The Balance of Eating Well and Gluten Free without Guilt Ep. 154

After being asked about my approach to a healthy diet and eating organic, it made me realize that often we perceive some people are doing everything perfectly, feeling it's unattainable for ourselves. In today's episode I share the truth about how I work out a balance between eating healthy and indulging in gluten free treats, guilt freee.

I'm always an advocate for a 100% gluten-free diet, but I also like to share my experience with the 80/20 rule. It's about finding that sweet spot where healthy eating meets the occasional indulgence, and doing it all without losing the joy of eating.

Find out how Ultimate Celiac System can support your Celiac journey here
https://belindawhelantraining.com/ultimate-celiac-system

Wish you could get gluten free meals on the table fast that the whole family will love? Check out Meal Plans Made Easy
https://belindawhelantraining.com/gluten-free-meal-plans-made-easy

Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes

Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
HEALTH TRACKER | The Healthy Celiac (belindawhelan.com)

And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac

If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Let me know what you like, what you've taken on board and what you'd like to hear more of. Thank you!



Music Credit bensound.com 

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Non-Organic Eating Realities
• 4:39 Finding Balance in Healthy Eating

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

One of my followers on Instagram recently reached out to me and asked me if I eat organic food, so if all the produce that I buy is organic, and when I chatted back and forth with her, I came to the realization that so many people put so much pressure on themselves to do everything perfectly, healthy and perfect. Perfect and quite simply. Unfortunately, my answer was no to her question. I 100% would love if that answer was yes. I wish that I could say that, yes, I everything, 100% organic. But the way that I explained it to her was the cost is, unfortunately, unattainable for me right now. So for me, the cost of organic food here is astronomical. Like most of the organic produce available is about five times the price of other vegetables and fruits that are available in my local area. So we do grow some fruit and vegetables, we do buy certain things that are organic, but we just don't have the funds to purchase everything organic. One day maybe, but at the moment it's not viable for our family. And what this kind of got me thinking was you know what do people think of someone like myself who is in a position that teaches about health and teaches about doing all of these different things? But they're not 100% walking the talk, because on social media recently, there's been an influx of people sharing that what you see on Instagram is not real, it's fake, it's the highlight reel, and I wondered if I'm portraying this image that everything in my life is perfectly healthy and wonderful, when, in fact, we have to do the best with what we have available to us. And I wanted to share that today because I want you to understand that you just have to meet yourself where you're at and you can only do what you can with the funds and the information available to you and the steps that you can take from where you are now, because, at the end of the day, no one is 100 perfect. No one is what they portray on instagram. That's just the reality of it, and for me, it's about doing the best that I can with what I have, and the best that I can do right now is provide my family with fruits and vegetables that are healthy and nourishing and wonderful, but at the moment, I can't provide them with 100% organic produce. So it's about knowing that you are still doing the right thing. You still are doing the best with what you have available to you. So you know, yes, it might not be organic, which is the ideal, perfect situation, but it's still healthy. So let's talk today a little bit about what we can do rather than what we're missing out on. So I certainly do have it as a goal to one day be able to buy all organic produce you know, whether that's only ever shopping at the farmer's market and supporting those farmers that produce their fruits and vegetables without pesticides which, as you probably know, is ideal to be able to avoid those sprays that they're putting on fruits and vegetables.

Speaker 1: 4:03

But when it comes to living with celiac disease, there's obviously two sides to it. There's doing a diet that is 100 gluten-free and then there's not eating 100 gluten-free. So I think those people are not my listeners. I do believe that those people aren't listening to this show, so I don't think I'm talking to them. I think I'm talking to the people that are consuming 100% gluten-free to the best of their ability and the best of their knowledge. So if that's you, I'm sure I'm talking directly to you today.

Speaker 1: 4:39

So, yes, you are eating 100% gluten-free. So that is the one thing. That is all or nothing. I'm sorry. That has to be the one thing that we definitely focus on having a hundred percent gluten-free diet, whereas everything else I look at and I go it's 80, 20. It's always for me, the 80, 20 rule.

Speaker 1: 4:59

So doing 80% of the time doing the best of your ability eating healthy, exercising, enjoying life and 20% of the time it doesn't matter. It does not matter what you're doing. There are things that I consume, there are things that I drink that are not ideal for my body, but it's not all the time, and when we get to a point of doing certain things 100% of the time, it becomes obsessive, it becomes addictive and it becomes debilitating, because it actually destroys you at your core. So this is something that I'm so passionate about because, thankfully, when I started health coaching and when I did my study to become a health coach, we were taught about this. We were taught that people become health coaches and they become obsessed with health. They come up, become obsessed with their lives pertaining to this certain way of being that is not sustainable and is not healthy, which is kind of crazy when you think about it that if people are doing certain things all the time, it can kind of leave them in this place of being mentally unwell because it becomes an obsession and it becomes something that you know. Maybe it stops them from socializing with friends or it stops them from living a life that includes joy. So they may be missing out on things that they actually want to do, but they've mentally talked themselves into not doing these things.

