By Do you have a friend that you always ask, “what’s your secret?”
Someone who has a glow about them, whose weight never seems to fluctuate dependent on the season, and just has their shit together?
Unicorns I call them, with what seems an unachievable way of living; always healthy, always happy.
What’s their secret?
The word diet doesn’t exist for them.
Instead, they have a routine that works and they stick to it. Sure, they might veer from routine on occasion, but they always have the bigger picture at the forefront of their mind instead of their next cheat meal.
When it comes to said routine, the most important one is created within our kitchens. Yes, working out and fitness is extremely important too. But, ultimately, the food you put in your body every single day is the foundation you are constantly laying and re-laying for every facet of your life.
Each week, you have seven days to get it right and, each month, you have 28 days to get it right and so forth. You don’t have to be perfect, but you need to be consistent.
So, what do these routine-centric individuals do instead?
They don’t do “diet” things.
They do “healthy” things.
The Global Healthy Weight Registry run by Cornell University- a database listing people who have been a healthy weight since birth, gaining or losing only 5-10 pounds within the course of their lives, recently published findings regarding the habits of 147 of these healthy individuals. The results? 48% said they didn’t diet, while three quarters of participants said they did so “rarely.”
What’s even more interesting is their routine within the kitchen; 90% of participants said they are conscious of what they eat and 96% of individuals said they always ate breakfast while 65% made sure to eat vegetables with their dinner.
Their secret is that they aren’t doing anything that is diet-relayed. They aren’t restricting themselves, they have simple realised the benefits of mindful eating and have found a balance between nutritious food and enjoying the occasional treat.
It sounds so much easier said than done, doesn’t it?
But just remember, every morsel of food you ingest has a nutritional profile that directly effects your mental processes, energy levels, sleep cycles and stress-levels. Every single somatic and autonomic system of the body is correlated to the food we eat. That one brownie or cookie, or processed sandwich or wrap will quickly add up into thousands of grams of processed sugar that your body has to break down over and over again.
Your body is the ultimate temple, and the only one you’ve got. So why punish it by constantly relaying its foundation again and again?
Words by Victoria Engelmann
@thewellnessedit
The Vic Edit 