Balance, Sustainability, Freedom
Balance, sustainability, freedom is my personal philosophy. This philosophy stems from the idea that a balanced diet is a sustainable one, and having a long-term balanced diet creates a sense of freedom around food choices, rather than the feelings of suffocation that other, more restrictive diets may offer.
A personal balanced diet is something I believe is an integral part of every person’s life. I wholeheartedly think that when a person finds a diet which contains the right foods, flavours and portions they will be one big step closer to feeling like their best selves. A balanced diet to me is one that contains the right amounts of feel-good foods: low glycaemic index carbohydrate, quality lean protein sources, unsaturated fats and heaps of nutrients. It also includes foods that please the taste buds and have a good mouth feel. The goal of my recipes and meals plans are to be able to help you find the balance of these foods that works best for you, in your lifestyle, to meet your goals.
Recipe details can be found @simplysamnutrition on Instagram
It is clear that in this social media age there is a lot of confusing information out there regarding nutrition. Fad diets, new methods, and health “experts” of the like make making decisions regarding dietary practises very difficult. The balanced approach is a solution to this confusion. Quality nutrition education, healthy recipes, and an understanding of what intuitive eating is will all aid in finding this individualised balance. For example, I might have a dinner that is well balanced – quinoa, chicken breast, and a pile of stir-fried vegetables but I still crave my sweet after dinner. A balanced approach rather than restricting the sweet that I want so badly would be to either have some fruit, two squares of dark chocolate or a healthified crumble (as pictured above). This can vary individual to individual depending upon their dietary and health goals.
When an individual finds this balance, from what I have seen, it is soon realised this new found balanced diet approach is quite sustainable. Due to the lack of restriction on food groups people can learn when to give in to a sweet craving and when maybe they shouldn’t. An individual can discover what motivates them to eat, and can learn how eating a healthy, wholefood based diet they feel so much better – and cooking for this type of diet can be simple and tasty too! Once one realises they feel better, the food they are eating is still tasty, its not overly time consuming with tracking and weighing out foods, and they start exploring healthy wholefoods this diet is easily sustained and creates longevity.
This sustainability creates a sense of freedom around food choices, because of this intuitive approach. And in reality having this feeling of freedom and flexibility regarding food choices can take the stress out of dieting, because ultimately it isn’t a diet, its ones new state of living. I recommend having a dietitian, someone like myself (or myself 😉) assist you on your journey to find our balance, create a sustainable diet, so that you can feel true food freedom.