Functional Nutrition Blog

Focusing on gut health and Functional nutrition

How To Change Your Diet: Mental Shifting

Mar 14, 2022 | Gut Health, Nutrition

If you are somebody who has been struggling with the idea of changing your diet and allowing that to be a barrier to getting answers.  Or taking steps moving forward in order to heal your gut, or simply just feel less bloated or less like shit, this conversation is for you. Okay, so I recently did a survey of my audience.  I wanted to know, what are the barriers here?  What are the things that are preventing you from being able to take the next steps forward? Because that’s always what we’re talking about, whatever those steps look like, we want forward progression.

Is Diet Your Barrier?

For some people it was time, for some people it was support, for a few people it was the investment. 50% of you said that it was the idea of changing your diet. So I wanted to dive into that a little bit. There are a few different things that are going to be really important in helping you understand how you’re going to be thinking about what changing your diet means, What it might look like. Because if it’s just this big, giant unknown, you’re not going to want to do that.

So what I want you to know is that when you’re listening to me talk about changing your diet. When you’re listening to most dieticians talk about changing your diet. This is not some lifelong, restrictive punishment. That’s not what it’s about. Now, might it be restricted for a period of time in order to allow your body to heal? Yeah of course. Because we have to do something different. Right? This is what an elimination diet is like, you eliminate things when you are able to identify what the problems are.  Then the goal and the point of an elimination diet, is to be able to work everything back in and that piece is so important, I want you to really share that.

Not A Forever Change

I want you to understand that when it comes to changing your diet, it’s for this amount of time in the grand scheme of things.  Now, it doesn’t mean that for this amount of time, it might not feel heavy, overwhelming, and really stressful. It will, because it’s different, new, and it’s unfamiliar. But guess what? All of that stuff is okay. It’s all okay, and you are totally capable of feeling all of that stuff. And moving through it. Because on the other side of moving through, is exactly what you’re looking for.  Or at least the possibility of moving closer to what you’re looking for relief. Being able to button your pants, eat out not have to know where the bathroom is all of the time.  Having energy. feeling a vibrant, vivacious sense of life, right?

Who Are You?

So the other thing here is that I really feel like a lot of people, and I’m including myself in this, at one point we are taught that we either or are not certain people. I’m going to give you an easy example. Growing up, I was always not athletic. I was a dancer.  More artistic. I was flexible, but I wasn’t strong. And I wasn’t athletic. None of that’s actually true. That was the identity that I grew up with, we all have these different versions. This isn’t even brand new information. Some people you’re good at school, you’re a sportsperson. You’re a nerd, right? The same is true when it comes to our food and our diet. You’re good at eating well. You’re good at dieting, How about this one? You just don’t get it. Your genetics won’t allow it.

You have the ability to decide who you are, and what that means for the decisions that come easily to you. So at any moment, you can decide. I am a person that’s really good at being disciplined. 

I am a person who’s really good at learning about my body.  A  person who is really interested in trying new things,  in order to find a solution, because somebody else in your life just as easily assigned something else to think about that for one minute. All it takes is some adults in your life as a child to say, you’re really good at sports. Oh, honey, you’re not so good at sports, maybe you should do this instead. And that’s all. So it can actually be that easy for you to rewrite it.

You Decide Who You Are!

I’m gonna just challenge you to think about what are the truths that you have decided for yourself? Are you happy with them? Do they serve you? Are they helping you get closer to your goal? You can take that as deep as you’d really like to, what I’m saying is, I want you to apply it to how you view your health and the things within your health when it comes to the food that is accessible to you. Because it’s changing your diet feels inaccessible, if it feels overwhelming, it feels like it belongs in the category of things that you don’t belong to change it. Simply decide,

Oh, I do belong in this category. Watch what opens up for you.  What new information you all of a sudden can take in and have it make perfect sense. Watch the people that come into your life, that are going to be able to guide you exactly the way that you need to be guided.  You do have the option.

Diet Change: Possible vs. Easy

I want to remind you of this too.  It doesn’t mean that it needs to be easy. Okay, those are two different things possible and easy are not the same thing. If you can let go of the idea that you need to be able to implement dietary changes with total ease, and it’s just the zen experience, throw that out the window!  That doesn’t have to be true, they’re not the same thing. You can say I’m good at doing this thing. Even though it’s not easy for me, I am a person who does things that are not easy for me. Because I want to improve my health. Try that on and see how it feels. Watch how things start to shift.  Only you can do that.  I can teach you all you need to know.  Hold your hand and I can guide you.  Can give you meal ideas and help you understand,

How To Implement

What does the implementation part of this look and feel like? You got to do that internal peace first, to even be able to accept what it is that I have to teach. So I hope that lands for some of you. I hope that sparks something.  You’re able to kind of grasp onto some little piece of this. Because when I got that feedback that the change in your diet power is what felt so overwhelming. I thought we need to address this. Remind yourself, first of all, it’s not a forever thing.  The changes that you have to make are a tool to help your body heal. It’s an isolated period of time. For that isolated period of time, things might be a little overwhelming. They might be challenging, difficult, you might feel out of your element. iI’s all totally okay. All of it. It’s all fine.

Lastly, remind yourself that you get to decide what type of person you are. Nobody else gets to put those labels or withhold those labels from you. It happens very innocently most of the time. But that’s your power as well.

I got to decide one day, I am strong. Do have the ability to lift weights and workout and be a strong person. And that’s all it took. That’s it. I encourage you to explore those questions for yourself. Cheering for you,  as always you got this!  You are a person who can do difficult and challenging things gracefully.

Lots more info and video on my youtube channel!  Check it out!

You can also send me a message and we can connect!

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