Diet Obsessed? How to Stop the Madness By Eating Plant-Based

A plant-based diet has been linked to preventing and treating many health issues including diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. While it’s never been linked to preventing a diet obsession or unhealthy relationship with food, testimonies from individuals prove that a plant-based diet has its place in also balancing the relationship with ourselves and the food we choose to eat.

The dieting industry is truly one of the most profitable industries today. Sadly enough, we can go into any store and likely find a diet product of some kind. It’s no wonder so many men and women are obsessed with being thin, looking perfect, and striving to be something other than simply just healthy. When did apples become evil because they contain natural sugars and when did almonds become sources of calories instead of seeds of vitamins and minerals?

What ever happened to the beauty of a woman’s natural curves or the simplicity of just eating healthy foods we love instead of worrying about if potatoes are too high in carbs and nuts are too high in fats? Perhaps those foods shouldn’t be the baseline for anyone’s diet, but they’re surely better than promoting tubs of Greek yogurt and chicken breasts as diet foods, wouldn’t you agree? 

How a Plant-Based Diet Provides Body Peace

A plant-based diet can do many things for animals, the planet, and our health, but it can do much more than that. It can end the negative relationship between us and food. There seems to be this middle road in between us and food that separates us as a society from seeing food as nourishment, and instead as a way to lose weight. It’s time we change that, what do you say?

Many of us can surely relate to dieting in high school, or our early adult life at some point. If we haven’t, we surely know someone who has. Ironically enough, eating a plant-based diet can be one of the most freeing choices you ever make in seeing food differently than calories and grams of carbs and fat.

Many vegan powerhouses testify that they previously had unhealthy relationship with food before finding a plant-based diet. A plant-based diet is a way to ethically choose kindness through what you put in your body. It means you’re taking a stand for more than just calories and grams. It’s choosing compassion with every bite you take. Day in and day out, when you practice eating in a kind way, it makes you want to care for yourself in an entirely different way.

And while we may not have a cure for eating disorders, diet obsessions or the like, eating from the earth we live on each day, has a unique grounding perspective we can’t get elsewhere. It shows us that we’re given exactly what we need through organically-grown, natural foods. We don’t need diet products and harshly treated animals to provide us with food. We’re already given just what we need. And that makes us bigger than ourselves and any need to be in a certain size Jeans.

Because healthy doesn’t equal skinny. Healthy equals nourished, and nourished equals kindness to all.

How to Eat a Healthy Whole Foods Plant-Based Diet to End Diet Obsessions:

1. Choose real, whole foods.

2. Stop thinking about food as numbers and instead, as nutrients.

3. Begin to treat yourself with kindness by fixing yourself plant-based breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Also, take a walk once a day to help you get some fresh air and move your body in a kind, non-harsh way outside on the earth.

4. Respect animals by choosing plant-based foods.

5. Believe you’re worth more than fitting into a societal ideal- you’re worth genuinely healthy, humanely prepared foods.

Life is more than how much we weigh, and and as long as you’re eating whole, plant-based foods instead of refined products, you can be sure your weight will settle in exactly where it’s intended to. You can also be sure you’ll feel much better for it on the inside and the outside at the same time.

Eat with peace, go with plants.

Image Source: Abd allah Fotelh/Flickr