I want to start adding in more rants, opinion based articles, training resources, and more…. but I am not the best writer so bare with me.
I wanted to right up a little something about Flexible Dieting.
Key word…. FLEXIBLE.
What does flexible dieting mean to you?
Well for me, it got me away from labeling foods as ‘bad’ and developing a mental capacity on labeling ‘cheat meals’ If the plan was that great would you have to cheat on it?
It also brought back all of the foods that I enjoy to eat, on a daily basis rather than suffering eating foods I may not like for weeks on weeks to the binge one day on everything and everything I can think of and fit into my mouth.
Now to build on that I see so many people who adapt the flexible lifestyle which is great, but then they allow themselves to fall into some of the same ruts or issues that they faced when ‘clean eating’ or even more issues! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen someone have a meltdown because they cant weigh something, or find nutritional info on it. Continue to pass on social events in fear they may have to eat something they didn’t prepare, fall back into eating only the same foods over and over again because its easy to track. Believe me I have been there! Now grant it, if you enjoy eating a particular food a lot by all means DO IT! I love ice cream, so I eat it almost every day, but what I mean is people will only have chicken breast/broccoli/sweet potato in fear of making something else may be to difficult to track.
We must remember the goal and purpose of flexible dieting. To develop a healthy, maintainable approach to life long healthy eating habits to sustain our current goals at hand.
With the tools and tricks I have learned from flexible dieting I feel that I could venture out and never use a scale again, never track my food again, and still be alright. Making smart decisions and to remember that moderation is key. ANYTHING in excess can be ‘bad’ for you.
With that said, you also need to look at current and future goals and use that to be a base of your decision. For instance if I am trying to diet down for a show, or make weight for a meet it would be very beneficial to be weighing and tracking my food to dial in progress and really be in charge of positive or negative results.
Now on the flip side, if its your off season, if your going on vacation, having kids, whatever it may be that your primary focus may not be making weight, then by all means have a more intuitive style of eating. With that said you still want to be conscious and aware of portions, making sure your eating good micros, hitting fiber, and staying hydrated but after that just enjoy yourself!
Don’t allow a great way of eating take control of your life, so that you don’t continue, or start to develop unhealthy eating trends or habits, and worst case scenario give up on yourself.
Thanks for reading guys and gals, like I said writing, grammar, all that good stuff has never been my strong suit so bare with me as I develop these skills, just like anything else we do.
Always strive to be better than yesterday.
-Dusty
The Flexible Baker 