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Why Try to Perfect Dietary Habits?
Posted on June 1st, 2009 7 comments
In the world of personal development, it seems as if one has not reached dietary enlightenment unless you eat a vegan, or even completely raw, diet. Steve Pavlina, an avid raw foodist, enjoys cracking jokes at those who happen to cook their food, eat anything processed, or consume animal products. I think the way he pushes this issue is a little overbearing, and frankly ineffective in convincing others to give it a shot. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to improve my diet more, but I think I stalled because I assumed that taking things to the next level would require the adoption of rigid, inflexible habits that clash with those of my friends and family. But I recently realized that this is completely unnecessary.
Very few areas of personal growth are feasible or desirable to actually pursue perfection in, and I believe this is the case with dietary habits. Why should dietary routines be all-or-nothing? Instead, there’s nothing wrong with sticking to your desired diet the majority of the time, whatever that may be, but provide yourself with the leeway to bend the rules on occasion. In my mind, this makes much more practical sense than an uncompromising mindset.
Let’s assume that I’ve implemented a completely raw diet…
When my group of friends that I don’t often get to see meet up at Pizza Hut, I’m going to be there, my diet be damned. Standing on my soapbox and denouncing their inferior ways would accomplish nothing except drive them away, and even a polite refusal would strain the friendships. The ‘if they’re not congruent, dump ‘em’ attitude that Pavlina projects is not something I’m about to employ for something like eating habits. I’ll settle for a healthy, but not perfect diet, and enjoy a bit more freedom. Exceptions can sometimes be made without compromising values and beliefs.
A vegetarian or vegan who is so because of their moral values won’t be so keen on making exceptions, but in the above scenario they could simply eat cheese pizza, breadsticks, and/or salad bar and still enjoy the outing. As for someone who eats vegan or raw primarily for health reasons, there’s no need to forgo the social gathering for a night home alone eating a veggie platter. An occasional cheat meal won’t hurt anything (in fact, it may even be beneficial, according to some dieticians).
As with any lifestyle change, there may be some adjustments that take some getting used too with a different diet. When people like Pavlina write about dieting in such a narcissistic way, it may seem like social strain and separation is an inevitable part of this adjustment. This needn’t be the case if people respect the personal nature of dietary habits.
With that, I am now turning my attention to improving my diet further. I’ve read many accounts of people swearing by their decisions to give up dairy products, citing several noticeable health benefits. I don’t know of a general consensus in the health community, but even if there was, there’s only one way to settle this matter. I’ll have to do some experimenting for myself.
Today marks the start of a 30-day trial-until the first of July, the only beverage I will consume is water. I’ve cut my milk consumption quite a bit over the past few months, but this will still be an adjustment (especially because of chocolate milk- I love that stuff).
There is one minor exception, though. I’m a huge cereal fan; it’s not going anywhere. I’m going to allow myself one bowl of cereal each morning.
I’m going to replace the calories with fruits, veggies, and protein sources like nuts, eggs, and chicken, while obviously drinking more water. Normally when I’m craving a glass of milk, it’s my body wanting the liquid and the calories, so I’m going to have to be aware of this and make sure that I replace the milk with healthy calories.
One month from now I’ll be sure to give at least a quick update on how the trial went.
7 responses to “Why Try to Perfect Dietary Habits?”
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Although your point is well taken that the all-or-nothing approach isn’t the best. I think there is one other factor you haven’t considered. If you have been eating raw/vegan for a while and try to eat pizza (or anything else greasy), I can promise you your stomach isn’t going to like you a couple hours later. I have been eating vegan for the last 30 days using a similar “cheat” rule you mentioned here. Whenever I was paying for my food, I would eat vegan. If someone else offered to buy for me, I could eat whatever. Everything was going fine until a friend of mine offered to buy me a juicy fast food hamburger. Lets just say a few hours later my stomach felt like death and I regretted the decision.
A similar situation would be if you had been drinking only water, and decided to whip out a Red Bull. I am betting you would regret it!
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shultice June 2nd, 2009 at 03:05
I actually remembered you telling me about your hamburger experience as I was writing this post.
It’s a pragmatic issue for sure. Even if you agree to a ‘cheat’ rule on special occasions, it makes no sense if you feel like a sack of crap ready to hurl in the Pizza Hut bathroom while your friends are all having a great time!
