I am an advocate for individualized nutrition. I will always support my clients, their goals, and their health. However, I do admit I hold some bias and skepticism around the mainstream diets we see circulating today. All diets are not created equal; there is a spectrum of dangerous to doable. But I argue that all diets have some potential for negative side effects, which is why I thought I’d share my background and experience with diet culture, and where I stand today.
My journey: CrossFit and Paleo
My nutrition journey began years ago, as a sophomore in high school when my mom dragged me to her CrossFit gym early on a Saturday morning. Of course, I held an immediate distaste for the entity of CrossFit as a whole. Taken from me was the opportunity to sleep in on a glorious weekend, and instead, I find myself running up and down an uneven and cracked sidewalk through an industrial business park, and lifting a naked barbell with awkward unfamiliarity. Staggering with soreness for the rest of the day and through the remainder of the weekend, I declared my hatred for CrossFit, only to return a few days later.
Paleo got its name from the nature of the diet; essentially the goal was to mimic the diet of a caveman or cavewoman in Paleolithic times. Paleo diets only consist of meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and oils. It discourages the intake of grains and dairy. In fact, The Paleo Diet website offers a section of information outlining which foods (and food groups) as a whole should be avoided.
On one hand, there are definitely good pieces of advice integrated into the structure of The Paleo Diet. Eat fruits and vegetables, lean meats, avoid simple, added sugars and excessive salt intake; all suggestions that I would generally recommend in my own nutrition practice. On the other, there are plenty of claims made and backed by cited scientific literature that I would challenge. While I am happy to get into the science of Paleo and other diets, I will save that for another time. Despite encouragement of overall healthy diet quality, in my experience with this diet, there was one huge, unassuming flaw that sent me on a confusing and frustrating path that took me years to recover from.
Dieting gone wrong
I was 16 or 17 years old when I started Paleo, impressionable and finding balance between self-confidence and bouts of low self-esteem. While I knew I didn’t look like the lean and strong female elite CrossFitters, I so desperately wanted to. Paleo seemed to be the answer to fueling my workouts, and my soon-to-be rockin’ body. I loved and embraced it for some time; I swapped Paleo recipes with my CrossFit friends, participated in challenges and thrived on the added competition. But still, it had its consequences.
The introduction of this diet led to acquisition of this learned guilt that I associated with grains, carbs, and dairy, no matter the quantity or the quality of the food eaten. Brown rice, chocolate cake, Greek yogurt, my favorite ice cream, they were all the same. Not Paleo, not ‘healthy’. Frustration followed the guilt and shame; really, how bad could whole grains or peanut butter or the occasional non-Paleo brownie actually be?
Deep down, I knew this was wrong, but these feelings stayed with me for years, and only faded with time, reeducation, and lifestyle balance. No one ever taught me this guilt, or made me feel guilty for ‘cheating’ the diet. Yet, the simple labeling of food as ‘allowed’ and ‘not allowed’, ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, was enough to create a rift in my mind that limited my enjoyment of food and became a barrier to my health and wellness.
Finding balance
Now, I more or less eat unrestricted. I am “healthy” – I eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, eat mostly whole grains, limit red meat (and meat in general), I drink lots of water, I often go for dessert, indulge in moderate alcohol consumption, and I exercise regularly. I am healthy, happy, and unrestricted. However, it took me years to find this balance.
Now, with that being said, my intention of this article is not to dump on Paleo or CrossFit, and discourage anyone from utilizing the diet as a tool to achieve their own health goals. My intention is to share my experience as a nutrition professional and as a human, because dieting did NOT work for me, and I know of many who have shared in my experience. I didn’t have the resources at the time to make my own judgements about this diet, or to take precaution against damaging diet culture-related mindsets.
Which is why by writing this article, I hope to be an advocate for YOU and YOUR health as you experiment with achieving wellness balance. Food is meant to be enjoyed, to energize your body, and to nourish your mind as you live day-to-day, not to be associated with guilt, shame, restriction, and negativity. In my opinion, ditching diet culture is the first step.
Despite my own experience and feelings, I acknowledge the appeal of dieting. I plan to cover some mainstream diets in blogs to come. Keto, Intermittent Fasting, Whole 30 – what are the logistics and implications of these diets? I’ll share my thoughts about how I feel about them in practice.
If you are struggling to find nutrition balance and the world of diet culture, you are certainly not alone. It can be a tricky road to navigate alone – consider consulting with a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN). I am trained to provide you the information and tools needed to make decisions about your own health and wellness. I would be happy to help guide you to achieving a life free of guilt and full of delicious food. For a free consultation, click here.