DIET, WHAT DIET? – A FLEXARIAN ATTITUDE TO FEEDING
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Exercise, lifestyle and feeding habits should reflect what you expect to see – your picture of yourself is always the guiding force behind your decisions. The Question must be – Will the way I am living, exercising and feeding my body create the realistic vision I have in my mind? I have worked with many clients and met many gym users that have a total disconnect between this question and their actual exercise and feeding habits. It is often a simple task for me to marry the two for success. As progress comes the vision evolves. The Question needs to be asked of oneself often – ask it now.
Adam –
“Moderation Is The Skill To Master”
I am at a point in my life when I am considering changing my dietary practices. Mainly because change is what I do and to experiment with flexibility in all aspects of my life in order to experience different results. I am trained in nutrition management but that training covered what was considered normal eating habits for active people at that time. It could never cover all of the new diets and trends that are daily created for profit or the genuine findings of science that contradict many of the old ideas. Ethics has also become a major reason for people choosing how and what to eat.
I know my stuff when it comes to the macro-nutrients and the basics but have discovered lately the options and choices available are mind-boggling and extremely confusing. The information highway has its drawbacks and too much conflicting information is one such drawback.
It doesn’t help that the main intention of many is to profit in any way possible. The worship of the money god and the false idols of material possessions is a powerful force for evil in our society. profit at all costs before people.
I have always avoided herd behaviour, groups and institutions when it comes to religion, politics and anything really, considering them to be too full of ideologies that are expected to be assumed by connected individuals in order to qualify as whatever the group are labelling themselves. In order to be a ??????? you must believe and behave like ??????? Sadly, individuals are too ready to trade their freedom of choice and flexible open-mindedness to institutions for my liking or comfort. I return to this often in my writing.
You can imagine my delight when my choices and thoughts ethically and health-wise did not fit any of the one size fits all food trends that apparently are all the absolute best for us. All promising paradise in an eating plan. And many so lost in the details as to miss the big picture. The same story the now-defunct diets from the last decades were telling. Gullible public? Maybe – Science is mostly wrong but seems to make people trust more than they should. Too much information lends itself to confusion and the feeling of disappearing up our own back passages when we are trying to find THE BEST way. Maybe there are many best ways.
So, vegan, Paleo, carnivore, vegetarian and many more splinter clubs with just as many qualifying do’s and don’t’s. Fasting does appeal though as eating nothing costs very little and if we ignore the unnecessary add-on’s we could all benefit in many ways. If it has a label attached to it with rules and regulations in order to earn your label. I would suggest learning what you can from it and use the bits that suit and dump the other stuff.
Happily, just like all of the other herds, groups and institutions I have experienced I am a square peg in a world full of round holes. I will have to forge my own path or in this case, tailor my own diet through choices and behaviours that I can live by at this time. But! And it is a big but, leaving myself free to continue my life process which changes through reading, observation, experience and an ever sharpening intuition. Which comes with a built-in bull-shit detector. I always reserve the right to change my heart and mind as an essential part of living my own personal truth. Any fixed ideologies and associated labels are the enemies of that simple requirement.
It is funny that if we live long enough we get to see all of the foods we once thought were bad for us to become healthy and unhealthy as if caught in a revolving door.
One thing that has influenced my choice is that I have observed that none of the gurus pushing the eating plans are anywhere near in as good a shape as Julie and myself. Maybe they don’t practice what they preach. They are better marketing men than they are in shape and healthy. One point worth making here is that when Julie and I are asked about our diets people often seem disappointed that there is no new revolutionary secret to be shared. Moderation, self – discipline and some smart nutrition management aren’t sexy enough for people to believe that it works. I guess that is why we humans can be such suckers for all of the diet fads and constantly searching for the next big secret, backed by the science of course. The same science that caused the issues we face now.
One thing I am sure of is LESS IS MORE. And having to buy special foods to lose fat or get in shape doesn’t seem to fit with that simple rule. Put simply our society is fat because we eat too much of whatever is being marketed at any given period in history. We swing away from fat to sugar – away from sugar to fat. maybe it is time to realise that “anything in moderation would have served us better. If you are eating a diet that favours one macro over another or eliminates one completely I would suggest you consider carefully the history of such behaviours.
We always think we know better now, we have better science, we know more – but this now will one day be the past and maybe we are making the same mistakes. Science is just one perspective amongst many. Do we have too much faith in science? I think we do and it limits us as human beings. Just a thought! Your experience is your best experiment. It does not take much reading to show that science is more often wrong than right even when we are sure. There is another perspective that has not even been considered yet.
