Have you ever wondered, “What kind of diet is best for me”?

Have you ever tried a FAD diet?

There are extreme diets out there. People often become discouraged when they are not seeing the anticipated results and reverting back to the Standard American Diet SAD. There are times when specific diets are warranted depending on what people are going through. Often times they are deceptive, not sustainable and depriving your body of vital nutrients. Extreme diets can be counterproductive as they do not contain all the necessary nutrients for your body to function properly.

Many people experience immediate weight gain as soon as they stop the diet. No matter what diet you are on, I ALWAYS recommend you focus on whole and unprocessed foods. Whole fruits and vegetables and high quality proteins often still have a living component to it even though it has been plucked from the vine. The more we can consume produce closest to its original, living form, the more nutrients will be absorbed when eating which will bring life and health to our bodies.

One special tips for you is that I highly recommend organic fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables as opposed to canned produce because they retain more of their nutrient value.

A healthy approach to eating and deciding which “diet “ is best for you is one that fluctuates and adjusts with the needs of your body and changes with life’s demands.

In all honesty, I prefer not to use the term “diet” simply because diet is often associated with restriction,  deprivation and stress. I strongly believe in custom tailored food plans. There are so many factors that determine what foods are beneficial for your body in the current season of your health journey. This is why it is so important to have a blood cell analysis completed to help identify what foods are the least and most beneficial for your current state of health. Food intolerances and sensitivities are common and is often necessary to temporarily eliminate certain foods and slowly incorporate them back in once the digestive system has had a chance to heal. It’s important to have diversity in our diet by constantly rotating foods. Over consumption of one particular food will often cause your body to develop an allergic reaction and then you will have to omit it completely. Maybe something that is not good for you right now might be good for you later after healing has progressed.

For example: If your blood test results indicate high acidity levels within the body, my personal physician Dr. Raymon Hilu will often recommend omitting acid forming foods for a period of time. Just to name a few, grapefruit, red meat, sugar, tomatoes. Or…..if your blood test indicates a degenerative disease, Dr. Hilu will often recommend the Johanna Budwig diet which helps to oxygenate the body. All to say, it is crucial to test and not guess in order to know the current internal state of your body to determine what foods are both beneficial and destructive in this stage of your health.

What are you prioritizing? progress or perfection? The saying, “perfection is the enemy of progress” couldn’t be more true. The more people I work with, the more I realize just how paralyzing our desire to be perfect can be.  Especially when it comes to following strict diets, people tend to build up self-hate, judgement, self-disappointment and failure when they are not able to comply with restrictive diets that perhaps were not even right for them in the first place.

But the bottom line is this: eating a perfect diet or following a perfect workout regimen will not make you a perfect person. It won’t make you more loveable. It won’t fix all your problems. It’s time to change our mindset and learn to love and accept ourselves for who we are TODAY, not who we’ll be when we lose 10 pounds or do ____________ (you fill in the blank).

What do you love about yourself? Maybe it’s time to speak that truth out loud and start recognizing the ways you are fearfully and wonderfully made, instead of fixating on your “flaws”.

We should focus on excellence when it comes to our relationship with food as opposed to perfection.

What are your thoughts on diets that you’ve tried?