How to Eat Healthy Without Dieting
“What dieters forget is that eating is one of the greatest pleasures of living.”
When I think about the best examples of people eating healthy without dieting, I immediately think of the Blue Zones.
The Blue Zones are the places in the world that meet BOTH criteria:
1) Have high concentrations of 100-year-olds
2) Have clusters of people who were living to 100 years without disease, like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer
There are a total of 5 Blue Zones in the world:
These people are living the longest, healthiest lives compared to anyone, anywhere else in the world!
So, how do they do it?
How do they live such long, healthy lives?
There are nine practices these people share in common, regardless of their ethnicity, culture, genetics, and area of the world.
Of these nine practices, referred to in Dan Buettner’s work as the Power 9, two are based in what and how the Blue Zones people eat.
The first practice is grounded in the 80% rule.
Blue Zones people stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full.
Which means they have to:
Tune in to their bodies’ signals
Listen to their hunger cues to tell them when they’re gently and politely hungry, instead of “plowing through a busy workday” and then being ravenous by dinner
Be mindful, intuitive eaters so they can slow down, enjoy their food, and recognize when they are gently and politely full
They don’t clean their plate if they’ve eaten enough, nor do they restrict what’s on the plate.
They eat their final meal in the early evening.
The second practice is grounded in eating plants.
Blue Zones people eat a whole food, plant-based diet.
In fact, over 65% of their daily diet is carbohydrates!
Beans, lentils, veggies, fruits, whole grains, and nuts are all carb sources that they eat DAILY, and potatoes are eaten a few times per week.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
So many of my clients limit or avoid carbs because they’re “bad.” Because they “make you gain weight.” Because they “make you fat.” Because they’re “not good for you.”
Ever thought the same thing?
But think, the diet of the WORLD’s healthiest people consists mostly of carbs.
And they’re living longer and healthier than most of us…
Their protein sources also happen to be carb sources, like beans and greens.
They eat meat only 5 times per week, if at all (some Blue Zones are vegetarian). And when they do eat meat, the meat is treated like a condiment, not the main staple of the meal.
When the Blue Zones people eat, they don’t deprive, restrict, or limit.
They celebrate and enjoy food.
They have found a beautiful balance between eating in a way that gives them long, healthy lives and celebrating food for the joy it brings around a table of friends and family.
They see food as something which nourishes our cells AND our souls.
And what’s even more amazing is that the Blue Zones people DO NOT TRY to live to 100.
They live and move and eat in a way that makes them feel amazing and live full, vibrant lives without counting calories, taking expensive supplements, weighing and portioning out food, counting calories, tracking macros, and working out at a gym.
To eat healthy without dieting requires you to:
Become a mindful, intuitive eater
Give up counting calories and tracking macros
Give up weighing and portioning foods
Tune into your hunger and fullness cues
Eat when politely hungry and stop when gently full
Eat a mostly plant-based diet and not be afraid of or limit carbs
Celebrate special occasions and trust your body
Stop limiting, avoiding, and restricting “bad” foods or “unhealthy” foods
Stop weighing yourself
Stop tying your health and self-worth to numbers on the scale
This type of eating is not easy. It’s a process.
In fact, it can be extremely difficult, since you might have suffered years of unsuccessful dieting.
And it’s something I help my clients learn and succeed at during their 90 Days to Thrive personalized transformational journey.
And just so you know, 95% of diets fail people.
You didn’t fail the diet. The diet failed you.
And it failed you for so many reasons, I’ll have to write another article on that 😉
But in the meantime, take a page from the Blue Zones’ way of eating.
Eat to nourish your cells and your soul, so that you can be healthy without dieting.
Looking for a good place to start?
In my free guide, The Busy Person’s Ultimate Guide to Quick and Easy Meals & Snacks, I show you how to take 10 Blue Zone approved foods and combine them to make 21 meals and snacks in under 15 minutes!
That’s Blue Zones eating in a snap!
You can grab your free guide HERE>>
Want to learn more about how to live like the Blue Zones?
Read this article next: A Must-Have Secret to Living Like the World’s Healthiest People
