I often joke that I’ve seen it all, heard it all, and done it all when it comes to nutrition. It’s one of the reasons I’m uniquely qualified to help you when it comes to your own quest to discover what’s right for you.
I’ve been on my own nutrition journey for decades. It started because I always wanted to “lose weight”. When I found CrossFit, it became about fueling my body for performance. Moving from what I didn’t want—feeling uncomfortable in my body—to what I did want—feeling energetic, strong, and capable—was a welcome shift in my mindset around food and its role in my life.
Despite this transition from aesthetics to performance, one of the tactics I’ve continued to toy with for too many years to count is relying on various food rules. They have helped me eat the most nutritious and nourishing things, in the right amounts for my goals.
But just what do I mean by food rules?
Like the term implies, food rules are designed to enforce restriction by eliminating certain foods or food groups and/or being strict around when you eat.
Most popular diets come with their own set. If you were doing the Keto Diet, you wouldn’t intentionally eat carbs. If you were doing the Paleo Diet, you wouldn’t choose foods that have been produced through agricultural practices—gluten, dairy, corn, beans, and processed foods, are just a few on the list to avoid.
Other food rules might be associated to the timing of meals. If you were practicing Intermittent Fasting (IF) or Time Restricted Feeding (TRF), you would identify the window of time during which you are permitted to eat. If this is between 11am and 7pm, nothing goes down the hatch except low-calorie beverages or water outside of those hours.
Beyond specific diets and meal timing, the rules might guide more mindful eating, such as “I only eat when I’m truly hungry.”
Even following rigid macros where your goal is to eat exactly the number of grams of protein, fat, and carbohydrates as prescribed is a rule.
Relying on food rules can be helpful because they can reduce the number of decisions you have to make about food each day.
Did you know that you make over 200 food decisions a day?! This starts as soon as you wake up in the morning. Should you have tea or coffee? Cream or milk? Will you eat oatmeal or have a bagel, yogurt, or an omelet? What kind of omelet? Should you have toast with it? One piece or two? What will you put on your toast?
You get the picture.
Putting yes/no rules into place can reduce the decision fatigue that comes with constantly debating with yourself about the what, when, and how much aspects of your food choices.
That in itself can offer immense relief.
Want cake? Nope, I don’t do sugar.
Let’s have popcorn with our movie tonight! No can do, it’s after 8pm and I stop eating at 7pm.
Another thing about restrictive food rules is that they can diminish unhelpful habits. For example, if you want to get off the see-food-and-eat-it-diet, creating a rule so that you don’t snack outside of mealtime can help break that pathway. My newest client is working on this exact thing.
When sugary snacks were offered to her recently, she dug deep and held off. Celebrating her success with me later, she explained, “I reminded myself that even though they looked delicious, I wasn't hungry. And I don't NEED to have a treat just because it's there.”
Although food rules can help you reduce the need for constant decision making, while also helping you break certain habits, food rules can become maladaptive when they result in extreme restriction or a disordered approach to eating.
They can also be problematic when they affect the variety of your diet. Cutting out entire food groups such as:
dairy (belief that they cause too much inflammation),
grains (belief that they are too high in carbs), or
fruit (belief that they contain too much sugar)
can cause undesired consequences. The elimination of such components of a healthy and well-balanced diet can result in nutrient deficiencies, not to mention the development of food-fears.
The fear of not eating “perfectly” can morph into something called Orthorexia, which is an unhealthy preoccupation with eating only a super clean, high-quality diet.
The other thing about food rules is that they are either followed—or they are broken. Strictly adhering to rigid rules can set you up for an all-or-nothing approach to your nutrition. This pass or fail mentality can result in a cycle of extreme restriction while being “good” and a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater cycle of overconsumption once a rule has been broken. Internal moral judgements about your own value, based on your ability to ruthlessly adhere to the rules, will never end well.
So how do you know if the food rules you have in place are helping or hindering when it comes to the goals you have in mind? Ways to assess this for yourself include:
What purpose are they serving? Are you trying to break old habits that don’t align with your current goals? Or are you trying to eat as little as possible by telling yourself you can’t have a bunch of different foods?
Do you get upset when you can’t follow your rules? How do you react? What’s your self-talk like?
What happens if you choose to take a little vacation from your rigid food routine? Do you go completely off the rails for days? Or do you extend some flexibility to a meal or two and then, without berating yourself, do you simply get back to your structured approach?
The distinction between the healthy and harmful use of food rules really depends on your mindset, the reasons for putting food rules into place, as well as how restrictive you become and what that does to your relationship with food, your body, and your mind.
If your goal is to live a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life, are the food rules you’re following moving you towards that vision or away from it?
Commentaires