episode 181: how do i know which diet is right for me?
Hey friends! In today’s episode of The Diet Diaries, I'm tackling a question we've all faced at some point: who should we really listen to when it comes to nutrition, wellness, and exercise advice? With so much conflicting information out there, it can be super overwhelming to figure out what's right for you.
Let’s break it down:
Information Overload: Ever feel bombarded by all the different diet and exercise tips? We’ll chat about the confusion and how to navigate it.
Finding Balance: I’ll share my thoughts on how to spot the red flags of extreme diets and why moderation is key.
Listening to Your Body: Discover some simple ways to tune into your own body’s signals and figure out what works best for you.
Living Your Values: We’ll discuss how aligning your eating and exercise habits with your personal values can make a big difference.
Practical Tips: Get some straightforward advice on how to discern where to focus your attention in the crowded wellness space.
Join me as we sort through the noise and find a path that truly supports your health and happiness. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Hi friends. Um, sorry, I'm a little like technological, technologically challenged right now. I'm reporting, recording podcast episodes today back to back. I recorded one yesterday and recording one the next day just because of some scheduling things coming up. I usually record on Mondays. Um, and so I'm kind of getting ahead because Memorial Day, I'm going to be way on a Monday.
So anyway, This really does, does not matter to you at all, and you're like, please shut up and just get to the point. So I will. Um, so what I wanted to talk about today, I've never talked about this before, but it came up recently with a client, and I think it's something that we have all struggled with at one point or another, or maybe currently.
And that is, how do you know who to listen to in the space of nutrition and [00:01:00] wellness and exercise when there is so much out there? And you can literally find a, an, an expert, and I say that term because people use that term so loosely now, but you can find someone who says, do the carnivore diet and only eat meat.
And you can find someone that says, be a vegan. And you can find someone that says, You can include sugar in your diet in moderation, and you can find someone that tells you that sugar will kill you and causes cancer. You can find someone that tells you, um, to, again, be plant based and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and legumes, and you can find someone out there who tells you that the fructose in fruit will kill you.
And this is all, like, true. Like, you can find people out there, and I don't mean just people, I don't mean just people, like, posing on the internet. I mean, like, people doctors and scientists and researchers who will cherry [00:02:00] pick information from research to support their agenda and their biases. And we are all going to look for the information that Um, supports our own internal biases, and we all, as humans, we are all biased.
We, there is no way to be totally neutral. That's not like a thing. But because we have access to so much information, to a volume of information that is so far beyond what our brains can take in or know how to filter or know how to make decisions around, It's like, what do I pay attention to? What do I listen to?
You've literally got people out there saying totally opposite things. So who's right? Right? They can't both be right. And it's like, whenever, and so the, and this was coming up with a client, but again, this has come up for a lot of us. Like, do this diet, do that diet, do this to lose weight, do that to lose weight.
Like, [00:03:00] and I think this is something, again, we've all struggled with at one point or another, and whether or not you are struggling with it now, it's Within the world, again, I'm repeating myself, but because we have access to so much information and we are bombarded with content on social media, and this doesn't even just apply to like eating and wellness and movement, like I find this popping up with, like, styling and clothes styling and, um, anything.
It's like, what's cool, what's trendy, what's in style, what's out of style, what's fashionable, what's not, what looks good, what doesn't. And it's like, you can find literally anything and everything, which in some ways is like, okay, cool, then I guess everything is good. But we also have decision fatigue, and we want people to tell us what to do, and we want to know who to listen to.
We want to know. that we're on the right track, that we're doing the quote, right thing. And so how do you know if it's the right thing for you? If it's an extreme, if it requires you to [00:04:00] completely, short of a food allergy or a medical contraindication, if it requires you to cut out an entire group of foods, it's probably too extreme.
Probably not right for you. Again, I'm not going to say always, because look, there's always exceptions. Because in general, extremes are never good. Humans are not designed to live with extremes. We are designed to live, like, in the messy middle. Our brains don't necessarily like that. Our modern society has taught us to very much be in the extremes.
even if it's kind of like masked as something else. Um, and so right off the bat, if you can, if this sounds extreme, if it's cutting out one or multiple groups of food, or it's telling you to only do this type of exercise, or only do that type of exercise, or to not exercise at all, by the way, when you're on Octavia and Isagenix, they tell you not to exercise.
I mean, right off the bat, boom, like we know that's a problem. Um, that's a red flag. [00:05:00] So, That weeds out some of the stuff, right? And so as we get to things that are more, a little bit more moderate, in the middle, um, how do I know? You know by paying attention to yourself. How am I feeling? Right? That sounds kind of generic, so I'm going to give you some specific things to pay attention to.
How, what is your strength like? Are you getting stronger or weaker or staying the same? What's your, what are your energy levels like? Are they consistent? Are they rising and falling? Are they fluctuating? Are they all over the place? Do you consistently have high energy or low energy? What's happening there?
What's your mood like? Now, yes, there are a lot of factors that can impact mood, but exercise and food actually play a way bigger role than you think. And when you are doing something extreme with either one of those, it's going to impact your mood. So, are you finding yourself having, [00:06:00] like, consistently a crappy mood, consistently a good mood, peaks and valleys of irritability and good moods?
