We’re often told by doctors and the media that if we want to get healthy and lose weight, we must eat less and move more. This is easily said, but often difficult to do. Why is it that moderating our food intake and getting more physical activity is so difficult?

If you need help with customizing a healthy diet, click here

Practical Tips for Healthy, Stress-Free Eating

We’re often told by doctors and the media that if we want to get healthy and lose weight, we must eat less and move more. This is easily said, but often difficult to do. Why is it that moderating our food intake and getting more physical activity is so difficult?

Ultimately it all comes down to neuroregulation of appetite. While eating less and moderating your food intake may improve your health, it’s really difficult to do in our hyper-palatable world. Our basic biological drive is to eat as much food as possible and do as little physical activity as possible. Biologically speaking, we must eat more than the energy we spend to keep moving forward.

The truth is, that although the advice of eating less and moving more sounds good in theory, it’s the complete opposite of how our genetics are wired.

Once you understand how neuroregulation of appetite works, then all of your guilt and drama around behavior changes related to food will go away.

How to Customize Your Diet

When you’re trying to find a dietary protocol that works for you, where do you start? We recommend picking a diet with clear rules and starting there. For example, the paleo diet is a healthy protocol with clear guidelines. This is a great starting point.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all dietary approach, and eventually the cookie-cutter diet may stop working for you.

At this point, customizing your diet is the next step. We are all different individuals with different genetics and different microbiomes.

Customizing your diet will involve finding your carb tolerance, understanding your blood glucose levels after consuming certain foods, supporting healthy digestion, and healthy insulin response.

You have to bring awareness to how you feel after consuming certain foods.

What is a Healthy Relationship with Food?

Robb Wolf shares his thoughts about having a healthy relationship with food in this week’s podcast. Through his experience in working with people, he’s realized that when someone says they want to have a healthy relationship with food, the issue really is not food.

The real issue is an emotional hurt. Food just ends up becoming the coping mechanism.

More often than not, if you have an unhealthy relationship with food, then there is a deeper underlying issue that needs to be addressed. Usually, it is some type of emotional hurt or neglect. Your relationship with food is a symptom, not the root problem.

The Role of Cheating

Is cheating allowed on a healthy diet? This seems like a fair question, but the reality is that you can’t cheat on food. To cheat means to gain an unfair advantage. When you “cheat” in regards to food, you don’t gain an unfair advantage over the food.

You just eat food, and there are consequences to food. We all have a strong sense of right and wrong and a sense of morality. When you “cheat,” you still attach the emotional responses around the idea of cheating. However, there’s really no cheating going on at all. There are just consequences. That’s why so many people give up if they “cheat” or eat something they weren’t supposed to.

If you want a specific food, have it. Just understand what the consequences are. There is no need to feel guilty about it.

Food is meant to be enjoyed, not to induce fear and guilt. Implement a healthy eating plan that works for you, but also be flexible and not ultra regimented.

To learn more about customizing a healthy diet that serves you, check out our podcast with Robb Wolf.

If you need help with customizing a healthy diet, click here

What do you think? I would like to hear your thoughts or experience with this.

Dr. Ruscio is your leading functional and integrative doctor specializing in gut related disorders such as SIBO, leaky gut, Celiac, IBS and in thyroid disorders such as hypothyroid and hyperthyroid. For more information on how to become a patient, please contact our office. Serving the San Francisco bay area and distance patients via phone and Skype.