Are you clinging to a diet that is no longer supporting you?

I recently read an article about a woman who was vegan for 3 years, and returned to eating meat after her health started to suffer. You can read her journey here.

I have so much respect for this woman because she noticed a need to change her diet, and instead of clinging to something that was so clearly not serving her, she focused on her body's needs and adjusted.

I've been there. No fat/low fat and low calories until I hit a point where I was exhausted, my periods were painful and irregular, I had no energy, and I couldn't sleep. So I changed course.

I see, far too often, women coming to me for fertility issues. Their body is so busy working on minimal fuel that reproduction isn't even on the radar. At a cellular level, the body is simply trying to survive. And when I make my recommendations, I more often than not, get push back.

My response is always a gentle, "you've been eating and working out and living this way for a while and it's not working for you. So let's try it my way." But even still, there's a lot to unpack there.

We put so much faith in our diets. We cling to them like religion, and when they no longer serve us (or our body finally hits a point of breakdown), we ignore and force it because we mentally cannot conceive the fact that our diet doesn't work.

This is how powerful diet culture is. This is how powerful the fear of fat, red meat, fruit, natural sugar, or carbs in general, is. So powerful you are willing to be ill before giving up on a style of eating, rather than trying to just give the body what it's asking for.

Paleo, vegan, vegetarian, keto, intermittent fasting, whole 30, low carb, high protein, no fat - but do we actually ever sit down and decide what foods we like to eat, what foods work for us on a cellular level, what combinations of macros make us feel best, what these diets do to us in the long run?

The only "diet" I'm a fan of is the one that is sustainable, easy to digest, balances your hormones and blood sugar, promotes longevity (not extreme weight loss) and doesn't require you to count, weigh, measure or cut out entire food groups.

I am begging you, before jumping into medication, adjust your lifestyle. Change your diet. Change when and how hard you exercise. Give your body a chance to show you how very capable it is when it's supported.