3 Tips for Simplifying Your Diet
By Amber Lowry
When trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, it’s easy to harp on the little details, which can leave you feeling overwhelmed and farther away from your goals. During these times, it’s best to keep things as simple as possible while you explore what being healthy means for you. Here are three tips to keep in mind to help simplify your diet:
1. Don’t obsess
A major component of The Dolce Diet is creating a healthy relationship with food. Fixating on the less important aspects of what you should or shouldn’t eat can create stress, which has more consequences than commonly thought. Over-stressing can change the way your body breaks down food due to the increase of cortisol, which in turn can produce more insulin than needed. That insulin can then cause excess fat storage in the body, so even the healthiest of meals have the potential to be harmful once consumed if stress levels go unregulated. That said, don’t confuse avoiding unhealthy preoccupation with your diet with eating recklessly. Remember, there’s a fine line between being hard on yourself and giving yourself an excuse to fail.
2. Keep it real
When eating according to plan isn’t possible, it’s best to stick to real foods no matter what. This is because toxic chemicals found in most processed junk can result in your body acting against its nature, which could have devastating effects on your health goals. For example, high fructose corn syrup has been shown to directly change your endocrine system by lowering one of your satiety hormones while raising a hormone responsible for hunger. So basically, HFCS is tricking your body into thinking it’s hungry when it’s really not, which can add to a host of health problems like obesity. As confusing as it may seem, sticking to real fruits, veggies and meat even if they aren’t organic is better than backtracking to anything overly processed or artificial.
3. Don’t overcomplicate
Keto, macros, low-carb: any of those sound familiar? There’s always some new diet that promises you the world, but sticking to tried-and-true dietetic principles like eating earth-grown nutrients can be the best path to both sexy and healthy. Along with being impractical in the long term, a side effect of many newer, less proven dietary approaches is an increase in yo-yo dieting, which can lead to metabolic issues that can impact you for the rest of your life. Just because something fits your macros doesn’t mean it fits your biology. Classic recipes that focus on high quality, sustainable foods are always a better choice than possibly risking metabolic damage from a trendy diet.
