You hear it all the time. To lose weight, you need to eat healthy and exercise seems like solid advice, right? Simple to the point. But when you get down to actually trying to apply this advice, it gets really confusing. I mean, what exactly is eating healthy, what is eating, quote unquote, clean? Today, I'm gonna try and clear this up for you, and help point you in the right direction of what the heck we're even talking about when we say eat healthy or eat clean. Before we get into it. I also really want to remind you that coming up, starting on Monday, the 19th July 19, is the five day free Mind Body reboot program. It is five days of live coaching from me, where I am going to help you figure out what sabotaging you what's keeping you stuck, and figure out the exact right next steps for you. We're going to learn about the three things you're probably not doing. They're keeping you stuck that you could start doing now. And you're going to learn the mindful eating methods. This is something that I teach my clients, but I'm going to teach it to you in this free boot camp challenge. Because if you're trying to stop dieting, if you want to get off the diet rollercoaster, this is the way that you're going to do it. This is your answer. This is the thing that you've been looking for. So if you're tired of diet after diet after diet, you're tired of failing the diets if you're tight, right, if you're tired of not sticking to your diet, this is going to be the thing that's going to propel you forward into the world of no longer dieting. You're welcome. So if that sounds good to you, I want you to get in this group. It's totally free. Grab your friends. Let's do it together. tarafaulmann.com/reboot. I think it is going to be a pivotal shift for you. There's going to be a lot of lightbulb moments here for you. You're going to start seeing your body and your food and your thoughts in a very different way. So I want you in there tarafaulmann.com/reboot  I will see you over there. Alright, let's get going today talking about healthy eating. 

So healthy or "clean" eating is something that I have really been diving into the last 10 years of my life. My version of healthy eating has changed over my life. Like when I was a teenager eating healthy was a Subway sandwich instead of going through Taco Bell drive thru. Like as a college athlete, eating healthy was pregame carb loading. Yeah, we did that.  Then as an adult, it was trying to eat more vegetables instead of munching on the macaroni and chicken nuggets that my kids were eating. And it wasn't until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that I started to really dive into like what actually is healthy eating? What are the links between food and health? How does food work in my body? How does my body work because of the food I eat, I really decided that I needed to figure this whole thing out for myself because in order for me to not be sick, I really needed to understand. And so my coming to an understanding is something that I want to share with you the things that I have learned along the way, about really what is meant by healthy eating and it gets real quick Using because everyone has an opinion, there are so many definitions of what healthy is. Everyone has their own version of what they say is the healthy right thing, right? So your girlfriend says keto is the healthiest way to eat, it's the best thing for you. And the girl on Instagram says that you should track macros, because that's the way to be healthy. And the government says that you should follow their food pyramid because that's what's healthy. And the food commercials on TV tell you that you should eat these foods. Because these are healthy, right? We get so many conflicting messages. But here's the thing. There isn't just one healthy. That's why it gets so confusing, right? 

So your girlfriend who loves to be on keto, eats a lot of heavy cream and bacon every day. And she says that healthy if I ate heavy cream and bacon every day, I would be sick every single day like that would never work. For me. The typical American diet says that drinking diet soda is considered a healthier choice, right? If I drink diet soda, the aspartame and that soda would give me an instant migraine every single day, that would not be a healthy choice for me to a vegan, eating a breakfast of oatmeal and berries would be considered a healthy breakfast. But for me personally, that wouldn't be enough protein and I'd be hungry again in like an hour. So just because there is a version of healthy that works for that person does not mean that it is a version of healthy that will work for you. And I think that's where we get so confused. Because we're constantly looking for someone to tell us what to do. We're constantly looking for the way the rules do this and not that. But the truth is, you're only going to find real health when you figure out what works for you. And that takes a lot more work. It truly does. I'm not going to sugarcoat that process, the process of figuring out what works for you of treating your body like kind of a health science experiment is the only way to figure out how you can be at your healthiest and what healthy eating looks like for you. I know that sucks. I know because we all want that person to just be like eat like this, and you'll look great, and you'll feel great and everything will be great. But that's not true. It's just not true. We're all different. So we all have to find the nuances that fit for us. 