Like, what's happening there? What's your hunger like? How often are you getting hungry? What type of hunger? Are you able to satiate that hunger? And what are your cravings like? How often are you getting cravings for things? How are you satisfying them? How are you able to respond to them? Are you feeling kind of controlled by those cravings?
So those kind of five categories and by strength I kind of mean like how are you feeling in your body, right? We can kind of actually build on that a little bit like, you know, how's how are and the truth Maybe isn't isn't the right word. Um, Just like what's my overall? Um, You Feeling like physically, am I, am I having pain, am I stiff, am I sore, am I able to move, am I able to do the things that I want to do freely, without restriction, without being worried I'm going to hurt myself, without being worried if I'm going to be able to do it.
Right, so that, energy, mood, hunger, and [00:07:00] cravings. You will know if what you are doing is working for you based on those, what you notice in those kind of five categories. And if you notice that things are not feeling good, like, if you're not feeling good physically, if your energy is low, if your mood is irritable and variable, if you're hungry all the time, if your cravings are through the roof, what you're doing isn't working.
Okay, if those things are all feeling good, what you're doing is working, right? So that, and that is one piece of it. The other piece of it is, could I see myself doing this for the rest of my life? Because sometimes, we've probably all experienced this, we'll pick some extreme diet and the first couple of weeks will be good, right?
Because it's, it's new, it's shiny, you start to feel results, you feel in control, you've got your rules, like you're doing this thing, you're committed. And then at some point that shiny newness starts to wear off because life happens or you get sick of it or any number combination of things. So can you see yourself eating the way that you are eating now [00:08:00] in six months, in a year, in six years, in 10 years?
And be honest with yourself. Are you someone who is willing to give up sugar and desserts for the rest of their life? Probably not. Not if you're listening to this podcast, right? Are you someone who If you're following, I'm not saying you are, but just, you know, for the sake of the conversation, following the carnivore diet, you only want to eat meat for the rest of your life?
Do you never want to eat meat or eggs or dairy again for the rest of your life? Like, and You may be rolling your eyes and saying, well, there's all this research that shows that plant based diets are really good for you. Well, I will, I will tell you there are plenty of people out there who are finding their own research that says that a carnivore diet is good for you.
And I'm not choosing sides. That's not even where I'm going. All I'm saying is there is the information out there to support any and every way of eating. Pretty much, I think the only thing that people would fully probably agree on is that [00:09:00] A diet made up of all completely highly processed foods is probably not optimal, although there's probably more flexibility in that than you think.
Um, that's a separate topic. Um, kind of the conversation around processed foods and what they are and what they aren't and why. Anyway, I digress. Um, so the other piece of this is your values. Do you know what's important to you? What does self care look like for you? If you value health and self care and kindness and compassion and yet you are restricting foods to the point where it's impacting your mental health and you feel resentful or you can't go out to eat at a restaurant or you can't go to a party without freaking out about what you're going to eat, is that, is that way of eating really in alignment with your values?
Whether or not it lines up with someone's scientific research backed, [00:10:00] uh, recommendation. Right? You have to check in with you. We are just so blindly following what someone says because they show us some cool before and after photo, they show us some research which we don't even know how to read research, and just because someone says that research says something does not mean that it's high quality research, or that the, that that, um, that that insight or that takeaway can be applied to people, right?
Right. Research is done, obviously, not always on humans, and it is done with very small groups of people who are coming in with different backgrounds, um, may have, you know, different contraindications. It's so complex that just because someone says that research said this thing, That doesn't mean anything.
That doesn't mean that you just blindly go and do that thing. Um, you have to be getting that from a very trusted source, from a person who knows how to read research and is doing it in as unbiased of a way [00:11:00] as possible. We need to do more questioning and less blindly following of what we see out there.
And more is not better. listening to a million different podcasts and reading a million different books and following all these people on social media is not making it easier for you, it's making it harder. You've got to come back to your values, to getting clarity on what you know is important to you and what makes you you, and are you taking action in alignment with that?
You've got to get radically honest with yourself. And then using, um, kind of like these, these biometrics, these biometric indicators of how am I feeling? on this thing. How's my body feeling physically? What's my energy? My mood? My hunger? And my cravings? Noticing where those five, um, markers are at will give you a ton of information about whether or not what you're doing is working for you.
Not for you. What it did for your best friend, not what it did for those before and after pictures [00:12:00] of strangers on the internet, not what it did in a research, in a closed and very closely monitored environment, how is it working for you in real life? For your physical health and your mental health, right?
That's why we include mood in that, is a very important part of this. So that's really what I wanted to say about this, is there's just so much, a volume of information is beyond. what, why words can capture between social media, books, podcasts, tv shows, netflix specials. I mean every, it seems like every two months netflix is coming out with a new like food documentary.
And people just jump on the bandwagon. I used to do that too. I used to do that too. You have got to be a lot more discerning and you have got to pay attention to what works for you and you've got to be looking out for extremes. And so if you've struggled with who do I listen to, what do I do? What? This is the approach that I would take.
This is what I do. [00:13:00] Um, this is how I focus my time, energy, and attention. And yeah, that's really what I wanted to share with you today. Um, reach out with questions, thoughts, comments, concerns, and I'll see you next week.