Healthy eating

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Body
You are currently viewing Healthy eating

When it comes to health & fitness, there’s one topic that’s even more saturated with opinions and broscience than working out. And that is nutrition. Sometimes it feels like a new diet or “super food” is appearing every week (or even more often).

“Eat this”, “stop eating this”, “you won’t believe what happened when I stopped eating X”, “This diet X changed my life” and so on. I think you get the point.

And the most confusing part is that there’s a lot of contradicting information out there. One source says do X, and then the next source says don’t do X. And at the end you just become confused and uncertain from all this information overload.

In this article I’ll share with you what “healthy eating” means to me and how I approach it.

And just in case you haven’t read my previous articles, please know that I’m not teaching anything or saying that “this is the right way to eat”. I’m simply sharing my personal beliefs, what I do and why I do that.

So, grab your cup of tea and let’s dive in.

To keep it simple and easy-to-understand, I will follow the similar structure of my working out article. It will go along the lines of something like this:

Where am I now → What do I want to achieve → Why do I want to eat like that → How do I plan to get there/do that

Starting with the WHERE (brief history and where am I now)

So, where am I now in the “healthy eating” category? Well, to be honest, there is still plenty of work for me to do in this category. My journey to “clean eating” started some years ago in my early twenties when I was getting into the whole fitness thing. 

Before that I was a regular guy, who didn’t think much about food at all. I ate what I wanted and when I wanted. 

It didn’t end well for me as I gained +20kg in less than a year. I was not happy about it and even though I fell for the common beliefs like “I have bad genes” and “I have to starve myself to be lean”, I was just not willing to put up with being overweight.

So I started to dive myself into the world of “healthy eating”. As many of us do, first I came across the fitness industry and what’s considered healthy within fitness circles. It gave me a solid foundation and understanding about the basics of nutrition.

With this knowledge, workouts and some will-power I was able to gradually lose most of that extra weight and get in somewhat OK form. 

It was a bumpy and tough road for me as I always wanted to do everything for 100%. But at the same time I really did enjoy junk food. 

So for a long time I was eating clean during the work days and then getting loose on the weekends. It definitely hindered my progress and also was pretty draining mentally. 

I think the biggest mistake I made was that I fell into the trap of “you have to eat super clean or it won’t work”. For quite a long time I really thought that I could only eat plain and lean food to get into good shape. 

But for some reason I never seemed to stay on the track fully, as I was not enjoying such a restrictive diet. I even counted calories for a year which temporarily ruined my relationship with the food even more. 

Maybe other people who count calories don’t find it tough or draining and maybe it was just me. But I think that almost nobody should strictly count calories, unless they are professional bodybuilders or athletes. But that’s just my opinion.

Weirdly enough, during this year of calorie counting and being in the “right” calorie bracket I didn’t see the results I was expecting to see. I know that calorie intake is very important, but I also believe that mental blocks play a huge role in this as well.

I was super scared to stop counting calories as I was afraid that without it I would regain my weight. For some time it felt like a vicious circle. I was not enjoying it, but I also was afraid to gain weight.

But with time I was able to take the “leap of faith” and stopped counting calories and eating super clean. I stopped thinking about the food in terms of “calories and nutrients” and slowly switched my mindset of looking at food as food.

But this time I had enough knowledge and experience to know that not all foods are made equal and what defines a “healthy meal” and what defines an “unhealthy meal”. 

And a paradoxical thing is that once I stopped counting calories and nutrients, stopped focusing on eating super clean foods and became way more relaxed about food and eating in general, I reached my leanest physique without even trying too hard. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still worked out and was mindful about the food I eat, but nowhere near the previous level where everything had to be super lean & clean.

That’s the moment when I realized that getting in shape has to be more than simple calorie input vs output.

And funnily enough, I have my cheat meals and snacks more often than before, but I look and feel better than ever (both physically and mentally). 

So, that’s where I am now. It’s been a rollercoaster journey, but for the past 1-2 years it’s been more or less smooth sailing.

Have I achieved the level that I want to reach in this category? Not yet, so that brings us to the next part of this article – WHAT do I want to achieve?

WHAT do I want to achieve?

So, if everything is pretty stable for the last year or two, what else do I want to achieve here? Is this a never ending quest for something better? Well, that’s a good question.

But I don’t think so.

Recently I have reached a point where I naturally want to take this whole eating thing to the next level.

But now it’s more than just being in good shape and looking great.

I want to put only the best food and products in my body. With the “best” I mean the healthiest possible options from those that are currently available to me. 

That would be nutritious, organic, pesticide-free, non-processed products. Pretty much products that are as natural as possible.

It’s not coming from the place of “I have to” or that “I should” do it, or that “it’s the right thing to do”. It’s coming from a place of caring and curiosity to see how much further I can increase my well-being through nutrition.

After all, food is the fuel of our bodies and it affects our whole well-being physically and mentally.

It’s no secret that we live in a Vibrational Universe and everything vibrates at a particular frequency (and food is no exception). 

So one could say that there are “high vibrational foods” and “low vibrational foods” and every single food and product can be classified as either one or another somewhere on this spectrum.

Accordingly, my new goal goes beyond eating healthy in terms of nutrients and calories.

My goal is to eat high vibrational foods and products as much as possible (and respectively exclude low vibration foods and products). 

This leads us to a logical question: WHAT do I consider to be high vibrational foods and products?

WHAT is high vibrational food?

Well, in a nutshell it is rather simple. For me “high vibrational” food means products that are whole, hydrating, light, natural, organic, un-processed, non-GMO and alive. Products that positively benefit me, as well as the planet as a whole.

This includes organic & local greens, veggies, fruits, berries, legumes, whole grains, quality sourced meat and fish and so on.

Pretty much it’s anything that is natural and full of life force energy. There’s much more to discuss about the concept of high vibrational foods, so I will write more about it in a separate article. 

But this leads us to the next question – WHY do I care about that and WHY do I want to do that? 

WHY do I want to do that?

Well, my WHY is pretty simple. I want to increase my well-being and vibration as much as possible. I want to put only the best products in my body and I believe that there is a direct connection between my state of being and what I eat. 

Afterall we (humans) are energy and eating is simply a transfer of energy. I guess that explains the common saying “you become what you eat”.

Also, I am aware that everything I do affects the world as a whole. Talk about the butterfly effect, eh? And it’s important to me to do as little harm as possible.

And this brings us to the last section of this article – HOW.

HOW do I plan to get there?

I think that HOW for this category is rather straightforward – a lot of learning and testing (and hopefully eating delicious & hearty meals).

Since this is a new concept to me, there’s much to learn. Starting from improving my knowledge of which products are high vibrational and which ones are low vibrational ones (beyond the obvious ones).

Finding places where to purchase these products as I’m used to doing my grocery shopping like most people – buying everything effortlessly at once at the supermarket. Hey, farmers markets, I’m coming for you.

Finding new recipes and learning new ways to prepare meals in a more optimal way (so that products don’t lose too many nutrients in the process of cooking them).

And probably more that I don’t even know that I don’t know yet. 

As you can see, this is not that quick and easy. I pretty much need to re-learn many things about food and cooking in general. But is it worth it? For me, yes a hundo percent.

And I cannot wait to share my experience and results with you.

What do you think about high vibrational foods (or should I say diet)? Does it resonate with you?

Arthur

Hi there 👋 My name is Arthur and I'm the person behind the MyMindfulHabits project. I'm here to share my self-growth journey with you and show both sides of the coin. Highs and lows. Wins and struggles. And I promise to be as real & authentic as possible. Wanna know more? Read my story

Leave a Reply