. Post pictures in the comments of nourishing your body and soul at any meal. Not just of the food but of the experience. As you take this step toward your best diet.

With breakfast under your belt (ohhhh…that was a bad pun. And oddly enough, the first time I’ve said it) you are good to move onto Step 2. That’s coming out next.

A gentle reminder,

God wants you to know: I see you, I hear you, I love you.

Jane