Most people know instinctively what eating healthier entails.

When they want to do a diet or detox, they cut out fried food, high salt/ fat food and try to lighten up their meals. They try and eat as little as possible and after 3 days, a week or a month, declare the diet a success/ failure and go back to eating the way they did again.

I don’t support diets or extreme approaches. Just google “healthy eating” or “weight loss” and you’ll be bombarded with over a million hits in 0.333 seconds telling you to eat more carbs, cut out carbs, high protein, low protein, the macrobiotic diet etc. It’s enough to make anyone scream and go running to the fridge to inhale a large chocolate cake.

What I do support is everything in moderation and a diet that is filled with fresh, wholesome, non- man made food. No calorie counting, no weighing, measuring, obsessing. I call it “clean” eating for the sake of simplicity but I really don’t want anyone to start viewing food as polar opposites. That is just a surefire way to spiral into an obsessive eating disorder. I don’t want you to look at a plate of rice and chicken wings and be filled with fear that it would make you fat. I don’t want the fear to compel you to starve yourself sick. I want you to look at it and think, food is fuel, but this is not the
best option, I could eat something else that will fuel and energize me. I could make a better choice.

I want to focus on health, not weight. The weight that frustrates you and consumes your thoughts is but a symptom of poor health and nutrition. Focus on your health and I guarantee you the weight will drop off. Don’t do this because you want to be skinny. Do this because you want to be healthy. Don’t think about saying no and restricting and confining yourself and making yourself as small as possible. Think about saying yes to health, to life to greatness. Make this a lifestyle choice, not a 2 week diet. 

SO, what exactly are poor food choices?

Poor food choices are things you consume that do nothing to make your body healthier. Instead they are loaded with so much toxins and chemicals that the body struggles to eliminate them. They manifest themselves by making you gain weight and/ or have severe skin outbreaks. They make you sluggish and tired even after 7 or 8 hours of rest and no matter how much you eat, you’ll still constantly be hungry because you may be consuming calorie dense food but the body is still unsatisfied. All it has ingested are chemicals and toxins but it wants food. REAL FOOD, Food with nutrients and the ability to repair the body yet it is getting none of it. Is it any wonder why we are eating so much as a nation but still unsatisfied?

Where are toxins found in food?

The most fattening toxins are found in SUGAR, alcohol, fizzy drinks, processed food, excess caffeine and cortisol.

So what happens when you eat them?

                                          picture taken from clean eating recipe’s facebook page.

When you ingest toxins, in order to protect your organs, the body stores toxins in your fat cells. The more toxins you eat, the bigger your fat cells get because they need to keep the toxins away from your vital organs like your heart, liver and kidneys. This is why people get bigger. The harder the fat, the more toxic your body is. Some people laugh about their hard beer bellies but that kind of beer bellies just fill me with fear. Soft, squishy fat may not be that great but they are easier to remove. Hard fat can cause serious health problems like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Remember. The EXCESS (everybody needs fat) fat on your body is caused by poor nutrition and toxins. There are people who are severely overweight, who take in 4000+ calories a day and are still suffering from severe malnutrition. They are constantly hungry because they crave nutrients.

A well nourished body doesn’t feel hungry. If you eat food high in vitamins, minerals and fiber slowly and thoroughly, you will feel satiated and satisfied. But eat a whole plate of char kway teow and you might feel full, bloated and uncomfortable for awhile but craving for a sweet or salty snack again in an hour or two.

SO make the decision to stay away from food that has been altered to destroy you. If there is only one thing you decided to do today, make today the day you limit (don’t need to go cold turkey all in one day!) your intake of refined sugar and other strange things that don’t benefit your body 🙂