We took up a lifestyle modification challenge in February 2023 and I was thinking hard for a theme for this month’s newsletters. Should I make it a PCOS month, a diabetes month…
But the writer within me wanted to talk beyond nutrition…
I meet so many interesting clients daily and I really do want to bring some fantastic stories forward. Now, of course I cannot discuss my clients with anyone as it is a breach of their trust in me, but I do want to talk about people’s preconceived notions of nutrition, myths they come with, and even genuine confusion and fear about food…
Let this month only be about myth-busting with some real-life funny stories!
I have multiple free consultations daily and in one of these calls with a potential client, she told me:
“You see I have tried almost every dietitian, they all tell me to eat millet’s and salads and vegetables. Will you also tell me the same thing? If so, it’s not sustainable and I won’t work with you. I don’t like bland food.”
A part of me desperately wanted to work with the client and show that eating healthy need not be boring. I also won’t lie that a part of me really wanted to close a sale that day ;)
But I have never given any client a false expectation and the trust is that if the client chose to work with me, they would have to eat millet’s and salads and vegetables.
The Preconceived Notions…
Somehow, we have this notion that if it is healthy, it won’t be tasty and if it is tasty, it won’t be healthy…
We all think of ‘diet plan’s’ as having a start and end date. ‘Monday se diet start hai, toh ab main kuch nahe kha sakta’ mentality. But this is far for being realistic.
The only way you can make something your lifestyle change is to be able to thoroughly look forward to doing it. Only if nutritional changes become your lifestyle change will you sustain the health impacts you get from it.
The kind of food I personally eat is beyond imaginable delicious! From tofu paratha’s to ragda patis, from masala pasta to lasooni palak khichdi, I have found a way to make everything tasty!
Sure some work has gone in terms of changing my taste buds and cravings (improve gut health and you will not crave for junk!), but I really look forward to eating home cooked meals when out of town and home cooked meals are just tasty foods which happen to be healthy!
There is no start and stop date for my ‘diet’. If I have to lose a little weight post a holiday binge, I’d just make minor tweeks like eating an earlier dinner or minimising desserts etc. But no major change int he way I eat.
Are you makign your healthy, tasty? Or are you looking for a start date to your diet plan?
Trust this helps,