Part of the problem is that we have been fed some bs food information for years like for our entire lives, food labels, advertising, marketing campaigns, they have all been lying to us and giving us horrible information our entire lives. So even if we think we're eating something healthy, the truth is in your body, it might be horrible.  Just like the Diet Coke, you might be like, Oh, well, it's a healthier choice than a coke, right. But in my body that is wreaking havoc, and honestly, in your body too. That's a subject for another day, when you go to the store and you're choosing like oh, by the organic cookie because that's a quote unquote healthier choice than the regular cookie, it's still a cookie, it's still gonna have the same physiological effect on your body as the regular cookie. Just because it's organic, doesn't make a whole lot of difference. There's tons of packaged foods that say they're healthy, and they're not healthy at all. They're full of artificial processed ingredients, tons of calories, very little nutrients, but on the label, it has all the healthy buzzwords that we've come to know and hate. You have been told through expensive marketing campaigns that things like so called whole wheat bread, quote unquote, or Florida orange juice or low fat salad dressing or gluten free anything. sports drinks, a GAVI, you have been told that all of these are healthy choices. But the truth is, and most bodies, they are not healthy choices. So part of this huge problem is that we have to be informed we have to overcome all of these marketing messages that we are showing each day. Let me just give you a hint. This is what I tell my kids when they're trying as we're learning and teaching them What are healthy choices and not so healthy choices. If there is an advertisement on TV for that food, it's not healthy. Okay, advertising is really expensive. And if a company is making enough money to pay for advertising on television, they're making a shit ton of money selling that food and it's not because it's healthy. Right? You don't see advertisements for broccoli or kale on TV do yet. No you don't you only see advertisements For products that they're trying to sell you and the reason they have to sell you on it is because it ain't good for you. So you could use that as a general rule of thumb. Just because that Frosted Flakes Tiger telling you to eat cereal, I want you to know a better sister. 

Even our government likes to get involved in our food, right, the fight against obesity. You know, the entire time they've been fighting obesity, obesity has steadily been getting worse. What they're teaching you is total bullshit. The food pyramid that they try to have you follow is like literally upside down. Like you should just flip the whole pyramid upside down. And that's probably a better way, a healthier way for you to eat. Don't listen to food guidelines from the government, I'm just gonna be real honest with you, they're not telling you the right stuff. And be real cognizant of the labels. When you go to the grocery stores things. It'll say heart healthy, and low fat and diet this. Generally none of those things are great for you. In fact, just in general, eat less foods that have labels on them. I know we all try to be real good label readers, but we'd actually be better served if we just ate less stuff that had labels on it, like produce meat. 

The other problem is that "healthy" food can still be over eaten. You can eat too much healthy food too much is too much no matter what it is. quality and quantity matter when it comes to food. A healthy meal is not a healthy meal, if it causes you to eat more food later. Let me give you an example. If you eat a healthy salad for lunch, quote, unquote, healthy salad for lunch, right, you put some Iceberg lettuce in a bowl, a couple vegetables and some low fat salad dressing. Right? That's healthy isn't that? Well, if in two hours, I am famished, and I need to eat way more food because I didn't eat enough food in that salad, then No, that wasn't a great healthy choice was it because it caused me to eat more food later. And just because you eat mostly healthy food, right? Whatever that is to you, whatever your definition is. Just because you eat mostly healthy food doesn't mean that you don't still have to deal with things like disordered eating patterns or like the restrict and then overeat cycles that we get into food obsession, emotional eating, I've met healthy eaters in my life. You know, the kale, the kale eaters, right? I've met plenty of people who eat healthy, who have some really amped up relationships with food. In fact, their healthy eating is actually obsessive food control, I am so obsessed with eating healthy, that I don't allow myself to have a speck of sugar or I cannot eat that cookie, right? We get into the food, morality territory. So we can get real obsessive about what it means to eat healthy. And so what I'm telling you is, that's not healthy. You might be making "good" food choices, but your relationship with food might suck. So I want you to get real honest about that. If that's the place that you're in, sometimes, eating healthy becomes an obsession, and it can go too far. There has to be a balance. It's not just about the food. It's about our relationship with the food. And I know you don't think about usually your relationship with food, but you should think about it a little more often. Because it's really the driver here. Your thoughts about food, your thoughts about body, your thoughts about when and why and what you eat. That all really matters. And so if you're getting obsessed with only eating healthy food and only eating this certain way, and your identity becomes based on the way that you eat, I'm a vegan. I'm keto. I'm this. I'm that right? We're taking this a little far. We're going a little too far. We're starting to get into some messed up food relationship territory. And so I want you to understand, I want you to see that for what it is. 

