Last week we ran a story, Diets ‘warped’ by low-fat revolution, about food and nutrition coach Amy Ede flipping the script on healthy eating standards.
Amy noticed her clients were all making the same mistakes and she spent a lot of time helping them ‘‘unlearn’’ what they thought they knew about healthy eating.
Well, as someone who has tried myriad things when it comes to healthy eating, I thought it was only fair we put Amy’s advice to the test and write about the experience.
What was I thinking?
Not so much about the following the programme. More the writing about it.
You see it’s one thing to talk about your health journey with people — it’s a completely different thing to write about it in the local newspaper.
Like many women in their (ahem, very early) 40s, I face a few challenges.
For more than two decades I have battled endometriosis, a condition often misunderstood, or put down to ‘‘women’s issues’’. For me it has meant passing out from pain or days unable to move. There’ve been surgeries, specialists and a range of treatments tried. I also have an uncanny ability to injure myself. Plus the nature of my job means planning is almost impossible.
So why do I share this?
While these are my challenges, there will be people who can relate to having barriers that impact their health and lifestyle.
Before I met with Amy I thought I had a reasonable understanding of healthy eating. I knew low fat meant added sugar, and that my latest addiction of raspberry licorice with chocolate was probably not the best choice for a snack.
But then she brought up a supermarket website so we could count the teaspoons of sugar in the ‘‘healthy’’ choices I was making.
I am still getting over that.
I started the programme last week and so far the biggest hurdle has been being organised enough. I can’t just run out and grab a Sanga’s pie and a Coke for lunch between deadlines — I have to plan.
So far, so good — the meals taste good and I’m not hungry.
Plus I’ve lost 8cm so something must be working.
