Eating a balanced diet, in my opinion, includes 80% choosing the healthiest foods and 20% indulging in less-than-healthy treats. I’ve written about this before, but I felt the need to dive in again. Because look, this is real life. And in real life, there are treats. Lots of ’em. Everywhere you look, there are foods staring you in the face… and I believe you should have the freedom to choose which ones you eat.
I’m not saying we should go nuts (pun not intended, since nuts are good for you – hehe), but simply that the choice should be yours to make, and you shouldn’t feel super restricted when doing so. Eating a balanced diet allows for flexibility and freedom. And while I wholeheartedly believe we should choose the healthiest foods the majority of the time, I also feel we should revel in indulgences here and there. Both healthy indulgences (and there are many of them), and also those that are less-than-healthy.
The thing is, I’m not a perfect eater, and I don’t believe you should be, either.
I believe that striving for perfect eating isn’t very sustainable in the long run… because real life includes parties, celebrations, and, well, chocolate cake. Now, I’m not saying you should just give ‘er at every one of those parties and celebrations, and every time there’s chocolate cake around. What I am saying is that I don’t want you to feel restricted and like you can’t ever indulge in less-than-healthy foods again.
Not everyone will agree with me on this topic, and that’s okay. I’m speaking from my own experience here, both as a nutritionist and as a human being. Although there are some people who thrive with an “all or nothing” way of eating (and kudos to you if you’re like, “that’s me!”), most of the people I work with are not wired that way.
Why I Believe in a Balanced Approach
More often than not, someone will get on a health kick and go all out, shouting “Nope!” to every morsel of junk food in their path. And believe me, I love this and encourage them to continue. However, what I’m focusing on here is the time when that initial excitement and steadfastness wears off (and it usually will). I don’t want that person to feel deprived or stressed, ultimately turning their healthy eating plan of action into something that feels unattainable and provokes feelings of failure. What I’ve seen in these cases is people completely making a 180; instead of indulging here and there, they let loose and scoop up all the treats they can get their hands on.
Sound familiar? If so, you are not alone.
Instead of taking an all or nothing approach, I suggest more of an 80/20; that is, 80% of the foods you eat are THE healthiest foods you can choose, ones that provide your bod with awesome fuel and nutrients. You aim to super-nourish your body and ideally choose organic for the Dirty Dozen. And for the other 20% (allergens and sensitivities aside), you allow for indulgences. This is my version of eating a balanced diet.
What About During a Detox or Cleanse?
You might be wondering about detoxes or other healthy eating challenges (such as my 7-day no-sugar challenge, coming back again soon!). In these cases, I encourage you to go all out and really stick to the plan; you are giving your body a break from digesting and dealing with certain foods, and I am all about that. Detoxes and challenges are so good for your body and they’re for a set amount of time. They’re much more manageable than deciding you’ll never again eat a piece of pizza in your life, IMO.
Cravings
There is a lot to be said for healthy eating and a drastic reduction of cravings. Meaning, the more you really amp up your 80% healthy, the fewer cravings you will even have for treats in your 20%. Specifically, including protein, fat and fibre in your meals helps to slow the release of carbs into your bloodstream. This works to prevent a blood sugar spike from your food, which then prevents the resulting crash that can cause mega cravings, especially for sugar.
Beyond our diet, there’s also the emotional component of cravings. We all know that when we feel stressed, sad, angry, or anxious, we are way more likely to reach for certain foods to make us feel better. Ideally, we reach instead for other things besides food to balance us out and fill our cup, and we leave our 20% for when we’re otherwise feeling great and just want to eat the cake at the birthday party.
Make sense?
So all in all, the struggle with cravings is typically much less when you eat well and manage stress effectively. Your cravings should be a lot less in yo’ face. Still, there might be times when you just want to say yes to the offering of a treat… and I want you to enjoy every minute of it.
This isn’t a pass for you to just go all out with all the treats you can lay your hands on… quite the opposite, in fact. I want you to focus on that 80% and get THE MOST nutrition out of it that you possibly can. Super-nourish your body and really make it count.
Truly nourishing your body will help to reduce your cravings for treats in the first place. But, when you do indulge, enjoy the heck out of it.
Laura Lima CNP, RNCP
Laura is a holistic nutritionist, stay-at-home mompreneur, wife to Hamilton Realtor, Miguel Lima, and mama to Cutest Babies Ever, Ellie and Maggie. (Ha.) She loves teaching women that focusing on real foods can help them feel fantastic and have more energy so they can take on the many calls of mamahood (and life in general). She spends much of her time in her free Facebook group where she teaches how to do just that. Are you a new(ish) mama? She’d love for you to join her there.