Episode 36: 3 Diet-Free Actions You Can Take Today To Improve Your Health
- Alex Treanor
- Apr 23, 2024
- 12 min read
My Roman empire is figuring out how to untangle health behaviors, such as improving nutrition and being active, from the world of diet culture. This episode dives into the mess that diet culture is and gives you 3 simple non-diety changes you can make today to actually start feeling better and improving your health and well-being.
Episode Transcript:
INTRO MUSIC: Welcome to The Compassionate Wellness Podcast. I'm Alex Treanor. I'm a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and I am so excited you're here. The wellness industry is full of do's and do not's, should's and should not's. But I like to take a different approach. I'll be sharing all things health and wellness from a joyful, real-life compassionate perspective. If you're ready to drop the cookie-cutter approach and create a life you truly love, while eating a cookie or two along the way, let's dive in.
Hey, friends! Welcome to this week's episode of The Compassionate Wellness Podcast. I want to start this episode, by maybe just sharing some thoughts. I'm still kind of organizing my thoughts with this. But I've been thinking a lot about how wild the world of health and wellness is. Pretty much any viewpoint that you have on health and wellness, you can find someone who is saying that's the complete end-all-be-all solution. You can find people saying that will never work. You can find research showing both ways, probably. It just seems like there are so many different perspectives out there. And it's hard to find, like, it's confusing. It's confusing to figure out what that path looks like because it is individualized for everybody, yet there's so many outside voices that how do we walk that path and find what works for us and also matches our lifestyle and the goals we have and the things that we value. It's just such a wild world.
And actually, I've been preparing this episode kind of thinking about some of these things, and then last night, I had this dream about...actually when I started coaching, I started coaching in a weight loss clinic of all places. I don't talk about it much because my perspective back then was very different from what it is now. But that is how I broke into the world of health and wellness and that space was helping people lose weight. Now I have different experiences. I've seen the back and forth that comes with that, what some of the challenges are, why it doesn't work. That approach that I used to take with people, it served me in that time. It also served clients in a way in that time. But now I recognize there's a better way to do it, so I do things differently now. But yeah, this whole concept has just been kind of taking over my brain recently.
I think it's so interesting that I I feel that the dieting world started with good intentions. I know when I started coaching, and I was in the dieting world, I had good intentions. I knew that I felt better when I did certain actions. I knew that that translated into how I cared for myself, and that if I could share those things that I had learned other people may also feel better about themselves are about their quality of life, that those things could help them. I think that's how this whole thing works. People recognize they feel better when they're eating nutritiously. They're being active. As a result of those things, they lose weight, let's say. And somewhere along the line, diet culture took that and twisted it. And it became all about losing weight. It became all about being a particular size, it became about only being worthy, if you're a certain size, and judging others who are not that size. It all just swirled into this mess that it is now.
When this happened, there was like this standard that was created that you had to look a certain way. You had to act a certain way for yourself to be worthy, or to be healthy even. And I think that's where one of the main problems well, there's lots of problems, but one of the problems comes from, because when we have this absolute standard, there isn't room for life. There isn't room for incremental change and practicing over time. It becomes all or nothing. That flexibility is just taken right out the window. And then with that sustainability is also out the window.
But that's how the diet industry thrives. Right? They don't want the success. They don't want your success because then you don't need them anymore. The most recent statistic that I saw is that the diet industry is a $72 billion industry. That's a lot of money. That's a real lot of money. And we've been told over all these years that dieting and weight loss that that's the key to health. But losing weight is not actually a health behavior. This is where a lot of my frustration comes from when we hear all these dieting messages because as much as we say, or we hear you need to lose weight. What does that even mean? That's not something we have absolute control over. The things that we have control over are eating nutritious foods, being active managing our stress, sleeping better connecting with others. Those are health behaviors, those are things that we can change and work on over time and all of those things improve health. And we can do them with or without without losing weight. That does not matter when we're looking at these health behaviors.