I honestly don’t know how to best approach this. In this case it may be difficult to ‘have your cake and eat it too’. That’s what I would ideally want though- to have the discipline to stick to a healthy diet but the freedom to cheat on occasion (and not need pepto every time I do so).
Is it possible though that the stark contrast (vegan to greasy hamburger) was what did you in? What do you think would have happened if you had a grilled chicken sandwich instead, or a piece of cheese pizza and breadsticks? Anything really that’s not quite as crappy as a fat-filled fast food burger?
Another approach could be to implement a more routine ‘cheat’ meal (say once a week?) to prevent cooked/fried food from becoming completely foreign to your body. This is what some diets advocate, claiming it keeps your metabolism higher. But others claim that your body is smarter than that; there is no effect on your metabolism, and the only reason these diets give you a cheat meal (or day even) is to make them look more attractive.
As you can tell, I’m still completely unsure on this issue…
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Clausman June 3rd, 2009 at 09:52
To stay on the topic of diets, I personally think I could see the legitimacy of throwing in a cheat meal on a semi regular basis. I don’t know if it is really worth it though. Sounds more appealing, lets you be more normalized to society yes. But in the end if your body is completely healthy why would you want to taint that by forcing it to remember how to deal with unhealthy foods?
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shultice June 3rd, 2009 at 12:00
It’s a tough one, mate…
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I like how you’re considering this issue from several sides, and I feel particularly close to the topic since I’ve adjusted my diet in the past.
Though I’ve never even considered going on a vegan or raw food diet, I was a vegetarian for a year and noticed an improvement in my digestion, sleep patterns, and weight (I wasn’t overweight before, but I did drop a few pounds nonetheless). After I went back to eating meat (just for fun), all of these positive effects slowly slipped away.
After some consideration, I’ve decided consciously (before, I became a vegetarian on a whim (it was strangely easy)) to stick to a pescatarian diet meaning I eat no meat except for fish. This diet allows me to optimize my digestion by not eating beef which always sat in my belly for long periods, as well as other meats which often had similar effects. The good thing about this diet is that it gives me plenty of leeway so I never have to “cheat.” Not that I’m really tempted.
I see a regulated diet as an individual thing; I, for example, also very rarely drink milk or eat dairy products other than cheese because they give me stomach trouble. These are not a problem for most people, so they are free to have them without too many problems. The point of regulating your diet is to optimize, not restrict. Vegan and raw food diets are fine, in theory, but as you’ve discovered, they are difficult to practice. One way to get around the obstacles inherent in these diets is to simply do what they prescribe in broad strokes; by that I mean eat more vegetables, eat less or no meat, just make different choices. But choices that work for you, not Steve Pavlina.
Really that’s what it’s all about, choices. The difficulty with which they can be implemented varies, but in the end, your diet affects how you feel, not your friends in Pizza Hut, not Steve Pavlina, just you. So, if you see a raw food diet as the best choice for you, bring a couple of apples to Pizza Hut, you might get teased, but hey, you’re the one feeling good.
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shultice June 11th, 2009 at 02:17
Oleg,
Thanks for the darn good thoughts.
I’m still experimenting with my water-only beverage diet (I used to drink a ton of milk), which has gone pretty well. I’ve noticed the same experience with that you had with going vegetarian- I wasn’t overweight before but now I’m even leaner. When the 30 days is up, I’ll have a decision to make. Right now I’m leaning towards continuing with my habit change while consuming milk on rare occasions only (I don’t think I could give up chocolate milk for much longer than a month
)I like your take on choices, namely that they are just that- our personal choices. People may not always respect them, but if we make them consciously with our best interest in mind, that’s all that really matters.
So if you don’t mind me asking, how did your body initially react to eating meat for the first time in a year?
Thanks again for the visit and for your thoughts!
-Blake
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From talking to friends, I knew that it wasn’t a good idea to have a double cheeseburger after a year of no meat, so I started slow. I had a small piece of chicken first, then the next day a another small piece of something…It took me probably a week or two until I was eating meat normally.
Doing it that way my body didn’t react in a noteworthy way. Kind of anticlimactic, actually, which is good in this case.
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Clausman June 2nd, 2009 at 02:32