Chasing the Elusive Healthy Diet
I think I’ve heard about all sorts of diets since I was at least 12 years old, possibly earlier. I’ve had friends go through everything from Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach, Atkins, Raw Foods, Lemonade (eww), and at least 40 other quick fixes to the dieting problem. This is not a commentary about the effects of these diets or if they work or not. I’m just noting my own personal observations. All in all, there are very few diets that aren’t just those temporary fixes. The “I need to lose 10 pounds before the wedding/reunion/bbq” diets do not give you the sustainability and longevity necessary to really maintain that great looking you. If we are always talking about diets in terms of short 14-30 day stints, it’s hard to really project what building a solid healthy lifestyle would do for us.
That was my challenge in starting out for the summer. I didn’t really want to just cut everything out of my family’s diet so that in 30 days the natives were restless and rebelling! The mood swings, the insomnia, the restlessness of my family didn’t need some temporary solution, but a full-fledged healthy plan. I needed to really think about ways to cut down on the highs and lows (especially with the sugar), but still give my family fun treats throughout the year.
After much chasing and research of all the “diet” forms out there, I decided that really I needed to adjust the content of what we were eating. Using less processed foods and more healthy alternatives has given my family the right amounts of natural energy without the hyper intensity we’d been experiencing. They have been less groggy in the mornings, more balanced in terms of mood swings. Ready for sleep at night due to activity levels and less stimulants in their systems. It’s been a refreshing and relaxing summer.
And the best part is that all of these benefits can stay with us year-round without having to constantly search out new quick fixes. Some of the simple adjustments we’ve made include:
- Eating fresh fruits and vegetables (in lieu of canned). We’ve grown some of our own fruits this summer and prepared for the winter – frozen raspberries, dried peaches and apricots, made grape jelly and juice. We’ve also grown vegetables and made salsa along the way cutting out more processed foods. For things we can’t grow, we’ve been hitting up the local farmer’s markets.
- Reducing the sugar in our sweet treats by using agave as a replacement. I can still make yummy cupcakes and great tasting fruity desserts without the sugar.
- Drinking lots of water to stay hydrated. We seemed to rely too heavily on always having juice around the house. Now that we’ve limited that intake, the sugar consumption has also been reduced, but my family is staying hydrated better in the summer heat.
- Tried more homemade recipes for sauces, salad dressings, and condiments (hard in these times of easy pre-packaged/fast meals). The agave in ketchup makes me fret less when my kids ask for “dipping sauce” with every meal.
- Kept up with our favorite meals by simply using healthier ingredients – we didn’t need to eliminate the BBQ or the carbs we were digesting because we were balancing our meals out correctly to get all the nutrients we need.
Overall, it’s been a great experience, and I’ve learned a lot in terms of feeding my family and raising the happiness bar in our household. The basic arguments and fights among the kids have gone down, the sleep deprivation around the house has been reduced, and we’re really experiencing some great times together.
I’d love to hear what healthy, sustainable things you have adopted in your lifestyle to avoid the crash diets of the past.
