Calorie counting- and why you really shouldn’t
I can already tell I’m gonna get backlash for this one. “But I need to lose weight”, “Too many calories is unhealthy”- I’ll tell you what’s unhealthy, demonising one of the basic human needs. Villianising the very thing that gives our heart energy to beat, our brain energy to think.
Can you imagine if people limited the amount of air they breathed? “I only inhale twice per minute, and no deep breaths. God, can you believe those greedy people who take big gulps of air when it’s SO bad for you”.
Well, food is vital as air is vital. And calories are simply the units of energy food gives you. Energy we need to function. Imposing strict limits on how much food you eat is just like limiting how much air you breathe. It’s- literally counterproductive to survival and against every evolutionary instinct.
“But I need to eat healthy”- well, I don’t know who told you low calorie meant healthy, but they lied. There are so many low calorie foods that are packed with weird chemicals and zero nourishment, and so many high calorie foods that are brimming with vitamins and nutrients. A diet coke has less calories than a freshly squeezed orange juice, but the juice is filled with vitamin C, potassium and natural sugars. A handful of nuts might have more calories than those weight watchers diet crisps but they also have more protein, more calcium.
We shouldn’t be looking at healthy eating in terms of what we should deny ourselves, but in terms of what we can give ourselves. Focus less on how few calories we can subsist on and more on how many nutrients we can nourish ourselves with. How much iron, how much protein, how much calcium and vitamin B we can bless a single plate with. Life is so much happier when we focus on giving over taking away- so don’t remove calories, give nourishment.
But not just vitamins- allow yourself flavour! When you taste something good your brain releases dopamine- it makes you happy! Denying flavour for fear of calories is denying happiness. Think of that when you don’t add your favourite dressing to your salad, or decline the delicious looking biscuits being passed around- you’re saying no to being happy. And for what? Health? If that salad is full of rich leafy greens and beautiful vegetables of all colours then it’s damn healthy and you can add the honey mustard sauce. And what about mental health? Do you think saying no to things that brighten your day and obsessing over numbers before your own enjoyment in life is good for that?
When I think of the goodness, the happiness, the ENERGY I missed out on in favour of cutting calories, I’m dumbfounded as to how I ever thought I was being healthy. I’m baffled as to how others called me healthy when they saw my wasted frame and nutrient void bowls of iceberg lettuce. Of course, when I was deep in the throes of my anorexia I knew I wasn’t being healthy- but when the restriction first started out, it was in fact just innocent calorie limitation under the misguided notion that this would be “good” for me somehow.
Food is not the enemy, it’s one of our greatest friends. If we only see food for the positives it can give, the health, the joy, the nutrition- THEN we will finally start healthy eating.