Diet is a dirty word.

We’ve all had our differences with body weight. Let’s be fair, it’s a b*tch to stay in shape. So many dieting fads cross our paths, it’s hard to know which way to turn — load your carbs, hide from carbs, eat fat, don’t eat fat…

STOP ALREADY.

Listening to friends bicker about what’s good, and what might kill you, really got me thinking…

Maybe we’re overthinking it?

Let’s step away from ‘people’ for a moment (because that’s where it seems to get confusing)…

‘Diet’, in essence, refers to the food an animal regularly eats in order to fill its nutritional requirements. It’s the fundamental stuff that keeps them alive. To humans, it’s come to mean something entirely different, and this makes me suspicious. We have supplements, meal plans, new-age ‘dieting’ (don’t even get me started)…

Pretend for a moment that we, as humans, are wild things. We would have a ‘diet’, in the traditional sense. And what would we eat? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’d be a pretty crappy hunter, so… mostly vegetation, leaves, roots and fruits, (fairly easy to get), with the odd bird, or bug. Fish maybe… Aquatic molluscs (assuming you’re anywhere near a body of water). Eggs…?
Perhaps the pack gets together once a moon to pull down something a little bigger, and we all share a nice meal under the stars…

The point is, the majority of our diet would likely be herbivorous, with an occasional addition of red meat (because it’s hard to catch), and perhaps a more regular addition of poultry and fish. The vegetation side of things would also likely be a LOT more diverse than we’d expect (because you gotta forage, dammit), due to seasonal availability, and the abundance or scarcity of certain plants in different areas.

And you know what wouldn’t be in our ‘diet’…?

Sugar. Processed foods. Carbonated beverages. (Okay, yes — all the delicious things…)

Now, I’m not saying that we need to cut out all the nice (and convenient) things available to us as a species. Only that maybe it’s a good idea to be aware of the fact that they are, in essence, unnatural, and try to moderate our intake. Diet not only determines weight, it directly affects health, energy levels, and happiness potential.

With this in mind, I decided to conduct an experiment (on myself, obviously — what do you take me for?). I adjusted my diet, by degrees, (I DID NOT ‘GO ON DIET’), using one relatively simple rule:

If you couldn’t get it in the wild, don’t eat it.

(Within reason — sugar will regularly remain in my tea until the day I die.)

My diet now consists mostly of fruit and cereal-based things during the day, and then one full meal at night (wanted to try having that at lunchtime, but, you know, JOB. Seems to have worked out okay though). The evening meal is usually chicken (because I like it) or fish, and always a minimum of three vegetables — green, yellow/orange, and starch. I seldom eat things with more than three or four ingredients, and I try hard to avoid anything that has ingredients I can’t pronounce — that means most biscuits, crisps, sweets, carbonated drinks etc.

Hot tip: don’t buy the damn things and then there’s no temptation in your house.
(Also, don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.)

Now, I’m no scientist, and I’m certainly not saying this is a fabulous idea either way, but it’s worked for me. I’ve lost ten kilos in eleven months, and my weight now appears to have stabilised at close to where I feel it should be. I also can’t remember the last time I was sick — haven’t even LOOKED at a headache tablet or vitamin pill (and definitely nothing else) in over a year.

In cutting out heavily processed foods, I’ve also noticed that my body now appears to tell me what it needs. I get cravings for red meat once or twice a month, or leafy green vegetables if I haven’t had any for a few days. Sometimes it’s for bananas, or beetroot, or some other random thing… I go with my gut, so to speak — whatever I’m craving, I make an effort to eat. And usually, I feel immediately better when I do.

I’m not a health-nut by any means. This was just an experiment that worked for me.

And I think I’ll stick with it, because fad-diets don’t bloody work, anyway.