Nutrition equals Nourishment

I deliberately called this blog 'Nutrition' and 'Food' but not 'Diet', although 'diet' would be a perfectly fine term to use. All this term does is to refer to the food plan one has; that could be fast food or cooked from scratch. It actually depicts the subject nicely. Unfortunately the word is miss-used for a 'losing weight' form of diet and hence I am trying to avoid it.
This blog is not about getting slim, it is about finding out what the parameters are that we can influence to find and use the food items that do us good - in regard to body and soul... sometimes it just has to be the chocolate, and sometimes it just feels good to know that one is not alone in this game.

As if things weren't complicated enough: The entire matter is usually dealt with in very opinionated ways. Fat people are frowned upon, thin people are looked down at, and the ones who are just right are envied and hence despised. This indicates that one cannot win by focusing on the opinion of others. One has to find an own point of view and gain the confidence to stick to it!

For me the only common ground for any body type is health. However, even there the opinions differ. The body can be entirely fine and one still is not happy, or the body may be a bit on the weak side but its owner is still a cheery character and enjoying life.

There are boundaries, nevertheless. When I was younger and I overheard older people wishing each other health I thought that a rather commonplace expression and not a real sentiment. Now I see this very much differently. The theme that billows through the ILP blogs goes along the lines of: confidence, happiness, achievement, success, and back to confidence and content; one enforces the other. One however can't achieve and be successful if the health is not the best possible. For me good health means that at any given age, with any given disability one should be able to use to the full effect what is medically possible; and that starts with feeding the body, and the soul, with the right stuff!

Over time I have come from food junky, via health food convert, to moderate food user. I have a few rules though:

• no ready meals - they have too much sugar, salt and usually the wrong composition of nutrition
• stick to a few good basics - I know how much they cost me in calories and it helps me control my weight
• treats - not sticking to my basics, whether at home or when going out, is a treat and has to be considered accepted exceptions
• do not feel guilty - guilt doesn't help, don't level your calories per day but per week, or even per month
• do not use scales - or at least not more often than once a month, and especially not if you do sport
• be patient - the body needs at least three weeks to get used to a habit
  

I have come a long way and my nutrition needs still work in a very wavy pattern governed by hormones, time of the year and social activity. I needed about three years to get to a stage which allows me to balance things out rather quickly, meaning that I now recognise bad influence faster and that I can pull the breaks earlier. During the same period I found my rhythm for sport and one thing led to another. I am now eating what I like, meaning I like what I eat. I love my food, although there are some absolute favourites that had to leave my kitchen. However, after a while I stopped missing them and recently I even noticed that I don't like them anymore... which brings us back to patience!