I suggest the middle way for all healthy humans is often the wisest choice. Extreme choices are what have made previous generations ill. Too much sugar, fat etc. If society had worked to balance the options and controlled the food industry I doubt there would have been a problem with insulin or anything else. Capitalism out of control is the culprit. Selling crap that is addictive and poisonous to ignorant or misguided consumers. Are we still misguided? By the extreme eating plans on offer, I think we may be making the same mistake by trying to rectify the decades of excess sugars we are now going to swing back to high fats. Am I the only person seeing a pattern here. And greed is not cured by any diet. Neither is swinging from one extreme to another.
The upshot is that I am changing my eating habits to fit my health and fuel requirements whilst making giant strides ethically. My energy signature will change because of these changes but I will adapt and change constantly to get better for life. I will listen to science and my intuition and I will use my senses to gauge and observe how it works in the real world. I will not get hooked into the ridiculous amount of detail and contradiction online. We evolve through life and should be prepared to adapt.
A word on meat – human beings probably would never have developed a large brain were it not for access to concentrated natural food sources such as meat. The sheer quantity of eating veggies would have been limiting and time-consuming. Cows eat the whole day long. If it got us this far I am inclined to stick with it. What could be more natural? I will admit that how the meat arrives at our table could stand improvement – but there are very few foods that we as capitalists haven’t messed with to increase profits. Also when someone coined the phrase we are what we eat – I am pretty sure they meant we are meat and as such our bodies welcome what meat offers. Short of cannibalism, it is as close as it gets to be the same as we are. It stands to reason that our body will convert sameness comfortably to useful tissue for us.
We need to be protected by our governments both from poor quality and from being charged too much for what is our right to partake in. having to pay a premium for the quality we should always have been getting makes being healthy elitist and unjust. But, that is another blog and a matter I can never change by my eating habits. Although if we all took a more flexible and moderate approach to our feeding habits the overall demand would be far less and I am convinced the medical services would not be so hard-pressed either. The health of the globe could be so much better and imagine if we all had effective immune systems to fight against pandemics and other such threats that thrive off the weak. The battle for protection is one we can all fight from the inside. Or at least increase our natural protective qualities. We can all exercise, sleep well and eat more sensibly.
My diet will continue supporting my lean physique as I must be doing something right. And be flexible enough to achieve any and all physical goals that I set for me and to aid Julie in doing the same at a lesser bodyweight and with different energy needs and tastes.
You won’t find it anywhere apart from inside of me as part of who I am currently. Feeding habits become embodied as part of a whole active process and that is different for us all – Make your feeding patterns work for your unique lifestyle and needs. Allow for change and inject variety often. Just as you would with your exercise routine. Never become a slave to an inflexible routine.
FLEXARIAN TIPS –
- Don’t have problem foods in the home
- Don’t shop hungry
- Less is more
- Keep busy – watch for behaviours that trigger or accompany poor eating habits.
- Avoid any diet with strong ideologies or that excludes any macronutrient
- Moderation is THE skill to MASTER
- Sever attachments to problem foods for good
- Use Apple Cider Vinegar
- Cover your bases – Consider a potent multivitamin/mineral at the very least. Animal packs are amazing for covering your bases and much more – If your diet is well varied then a weaker multi vit is a better bet, such as centrum. Money well spent to cover your bases.
- Get enough protein as a priority – 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight or more. More as we age. This is tough but nonetheless essential.
- At least some of this protein should be collagen protein – which has a different amino acid profile than other proteins. It can be added to coffee etc as a neutral-tasting powder that dissolves easily – no excuses.
- View the hungry feeling as a positive one. And get busy ignoring it.
- Use Intermittent fasting (dry or water only) as and when you deem it a good idea. We use it often mainly to improve insulin resistance.
- Embrace everything that is out there and mix and match regimes according to how you feel, your motivation and your current goals.
- Don’t become ???? and then try to follow the ???? lifestyle – Flexibility is key.
"Now it is essential to consider perspectivism if I am to remain true to my flexarian attitude. This is the bit that can become quite confusing. But, diet and nutrition are not exclusive or in any way absolute. Whatever one makes as a nutritional choice whether it be a nice simple approach like mine or a complicated one like many of the others the key to its utility is that we believe in it totally. This is our creation and it is only ever going to be effective if we believe in it 100%. Make it believable to your egoic mind and this is one part of your illusion that will work for you. If you don’t understand what I am talking about! Read more of my work and all become clear (as mud). Make it work!"
Adam –