The problem with restrictive diets is that they can be hard to maintain over prolonged periods, making it less likely to become a long-term lifestyle. Putting more emphasis on personal needs and focusing on how food effects you and makes you feel can help to change your relationship with food. Below is my outline on why I suggest mindful eating over restrictive and limiting diets.
Restrictive diets can starve your body of needed nutrition.
Restrictions on many healthy foods can put you into vitamin and mineral or nutrient deficiencies. Many people today who eat a majority of pre-prepared or fast foods, and take out foods are already deficient in B vitamins, Vitamins A & C, calcium, magnesium, zinc. Further restrictive dieting can make this situation worse.
Diets can cause guilt or shame towards food.
Dieting and restricting multiple food or food groups can produce a negative experience with food and nutrition. One slip up or craving for a particular food and you feel guilt and shame. This pattern can create an unhealthy and dangerous relationship with food.
That shame can lead to dangerous disordered-eating habits or giving up and ignoring nutrition all together.
When you are restricting all foods that you want to eat and that make you happy, foods become “off-limits” which in turn can make you crave those foods more. The yearning for those foods often make it impossible to stay away from and then when you do slip-up the guilt ensues. This guilt can cause binge eating episodes and just an all around unhealthy relationship with food. This natural yearning for the food you are restricted from can also be the cause for a complete failure to reach and maintain a positive relationship with nutrition.
Mindful eating can be tailored to each person’s personal needs.
Food sensitivities can be the root cause of your body feeling unwell from eating. Each person’s body is different so getting down to knowing exactly what your own body’s reactions are to specific food items can be helpful. Feeling like you’re doing what is right for your body evokes mindful eating more easily than following a generalized diet plan that claims to work for all people.
Focusing on other factors besides weight loss can help encourage healthy eating.
Weight loss is often the main factor encouraging a change in diet. It is true that maintaining a healthy weight improves the quality of life but putting too much emphasis on this can be dangerous to mindful eating. Instead, focusing on other factors like how food makes you feel on a day to day basis, feelings of fullness, and satiety, and monitoring portion sizes can help to remove guilt from eating and place a more positive response for eating more mindfully.
Mindful eating is focused on portion size, not eliminating entire food groups, which is much easier to adhere to.
Focusing on how food makes you feel, when you are hungry, and when you are full, while still enjoying food, is easier to maintain longterm than eliminating entire food groups all together. Restrictive eating limits you to very small categories of food so certain situations can make restrictive dieting difficult to constantly adhere to long-term. Mindful eating can be applied at home, while eating out, at parties or social functions or wherever you may mind yourself needing to eat.
I still recommend avoiding processed foods as much as possible.
In this day and age it is almost impossible to completely avoid processed foods that are loaded with toxins. Although I still recommend to avoid foods with certain chemicals or processed, I never place a negative or scornful emphasis on eating these foods from time to time. It just isn’t possible in today’s modern food world. It’s a good rule of thumb to mostly eat fresh, organic, and unprocessed foods as often as possible.
A registered dietitian can help with coaching and tailoring a mindful eating plan just for you.
I provide my clients food sensitivity testing and help them identify behavior problems to figure out what works for them or not! I also provide tips and tricks to stick to your tailored plan and how to improve on those nutritional problems for long-term health.
I have years of experience empowering people to help themselves improve their quality of life without suffering through restrictive and guilt-inducing diets.
Contact me today if you have any questions or want to know where to start with mindful eating practices.
Message me at donna@healthydirectionsforyou.com
Or call/text at (858) 335-2140