In that sense health and wellness is really not as complicated as we make it out to be. Through no fault of our own! I think the world we live in makes us believe that it is complicated. We're taught that it's complicated. Because if it's complicated, and there's a standard to meet, then we need someone to tell us the right way to do it. And if someone knows the "right", way to do it, then they can charge you for it. I saw a quote by a former finance director at Weight Watchers that said that their program is successful because 84% of people have to come back and do it again. And that's where their business comes from. If you are good at it, the way they tell you to, then you're not paying them anymore, and it doesn't do them any good. And that's why the diet industry is worth so much money. For them to be making money, you have to believe it's hard. And you have to believe that only they can help you that dieting is the answer and they can tell you how to do that.
And as messed up as the diet, industry and diet culture is at the same time, we do know that health behaviors have an impact on our health. No surprise there, right? That's why they are health behaviors. The main causes of chronic disease are poor diet, sedentary behavior, and smoking. All of those are lifestyle issues. It's estimated that 80% of heart disease 80% of diabetes and 40% of cancer could be prevented by improving our lifestyle habits, just those three things. The question that swirls through my mind 97% of the time is how do we untangle these health behaviors from diet culture from the messaging that we've been given for so long, that we've grown up in. This is my Roman Empire, if you will. How do we untangle these two things so that we feel the benefits, and that it's worthwhile to work on health behaviors without feeling like it's that slimy, icky diet, culture like not good enough feeling?
My goal with this podcast and with my coaching programs as well, is to make lifestyle change really approachable. To simplify it into something that feels doable, it feels realistic, something that you can continue with throughout your life. And even more than that something that brings you joy, and improves your quality of life. I think that's the whole point of lifestyle changes: to improve your quality of life, to live longer, but not just longer, but better to enjoy the time that we have here.
So in today's episode, all that to say, I want to give you three simple changes that you can do today, that will actually have an impact on your health and your well-being and your quality of life. To start feeling better today and looking out for your future self separate from diet culture, nothing to do with weight loss, or these magic tricks. These are the actionable things that you can do today. I'm talking minimal prep work and totally actionable.
So the first thing that you can do is to ask yourself what you can add to your meal to make it more nutritious. We're not worrying about eating less sugar or processed foods, or the whole big picture right? At this one meal, your next meal, what can you add? What is something positive that will help you feel good and feel like you made a good choice for yourself today?
There's lots of things that we can add that will improve health and well being some of these might be adding a whole grain. So if you're making spaghetti, maybe you do half regular pasta and half whole grain pasta, or one of those brown rice pastas or the chickpea pasta, doing a combination. You don't have to replace your regular pasta completely just adding something that has some whole grains in it. Maybe you could add some fruits or some veggies, maybe some beans to a meal. Canned is great, you can get the low sodium option. There's just as many nutrients in that you don't have to be soaking beans overnight to get the benefits of having beans. Just buy the can. Maybe you could add some nuts or some seeds. If you're having a salad just something on top or sprinkling it in a smoothie that you may be making. Maybe even over a dessert that you have adding a little bit of nuts. Maybe it's a glass of water. Just something that you could add that will help to improve your overall nutrition. Overall nutrition is the sum of all these individual choices. So at your next meal, what is one thing that you can add? It may not feel like a big difference, but I promise you, it does make a difference, it all adds up. In a review of 95 studies done all throughout the world, this was a global review. It was found that two and a half servings a day of fruits and vegetables was linked to an 8%, decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, a 16%, decreased risk of stroke and a 10% decreased risk of mortality. Those are big numbers, just from two and a half servings of fruits and vegetables every day. And those benefits continued increasing up until 10 servings, so every little bit counts. If you can add just a little bit, it's worth it. Keep it simple, too. Don't overthink it, just add something that feels like a good choice for you.
The second thing you can do is to purposefully move your body. Go for a walk, do some stretching, dance, run, play outside with your kids garden roller skate, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further away. Whatever it is, the options are really endless here. You don't need fancy interval workouts. You don't need strategically designed training regimens to feel good in your body. If you have athletic goals, or you're competing in something, then yes, you may need more structured workout routines. And you may have certain goals in mind that you're wanting to accomplish. But for overall health and wellness and feeling good. Just move whatever that is any type of movement, purposely moving your body. You don't need a gym membership. You don't need equipment, just something to get your heart rate up.
