No More Wrestling!

GRUELING, GRITTING, WHITE-KNUCKlING WILLPOWER. It breaks out like a sweat at the gym and over the dinner table. Confronting it stands the Goliath obesity, poor health, or chronic tiredness. If only enough of this tough willpower could be mustered just once...perhaps the giant could be defeated.

Does it seem daunting? But suppose just for a minute that the picture were different. What if YOU were Goliath and your enemy was the puny kid. Overpowering illness, weight gain and low energy simply would not be issues any longer. That's what happens when you switch from the Standard American Diet to plant-strong, nutrient-rich eating.

The current paradigm most of us face in dieting includes these "truths:"

• Eat less
• Take supplements
• Mix protein shakes
• Use energy-boosting drinks
• Battle withdrawal symptoms
• Fight headaches

Nutrient Rich  blogger James Allan Mollenhauer explains in The Diet Trap that eating less of nutrient-poor foods that aren't even meeting the body's needs in the first place can't possible work as a healthy strategy. His motto is "Eat better, not less."

Sure, we all need macro-nutrients: protein, carbohydrate and fats. And these are found easily in animals foods. But a diet based on only these holds a lot of calories, and no micro-nutrients or fiber. So when we white-knuckle through still another diet plan, we end up in the long run fatter and sicker than before.

Plant foods, on the other hand, contain a full compliment of micro- and macro-nutrients plus fiber, while still being low in calories. Thus plant foods are whole foods. When we eat them, we are energized and satiated. Rather than using willpower to conquer, we meet our inner drives for life, protection, pleasure and avoidance of pain with the very foods designed to meet those desires.The net result is empowerment. We feel stronger, we develop stamina, our confidence soars.

True, there is a learning curve to be mastered to change one's lifestyle, and this requires education, inspiration and support. But this kind of work is fulfilling and self-perpetuating. It is not the same as hopeless fighting through a downward spiral. Adopting the nutritarian way enables us each to become our own giant.

To your health and happiness,
Hailey