Healthier
Why You Should Follow the Listen-to-Your-Body Diet
Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, low-carb, vegetarian, pescatarian, low-sugar, ketogenic, raw and Mediterranean. These are just a fraction of the various types of diets found in the food world today. However, if we subscribed to a different diet every time someone advertised a new diet, we would eventually transfer every food from our "do eat" to our "don't eat" list, leaving us with only rocks and dirt as viable food options. Yes, I'm being dramatic about the last part, but truly, we must think: where do we derive our food knowledge? And where should we obtain food education? This is where I propose the Listen-to-Your-Body Diet, a diet that will reveal food freedom for you and help you feel your best!
What is the Listen-to-Your-Body Diet?
The Listen-to-Your-Body Diet doesn't advocate for one food over another, but it does support eating the foods that make you feel good and avoiding the foods that don't make you feel good. Seems simple enough, right?
My Diet Isn't Perfect for Everyone Else
Personally, I don't eat gluten or dairy because I am allergic to both foods. However, this doesn't mean the gluten-free and dairy-free diet is perfect for every person and every body. For example, I consume cashew, almond or coconut milk instead of cow's milk because of my allergy to dairy; however, if someone is allergic to nuts, the types of milk that work for me wouldn't also work for them.
Even if you don't have food allergies, everybody has foods that cause their bodies to feel better or to feel worse after consumption. Can you think of a time when you ate something and then almost immediately afterwards regretted it because you felt not-so-hot? I totally can! Feeling sluggish, weak, and uncomfortable after eating can eventually be avoided through following the Listen-to-Your-Body Diet!
Healthy Doesn't Mean Healthy for You
Even if a food is considered "healthy," this does not mean that the food is healthy for your body. I went through a season of life where I ate an apple each day because, you know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Wrong! I ended up having to visit the doctor and ultimately realized I had an apple intolerance. This intolerance eventually went away, but even though apples are considered a healthy food for most people, they didn't work for my body at that specific time in my life.
Eat Well to Feel Your Best
Eat foods that cause you to feel energized, healthy and nourished. Avoid foods that diminish the quality of your life, cause you to feel sick and don't nourish you well. This is not an excuse to eat all the ice cream you want because it makes you feel happy. Your body will not thank you if you go on an "ice cream cleanse." This is encouragement to pursue your body's definition of health, to become more tuned into how you feel after eating different foods and to make food decisions that help you feel great and perform at your best level.
Listening to your body helps you adopt a deeper appreciation for the hard work your body accomplishes daily, and it promotes self-love as you give yourself the proper nutritional care your body desires.