So what is the solution to all of this? Like what actually is healthy eating? I just spent the last like 10 minutes telling you what healthy eating is not. What actually is it? Well, there isn't just one way to eat healthy. There are healthy foods you can choose and there are foods that aren't as healthy. I don't teach good food, bad food rules. I don't teach eat this and don't eat this. I teach a spectrum. In our in our Healthy Mind Healthy Body Program we talk about green light yellow light, red light, right so we categorize foods like green light yellow light, red light, green light is like eat it with abandon. It's Amazing, and it's super good for you, that's gonna be like your vegetables pretty much right? Your yellow light foods are the things are like, okay, so these are as great of a choice in terms of physiologically what it's doing in your body. But if you want to eat it, like don't restrict yourself from this, just understand how it's working in your body. And then the red light foods are the foods that are like, Okay, well I know that this physiologically in my body, it's going to do these things, and this is how this works. And but I'm not going to restrict myself from it, I will still eat it, I just have an understanding of why I want it, why I'm eating it what it's doing. But if I tell you to not eat that thing, if I put a McDonald's hamburger on your red light list, and if I told you you can never have this again, what is the first thing you're going to want to go get a frickin McDonald's hamburger, right? So we don't play that game here. We play the Yeah, I know, inherently than McDonald's hamburger is not the best choice, I could make a better choice, but it's the choice I'm going to make right now. And that's okay. 

So it's using a spectrum of what I know physiologically, what things are going to do in my body. Right, I know that I personally, I cannot have a diet soda because physiologically I will immediately get a migraine from that. I just don't do that. I choose not to do that. Because I know what's going to happen. I also know that I love to eat cookies, I would eat frickin cookies all day long. As soon as I tell myself that I can't have cookies, all I want is cookies. But if I allow myself to have the cookie, great, then I will eat the one cookie and I'll be okay with it. So the point is, you got to figure out what's works for you don't make anything off limits. Nothing is off limits. But you have to start figuring out and going through the process of figuring out what is healthy for your body. And that process takes time it takes intentionality. It takes paying attention to your body and to how it's operating. 

In my opinion, in my humble opinion, there are some characteristics that a healthy diet would hava. And when I say diet, I don't mean being on a diet, I just mean healthy food choices. Okay, so a healthy food choices for you would be things that encourage you to eat more nutrient dense foods. So a plan that would work for you is one that encourages you to eat more nutrient filled foods more of the time. Okay, so when we teach, that's our green light foods, those are all your really healthy, your nutrient dense foods. What does healthy mean? healthy means to me that it's nutrient dense. That means for the amount of calories that you're eating, you're also getting a ton of nutrients. Those two things combined, to me equal healthy, the ratio of calories to nutrients. That makes sense. So like McDonald's, hamburger super high calories, very low nutrients as a really good salad, medium ish calories, but really high nutrients. So that ratio between nutrients and calories. That to me, is how I gauge what foods are healthier for me and what foods are less healthy for me. Does that make sense? Okay, good. So any plan that's going to encourage you to eat more nutrient dense foods, to me, is a healthy plan. Another characteristic of a healthy plan to me is that it's based on eating a variety of whole foods that are not overly process that are less inflammatory, and less refined. So just a focus on Whole Foods, the way God made them, versus those packaged foods that have labels on them, right, we're going to start moving towards eating more of the less processed foods and eating less of the processed foods. Again, this is a process this is not a cold turkey, like I'm never eating this again, that won't work. You've already tried that. You know, it doesn't work, anything that encourages you to eat more Whole Foods. That's what I would get behind any plan that is encouraging you to nourish you and your individual needs. And I don't just mean your body. I mean, how is your plan nourishing your mind and your body. So a good healthy eating plan is not only encouraging you to eat more Whole Foods, but it's also encouraging a more whole you. It is addressing your relationship with food. It is addressing why you're eating something or why you're not eating something else. What are your thoughts about food, what are your thoughts about body, the whole us needs to be incorporated so any plan that is going to not just look at the food or not just look at the exercise but look at you in the context of your life. That is a Good Eating strategy, a healthy eating strategy. And any plan that is about food rules, good food, bad food is not going to be a healthy plan. I am not a fan of food rules, I do not get behind this. 

Anything that is more about guidelines or a spectrum of choices, that's going to be a healthier plan for you. So for example, again, our red light yellow light green light foods are we do a good, better, best, same kind of situation, just called a different thing. So when you go out to eat, you have lots of choices. And there's a good choice and there's a better choice, and there's the best choice, whatever you choose is okay. As long as you understand the thought process that got you there. Does that make sense? Like, if I go to the restaurant, I know like, Okay, well, like the salad will be like a really good choice. But you know what? I really want this steak. I don't eat steak very much. It sounds really good. This is a restaurant that serves amazing steaks, like I'm getting that steak and I'm going to have a frickin baked potato with it. Because why would you want to have steak without a big baked potato? Like, that's crazy, right? So for me a steak and baked potato would be like a good choice, not a better choice just for my own personal body. However, that's what I was gonna make the good, better, best, right? So we teach a spectrum approach, we teach a choice approach. And so when you plan that's giving you choices, that is allowing you to listen to your own body and your own desires and your own wants an act accordingly. That's going to be a better plan for you. That to me is a more healthy plan. So for you, it could look so many different ways. Right? So for me, I don't eat gluten because I have an autoimmune disorder. And gluten triggers that so I just don't not because social media told me that that's the fad thing. And I shouldn't eat gluten, I have a physiological response to gluten, so I don't need it, you might be totally fine with it. So you can eat it. I am lactose intolerant. Well, you might have no problem eating cheese. So you go eat the cheese. Like just because this is what works for me does not mean that that is what has to work for you. Some people don't tolerate beans very well, so they don't eat them. But I love beans. So I eat beans. 

