There are alot of “diets” out there, but which one is really right for you? Well, there are educated guesses, BUT you have to mix that with your own experience of actually trying different approaches out. I really stress this point to patients, especially when they have an expectation of results based on a friend, spouse, or family member who started a diet and got great results.

Popular whole food eating trends right now, include Whole 30, Paleo, Vegan, Raw, Vegetarian, Macrobiotic and many more that I’m not even familiar with. I have purposely not mentioned Ideal Protein, Weight Watchers and other “box” programs in that list, because they don’t encourage eating whole, unprocessed foods. I have seen little success long term with these programs, for exactly that reason.

When you look at the above list, you might think that those plans are drastically different. Well, they are but they aren’t. Like I already mentioned, they all have the underlying focus on real, unprocessed foods. They really differ most in macronutrient ratios and animal product usage. I’m sure we’ve all encountered someone who was on a vegan or vegetarian diet and swore by it. I don’t doubt its benefits for one second! I also don’t doubt that a diet heavier in animal proteins can have amazing health benefits as well. This just goes to show that being open minded about your food habits is really important to determining what’s optimal for you.

It’s best not to pigeon hole yourself into a certain labeled diet plan. With that said, it may be helpful to do a strict eating plan for 30 days, but I suggest playing around with some of the nutrient dense whole foods that may have been eliminated in those first 30 days. Tolerance to certain foods and macronutrient ratios is completely individual. It’s dependent on many variables such as genetics, your microbiome (gut bugs) and lifestyle.

SO my question to you is:

Is your eating plan serving you in all the ways you think it could? Are you healthy, happy, satisfied and symptom free?

If not, reconsider your eating plan. What once worked for you in the past, may not be working for you now. So take a step back and evaluate how you’re feeling. It just might be time to try something new or add a few tweaks in.

Here are a few things you  might consider trying, depending on what your current diet is like:

• Adding more fish and chicken in place of red meat
• Adding more soaked legumes in place of meat
• Adding more grass fed beef in place of soy products
• Adding more pasture raised, organic chicken or wild caught fish to supplement your legumes, grains and vegetables
• Adding more vegetable matter and cutting back on meat
• Cutting back on added fats in your cooking or preparing of foods and meals
• Soaking and sprouting legumes and grains
• Increasing leafy greens
• Decreasing nuts and seeds
• Decreasing or eliminating dairy, soy, and/or eggs

As always, if you need help determining what plan works best for your body, shoot me an email at marit@maritharney.com

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