Speaker 1: 6:40

So it's about balance and that is what I teach. That is what I absolutely love to teach that life is about balance and it's about having this eco balance in your life. So you might be at a point where you're like, yeah, okay, I'm definitely not at the 80-20 point, but I'm at the 50-50. So 50% of the time I eat well, 50% of the time I'm not eating well and I need to improve on that. So that could be looking at those first steps and moving towards those goals and adding in exercise and getting better sleep all of these beautiful factors that make up a healthy life, without it being obsessive. So that's kind of the point that I wanted to get across today that you can be healthy and you can live a great life but still enjoy some of these other things that you might be like, oh, I shouldn't do that or shouldn't have that.

Speaker 1: 7:37

And when we have these certain things in our lives, it does make life easier, more enjoyable and, for instance, we don't eat much takeaway food. But when we do, there is no guilt around it whatsoever. I never have guilt around food because there doesn't need to be. Okay, if you were eating all the time junk food and crap and just not nourishing your body, you might just be so stuck in a rut that you have no guilt. But then when you get to a point of eating better and then you have a treat as such, you might feel guilt. So you need to get to a point where there's no guilt. It's just, it is what it is. You just enjoy that food and you move on. Okay, so it's not about letting these things ruin your day, ruin your life. It's about just enjoying them and accepting them. So we've just had Easter and I do not stop myself from consuming chocolate at Easter time. I enjoy it and I move on from it. It's not like every single day I'm eating sugar filled Easter eggs. It's just that time of the year and it's just nice to enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 8:53

So having these things in your life then stops you feeling like you're missing out, because, as you know, there's already so much that we miss out on with celiac disease. There's already so many foods that we can't eat. But if the majority of the time we're eating well, we're looking after our bodies, we're nourishing ourselves with these beautiful, nourishing foods, then when we do have, you know, a pastry or something that's deep fried or you know something that's not healthy, it's okay, it is okay to eat this way every now and again. It's just when we get to a point of doing that all the time, then that's when I'd say you probably need to rein it in a little bit and focus on eating healthier. So again, not 100% of the time. 100% of the time is hard and it does take away from the joy in life. So I guess my goal for you is to get to a point where, yes, you are eating 100% gluten-free, but making that food healthier Okay. So focusing more on adding in healthy foods rather than, yep, I eat gluten-free, everything's fine, everything's wonderful.

Speaker 1: 10:03

What out of your diet could be better, what could be healthier and what could you maybe push to the side and not eat so much of but still have it? You know, if you are obsessed with cookies and you love cookies, you might not want to have them every single day. It might be once or twice a week that you have them as a treat and you eat them and you don't feel shame. Or you might not be eating any vegetables and it's like, okay, now I need to add more vegetables in. How can I do that? You might want to start with a green smoothie. You might want to start with eating raw vegetables with some hummus.

Speaker 1: 10:37

There's different ways of adding in healthy foods and pushing out the not so healthy foods. So we call that crowding out. I've talked about that on the show before and it's basically adding in more good foods so those good foods fill you up and then you're not as inclined to want to eat those not so healthy foods. So it's not about deprivation. It's not about I will not eat this. It's more about adding in the good so that it pushes out the bad. And it's the same with everything in your life. So it's not this be all and end all. It's just about tweaking tiny habits and adding in these healthy habits to make up a big difference.

Speaker 1: 11:17

But, like I said, it's not 100%. It's not the be-all and end-all, it's not the end of the story, it's not the final thing of. I'm going to eat healthy food all the time, completely cut out all the unhealthy stuff. I love healthy food, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love to eat well and nourish my body, but I also like chocolate. I also like having a packet of chips every now and again. I also like going to a gluten-free bakery and enjoying pastries. I also enjoy doing these things, but I know for my health and my physical body I don't want to eat that way all the time. So when I do, like I said, guilt free, enjoy it in the moment and then move on. So I hope this episode shows you that you can make changes, you can take these tiny steps and it doesn't have to be the be all and end all.

Speaker 1: 12:18

But, like I said, 100% gluten-free absolutely is the goal. I never want you to steer away from that. I never, ever want you to think that having gluten is a treat, because it's not. That is punishing yourself, that is punishing your body, and I truly believe that you're not listening to this if you're eating that way, truly believe that you're not listening to this if you're eating that way. I think that because you're listening to this show, you are doing the best with your gluten-free food. So I don't think that's an issue but, like I said, adding in more of the good stuff to push out the not so good stuff, but making it a balance and enjoying life is a big one. So thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. I hope that has shed some light on this balance and has inspired you to maybe take some steps to eat well and add in some more healthy foods, and I look forward to talking with you again next week on the show. So have a great week and I'll talk to you then. Take care, bye.