And there's so many different styles of dieting, right? Some people find that they kind of fall into an intermittent fasting type of schedule. And that's what works for them. But that might not work for you. Some people like this kind of keto thing where they kind of in and out of keto that might work for them, it might not work at all for you. Some people eat lots of carbs, some people don't eat very many carbs, some people eat lots of protein, some people less protein, right? What I'm saying is, there's not one right way, you have to be willing to go through the process of finding your right way. There is no easy answer here. Your healthy eating your version of healthy is yours and yours alone. And that's what I really want people to understand. I cannot and I will not ever tell you to eat this and not that I will never tell you to eat this way and not that way or eat on this schedule and not that schedule. I want to help you figure out those answers for yourself. If you have no idea how to figure that out, you need a coach need to have a plan. That is what I do. So I can be your coach if you want me to. But you need to have a strategy for figuring these things out for yourself. Because there is no one right way there's only one right way for you. Here's the other shitty tricky part the right way for you changes over time. So the right way for you in high school is not the right way for you. In your 40s the healthy eating version of you that worked in high school is not the version that's going to work in your 40s and your 50s and your 60s. So that is always changing. So you have to be willing to ride that train. Right? You have to be willing to just be in process to just like, Okay, this is how this looks. I'm just going to figure this out as I go. And I'm going to pay attention. When I do this. I don't feel as good when I eat this. I feel great. So I'm going to eat less of that and more. It seems simplistic but girl, this is the way What is that? The Mandalorian that says that it is the way you have to figure out your version of healthy because it's not just about what you eat. 

Healthy is also about why you eat healthy is about your relationship with food healthy is about you listening to your own body, you honoring what your body wants you honoring your hunger, your own hunger, eating when you need to eat, not restricting yourself by time or by food. Healthy is you having a healthy relationship with your body and food and that is not something that I die. It can never provide for you. So what's the bottom line here? Do we figure out what healthy actually is? We figured out that physiologically, the way food acts in your body, there are choices that are better for your body and choices that are less good for your body. We know that's true. We also know that what we've been fed about what is a healthier choice for our body usually is a bunch of bullshit. The messages and the marketing that we have been fed over the years is trying to sell us things that actually are not healthy for our body, even though they say that they are. So there's a big learning curve here, where you have to start understanding nutrition and understanding how food works in your body and understanding why some foods are healthier options than other foods. We in our Healthy Mind healthy body program, we spend weeks on this, we have many modules that are basically giving you nutrition one on one so that you understand how to make those choices for yourself. And the last part of what is healthy is not it's not just about the food, it's about your relationship to the food and your relationship to your own body. So what is healthy? That's the something that you have to answer for yourself. That's decisions that you have to make all the time. But I want you to start seeing things with a more critical eye. I want you when you hear messages about this is healthy, this is what you should do. This is what you should eat, this is how you should do it. I want you to see those things with a more critical lens and start asking more questions. Wait a second, it's not really like what is that actually based on? And how does that actually work inside my body? Those are the things that we need to start understanding for ourselves. Because information is power, the action is also power. 

Alright, my friends, I hope that was really helpful and not too confusing. If you felt like, wow, this is like a totally different perspective than I have ever had in my own head. I want to encourage you to do a couple things. I want you to hop in the free podcast community. So I just put it up. It's brand new, I don't even know I think there's like two people. I have no idea when this airs, how many people are in it. But I want you to hop into that free podcast community because all the questions that you have right now, you can ask him there and I will answer them. I also want you to sign up for the free five day reboot. It's starting on Monday, July 19. So it's coming up real fast. I want you to get in there, tarafaulmann.com/reboot, get in there. And it's a free five day challenge. We're going to talk about all of this healthy eating and more. And when you get in there, the link for the free community group is also in there. So those are the places I want you to look. So just go to tarafaulmann.com/reboot, get into the free challenge get registered and when you're in that group, the link for everything else will be there for you to take a look at and so that reboot challenge link is also in the show notes. Alright, my friends, until we talk again, BE Well.