Can a person go overboard with healthy eating? To the point where it actually becomes unhealthy? In my opinion I think the answer is a resounding YES! This was me a few years ago. I was trying so hard to achieve optimum health, I tried every diet under the sun. I felt like perfect, radiant health was a product of a certain diet. It’s hard not to think that way when we hear stories of how this person healed themselves on the GAPS diet, or how going Paleo got rid of all 22 ailments!
Of course I wished that the answer to perfect health lied in the right diet for me because it was something tangible, something I could control.
Now I’m not saying that nutrition isn’t important, it is! The foods we eat give us vitamins and minerals and feed our cells so they can perform their proper functions.
However, I was so over the top about what I ate that it actually ended up causing MORE stress. I would stress about how to meal plan for myself and my family who ate a more “normal” diet. I would stress if we were invited over to someone’s house to eat. What would they be serving? Would it be on my list of “foods I could eat.” Would they think I’m rude if I refused dessert? I would stress about traveling and all the preparation that it took to go places and maintain my “special diet.” I would be so picky about what I was going to eat that I felt hungry too often because the food I was eating took more preparation and then my blood sugar would get out of whack and I’d feel even worse off!
What a roller coaster that was.
After going through my fourth pregnancy where I went way the other direction and ate whatever the heck I wanted and gained more weight than ever the pendulum has finally come back to center. I don’t binge on junk food but I’m not crazy obsessed with eating healthy. I believe in moderation. I believe in letting yourself have a treat every now and then.
There was a period of almost a year that I went without sugar. On Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, yep, no sugar. It was awful. I felt deprived. I look back now and think why the heck did I do that? Wasn’t it more damaging to deprive myself of something that brought enjoyment on a holiday than to just indulge a little?
I will always be the girl known by family and friends as the health nut, the natural one, the green smoothie lovin’, fermented food eating crunchy gal. But we need to make sure that we’re not causing more harm than good when we get on these crazy diet kicks! Sure many nutritional plans help MANY people with different issues, but I’ve seen MANY people STILL have health issues even when they eat a so called perfect diet.
We can’t discount the healing power of ENJOYING our food. If you are invited over to a friend’s house relax and enjoy what you’re being served. Eat it with peace and gratitude. If you eat junky for a night then start the next day off with a healthy breakfast, it’s okay to bend a little for the sake of feeling normal!
We must also take into consideration the importance of a holistic health plan. Exercise, supplements, herbs, homeopathy, oils, sleep, relaxing, laughter, our attitudes and energy, all of these feed our souls. You can have the PERFECT diet but if you are tired, negative and never have any fun you’re not going to feel vibrant.
If you’re like I was, and stuck feeling obsessed with eating healthy, take a moment, take a deep breath and ask yourself, is it doing me more harm than good?
Moderation in all things my friends.
Can you relate? Do you feel you are going down a rabbit hole of diet after diet and you’re feeling stressed still?
Feel free to share in the comments below:)
