I was torn between sharing my amazing collection of nut butters (truly, it’s amazing) or talking about my food philosophy (if you could call it that) this week. Since last week I talked about trying to eat more, I thought it would be timely to talk about my philosophy as it relates to food.
Over the weekend, Amanda posted this question to her Facebook Page:
As you can see, I have somewhat strong feelings (okay, that might be an understatement) as it relates to labeling foods as “off limits”.
Last week my forehead broke out in what I believed to be pimples, and upon getting feedback from my friends, some people thought they might be more related to an allergy. I’m lucky in that I can only ever recall one allergic reaction in my life. I was 12 or 13 and I ate six or eight eggs in a short amount of time one Easter and ended up breaking out in hives. As I hadn’t changed my skin care route, or detergent recently, my next assumption is that the bumps were related to a food intolerance.
Ugh.
See, my philosophy of eat all the things means I’ve never dealt with having any food “off limits” in my life.
Once when I was in Grade 11 I decided to go vegetarian for a month with my best friend, as her boyfriend at the time was vegetarian. I think I lasted three or four days until we had salmon for dinner one night. I reasoned that some people who are vegetarians eat fish, so I could too.
I believe in eating healthy whole food
For a while when I was 20 or 21 I was working evenings and would regularly eat a protein bar for dinner. I reasoned that because it was a protein bar it was healthy; therefore it was an acceptable alternative.
I can’t tell you how much current me cringes at that.
The closest I’ve come to consuming a protein bar, is having a Vega Vibrancy bar as a snack last week.
I’ve seen a ton of people raving about Quest bars lately, but I’d much rather eat real food instead of a bar designed to taste like cookies or a cinnamon bun.
This said, in my attempt to eat more, I did pick up a handful of bars for afternoon snacks on days that I run. They’re also easy to toss into my purse on weekends, as I find I’m having a harder time-consuming enough on weekends after my long runs, but that’s a story for another day.
Counting is for accountants
Okay, so I am an accountant, but I have no desire to count calories or macros.
While I do think it’s helpful to occasionally check in and see how I’m doing calorie and macro-wise, I’m certainly never going to live and die by those numbers.
I consciously work to consume sufficient quantities of carbs, protein and fat, but I’m really not going to get fussed if one day I eat more protein and another day I eat more carbs. I fully believe that being conscious to it (and I’m actively working to consume more protein) I’ll give my body what it needs.
If I want it, I eat it
I don’t believe in denying myself food
Yes, I have some weird and wacky food rules, but if I crave something, I’ll eat it. I may not always eat it right that second but I will eat it.
I’ve been craving red meat, specifically a good juicy burger, so that’s on my list to eat this week.
I also eat dessert nearly every night. At the bare minimum I’ll have two or three dates with peanut butter as my dessert. On Sunday I shared some of my gelato collection with a friend and had some dates. I didn’t feel one bit bad about it.
I don’t believe in guilt
When ever I make a choice as it relates to food, I do so consciously. Okay, most of the time I do so consciously.
Since I’m the one making the choices as it relates to my food, I see no reason to beat myself up for my choices. If I decide to get fries with my hamburger, I’m going to get fries with it and I’m going to enjoy every last one of them.
I believe in moderation
This week I may treat myself to a burger and fries – but I can tell you I’m not going to eat a burger and fries every day, or even every week. Heck, I probably won’t even do it every month.
I’ll have dessert every night, but it will be a few spoonfuls of gelato, or two or three dates, or one of Amy’s amazing cookies (although I really wanted to eat the whole batch!).
I’ll have a glass or two of wine on the weekends, but not a bottle. Most of the time. Sometimes a bottle is necessary 😉
Cowgirl Runs 