I want you to imagine that when you go to your next doctor's appointment, your just annual checkup, let's say a wellness visit. And your doctor sits down and she's talking to you and she says "hey, I have this new pill that you might be interested in. And what it does is help to improve your brain health. It also will lower your blood pressure help you think clearer. Improve cholesterol, protects your bones and joints. It can even help you to improve your mood, helps with healthy aging, so it does have some long term impacts for you. It can reduce your pain, improves balance coordination. And on top of all that it also helps reduce your risk of chronic disease. So reduced risk of heart disease stroke type two diabetes, depression, anxiety, dementia, some cancers, and metabolic syndrome. It does all of these things and it actually has no side effects. Nothing no nausea, no heartburn, indigestion, none of that. And it's completely free".
I feel like it's kind of a no brainer, right? Moving our body does all of these things. So when we look at it for what it truly is, it has a huge impact. So commit to purposefully moving your body even if it's just for a few minutes a day. It all helps.
The third thing that you can do is to go to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight. Look, I get it. We are all tired, and we are all busy. Those things compete every night at bedtime, at least in our house. There's things I need to get done. There's also an exhaustion, I could really use some sleep tonight. If you are struggling to give yourself permission to end your day a little bit early tonight or to go to bed earlier tonight, then you can tell yourself that your health coach told you to do it. That is fine! I will take the blame for whatever does not get done in those 15 minutes that you go to bed earlier tonight. Totally blame it on me. I can take it, send them my way. I'm happy to field any emails or DMs on why you went to bed early tonight.
Sleep is so huge, and it's easy to push aside because we're doesn't it doesn't feel productive. It feels like we're doing stuff at the end of the day, or we're not but we're decompressing. But there's so much benefit from sleep. Sleep helps us to improve our mood. It restores our energy levels, improves cardiac health reduces risk of heart attack stroke, regulates blood sugar, relieves stress and strengthens our immune system.
I think we all have felt those days when we don't get good rest the impact that it has. In my coaching programs, we talk about sleep being the anchor of our health. And what I mean by that is that when you sleep well, you have less sugar and fat cravings because you have the energy you need. You don't need those quick fixes of energy throughout the day. So you're more likely to think about your food choices, be able to be mindful and eat more nutritious foods. You also have more energy when you get good rest which makes it a whole lot easier to be active throughout your day. If you're not dragging all day, you might have some energy to move your body. You're also better at able to manage emotions and consequently less stressed, which has tons of benefits if we can manage our stress in terms of our physical, emotional and mental health. You can really see how sleep helps with every other lifestyle habit. And in turn, sleep is bi-directional. So what that means is those habits then help us get better sleep. So if you're not sure where to start, go get some sleep.
Okay, so to recap, the three things that you can do today are to consider what you can add to a meal to make it a little bit more nutritious, purposefully move your body and go to bed 15 minutes earlier, all simple things, right? Not necessarily easy, they are still going to take effort. But all things that you can do today that your future self will thank you for and that will make a difference just in themselves. So those simple actions are all you need to get started.
I know this episode was kind of my train of thoughts a little bit and just some things that have been on my mind. But diet culture is just so maddening. And I'm constantly annoyed that we're taught health is about weight, because it's not. Health is about caring for yourself and maximizing your quality of life. The three things we talked about today can help you do that, regardless of weight. Those three things can make a difference and can get you started on a wellness journey.
If you are really wanting to feel better wanting to improve your health, but having a hard time getting out of that diet mindset and thinking about it in a way that feels healthy for you, and feels balanced, then come chat with me. I would love to chat about it. No pressure, there's a link in the show notes to schedule a time we can just talk about it, see if I can maybe offer some support for you. Also, could you help me out by sharing this episode with a friend who may need to hear this message may be someone that came to mind as we were chatting about some of these different topics. And if no one comes to mind, could you leave a review for someone who may be looking for this message in the future that they could find this podcast a little bit easier. Maybe give me some stars. I do love some stars. So that would be very helpful.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope that you have a wonderful week and I look forward to talking with you again next week.
OUTRO MUSIC: Thanks for joining me on this episode of the compassionate wellness podcast. If this message resonated with you, please share it with someone you care about. I'd love to connect with you as well follow me on Instagram @alextreanor.coaching, or visit my website alextreanorcoaching.com. And as a reminder, Treanor spelled kind of goofy, it's T-R-E-A-N-O-R. For any references mentioned in this episode, be sure to check out the show notes. I hope you have a wonderful day and don't forget to make time for something you enjoy.
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