What we can learn from our old restrictive nutrition habits
You might be thinking “Carly… what can I possibly learn from my restrictive past?!” While I’m not advocating for a super rigid or restrictive approach, I’m still a big believer that there’s a learning opportunity implicit in every expereince.
You might be thinking “Carly… what can I possibly learn from my restrictive past?!” Let's clear something up first... I'm definitely not advocating for anyone to take a super rigid, restrictive dietary approach. That being said, I'm a strong believer that with every "failure" comes a learning moment.
I spent years having a terrible relationship with food, missing out on social events due to fear of meals not fitting my macros, and oscillating between restriction and overdoing it on snacks the first second I got a chance. And even though I can look back on that phase now and unequivocally know that it was not the right approach, it doesn’t mean that I think that whole period of my life was a waste.
Yes, I wish that I learned sooner that there is a healthier and more enjoyable way to live. But so much of my approach to nutrition now is based on my learnings of what not to do. And beyond that, there are some tenants of my old eating habits that actually helped lay the foundation for the more balanced approach that I take now.
Things are rarely 100% good or 100% bad. My old approach wasn’t sustainable, but there are certainly some habits that I learned from that approach that I now see through a new lens. For example, I used to eat almost the same meals every day because it fit my macros and I refused to deviate at all. Now I no longer eat exactly the same foods every day but doing so every day for years taught me that those foods sit best in my stomach and help me stay full and feel my best.
So even though I’m not longer as rigid as I used to be, I do know that simple, mostly single ingredient recipes make me feel my best and are the easiest for me to prep consistently. So now I have 5-10 go to recipes that I cycle through simply because it’s what I enjoy.
So What Have I learned from my Old Eating Behaviors?
Structure
My guess is that when you were obsessing about your diet in the past, you were probably extremely regimented not just about what you ate, but when. While I'm not advocating for complete rigidity around meal structure, there are some positives we can take away from a more structured approach:
Eating X number of meals per day
Eating at regular hours
Splitting up protein throughout the day
All of these can help with consistency, satiety, nutrient diversity, and snacking habits
2. Simplicity
I remember in the peak of my dieting restriction, I was eating super simply and often repeating the same meals week after week because it was easier than trying to find new foods that "fit." Again, I'm not advocating for this 100% of the time but there can be big benefits to eating similar meals and focusing on single ingredient foods
Easy to track
Easy to prepare
Confidence that it digests well
I now have a roster of 5-10 meals that I tend to cycle through for ease of shopping, tracking, and prepping
TLDR; if you didn’t get it right the first time that’s okay… there’s always something you can learn from the experience!
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