Dietary Lifestyle
Liberty University
Master of Science: Nutrition
HLTH640
Evolution of my Dietary Lifestyle
NAME
ID:
May 14, 2022
Words: 922
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Dietary Lifestyle
Abstract
There are many influences and experiences with food that have helped to shape my
lifestyle and relationship with food over the years. It has been an amazing ever evolving journey
that continues to this day. I have had to unlearn a lot of what I thought I knew, to learn what I did
not know about food and its important role in our lives. Food is significant in all aspects of our
health and wellness. The journey of evolving my nutrition knowledge has been nothing short of
amazing.
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Dietary Lifestyle
Introduction
There are many different experiences and things that influence our eating habits. Over
the years, mostly the past decade I have been on a health journey, dismissing and reshaping my
past knowledge of food. My knowledge and dietary lifestyle have evolved substantially as I
dedicate time to personal growth on a journey to meeting my health and wellness goals.
There are a couple of lingering habits from my upbringing that still influence how I
cook food today. I still do not measure anything when cooking and I use a lot of the same
seasonings my mother and grandmother used. Another past interest and influence is the
knowledge of being able to forge foods from the wild and foundational understanding of herbal
medicine (I come from a long line of healers and forgers). Foraging brings back wonderful
memories of time in the woods with my grandmother.
I have had the opportunity to live all over the world, getting to experience the different
food cultures, influencing my food choices. Growing up we went from a diet of heavily
processed foods to raising, hunting, foraging, gardening, and fishing for our food. Throughout
early adulthood I spent a lot of time on the go as required by the army, due to that lifestyle my
diet suffered, I became overweight and unhealthy. Energy drinks and fast meals are the norm for
most soldiers, I was no exception at the time.
Body dysmorphia and emotional eating started to take a toll on me in every aspect. I
wanted better for myself so I began by educating myself. I had and still have the support of my
husband and children as we underwent a nutritional transformation. We traded our boxed and
canned meals for fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. As we educated ourselves, our eating and
cooking habits changed gradually. There was a lot of learning and unlearning involved in this
new journey.
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Dietary Lifestyle
We never did like the term “diet” because it insinuates limitations, so we use the term
“lifestyle change”. The first thing to go was high sugar drinks like soda. The next thing we
changed was how often we were eating out. In the military it is quite common to eat lunch out
most days- we started packing healthy lunches. We stopped using food as a means of celebration
and found alternative ways to celebrate, relinquishing any emotional ties to food for such events.
Cooking is a family event, teaching our young children about food. Eating is done at the table to
foster healthy relationships with food and family.
Switching to a keto-based lifestyle about four years ago provided the desired
transformation for my husband and I. He lost almost 50 pounds and has maintained his healthy
ideal weight. I lost weight and toned, but I still tend to fluctuate because sometimes I emotionally
eat. I have discovered an unhealthy pattern within myself that I am trying to correct through
discipline, healthy diet, and a structured exercise routine. Depression sometimes takes its
chokehold and I eat a lot of sweets and junk. It is a vicious cycle to get into, often being rather
difficult to escape.
Within the last year we still maintain a keto lifestyle with days of carb cycling. Five
days per week we eat strict keto <30 net grams of carbs and the other two days we consume
healthy complex carbs. I found that this has helped to stabilized my mood and is much easier for
me to maintain than strict keto. I do believe I have finally found what works for me.
I enjoy spicy foods, living in El Paso, Texas provides plenty of spice. When I was a
small child I would eat breakfast with my grandfather, always putting tobasco sauce on my eggs
because I wanted to be like him. This laid the foundation for my love of spicy foods, solidifying
this love was the experience of different cultures from all over the world.
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Dietary Lifestyle
I do believe that an individual’s past experiences and influences play a major role in
their perceptions. It is very easy to get “sucked into” your own personal perceptions. I think my
past experiences will play an important role in how I present myself to others to help shape their
perception of me. It is important to keep an open mind when working with others because no
matter how much you may think you know, you will never know their whole story and the
reasons for the way they do things. I am grateful that I have had the ability to work with people
from all over the world. I would like to think that I have a rich cultural background and
experience with food and people, but then again this is only my perception of myself.
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Dietary Lifestyle
References
No references.
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