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Fuel Your Journey
Foundation Principles
I am not in the business of promoting one way of eating. My goal is to guide a person on their own personal journey of discovery, equip them with multiple tools, and empower them to select and utilize the right tool for them at the right time. Like most journeys, this evolves over time and no one tool or strategy works for everyone all the time.
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Here are a few guiding principles when researching for yourself:
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- No one should tell you what to eat or not to eat.
- There is no "good" or "bad" food.
- The word "cheating" does not apply to food.
- Avoid the word "should" when talking to yourself about food. It promotes guilt and shame.
- There is no one "formula" for food that works for everyone.
- The best nutrition plan for you is the one that works for you in real life.
- There are many different strategies on food to improve health. You have options.
- If something works for you most of the time, that is probably a keeper.
- What works for you now may not work for you forever and all the time.
- Forget about all the "diets" you have heard about. They may focus on differences or labels, when many healthier eating patterns have a lot in common.
- Keep it simple.
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Many people find it useful to progress their nutritin journey by starting with structured eating and then maturing on to include intuituve eating and go back to structured eating to recenter if things evolve or get off track. Know all the tools and be able to select the one that is right for you at the right time.
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Intutive Eating Tool
Intuitive eating is the opposite of structured eating.
Intuitive eating is eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full. It is based on mindfullness and cueing into your body's needs. There is no structure to this strategy. This strategy can be helpful if you have been on a meal plan and feel it has been overly restrictive or prescriptive and is negative affecting your relationship with you body or food. A pitfall of the intuitive eating approach is that many people do not have typical physical hunger cues. If you have had surgery or take medication or have circadian rhythm or sleep issues or just are never hungry, intuitive eating may not be right for you.
Managing Macros Tool
Managing macros goes beyond counting calories to account for not only how many calories you are eating but also where they are coming from. All food falls into the categories of protein, carbohydrates, fat, or alcohol. Managing macros is based on the concept that different macros affect the body in different ways, which makes sense. Managing macros can be very helpful if:
- you feel like you are already not eating too many calories and yet your body is not responding the way you'd expect. - you are feeling hungry or not full in between meals
- you like the idea of looking at food as nutrition and fuel for your body. It has a feeling that is pretty cool as it really has a feeling more like nutrition for fuel and health than limiting calories.
Structured Eating Tool
Structured eating is the opposite of intuitive eating.
Structured eating is eating within a structure.
The structure includes when you eat and what you eat.
Structured eating can be a helpful strategy if you are looking for something to:
- take the guesswork out of eating for a while
- have a specific plan for eating to learn more about your body
- if you feel a little lost about what you should eat, this can be a way to start to get a baseline. It probably will not be exactly right for you, but it will give a point of reference from which to start.
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In short, this tool can he helpful if you feel either too busy or confused about what to eat.
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To do a structured eating plan, I recommend:
1. Choose 3 meal times. Breakfast within 2 hours of waking up, lunch 4-6 hours later, and dinner at least 2 hours before going to sleep.
2. Plan a small morning snack if you are hungry and an afternoon snack if you'd like.
3. Choose a few simple options for each meal and snack, and just repeat them most of the time.
4. Be sure to have 20 to 30 grams of protein with meals and 10 to 20 grams with snacks depending on your needs.
5. Eat your food on time. You may need to set an alarm.
6. Keep a food diary so you can use the information to learn about your body and make adjustments from there.
7. Be flexible when you want to.
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Counting Calories Tool
Counting calories has a bad wrap, not surprisingly. Who wants someone to do a formula and tell them how many calories to eat? It seems like oftentimes the number is so low that it seems ridiculous, or eating that many calories reuires eating late at night to get it all in. Sometimes, people re confused because they are eating low calorie and losing weight, but then they increase and stop losing weight. So, how does one use this strategy to make it useful? There are two main ways:
Count your calories to get a baseline.
Try counting your calorie intake without changing anything to get a baseline. Once you know where you are starting, make a plan for a change that is reasonable rate of change and based on a thoughtful process. Then, count the calories to be sure you are following it closely enough to observe the results and test your hypothesis and respond accordingly.
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Count your calories to learn about calorie density.
Counting calories can be helpful just to see how many calories are in different food. There is a lot of misunderstanding about food out they with all the messages we get. Sometimes, people are just very surprised about the number of calories in different foods. Some have more and some have less. Counting calories can be helpful just so you know.
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Through these two tools, you may learn how many calories is best for you (approximately, it varies even in an individual), and how to fit the foods you want to eat within that calorie range. Calories aren't everything, but they do matter.
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