During my childhood, my Nana celebrated every birthday in our family with cake and ice cream (and candles to blow out, of course). I hesitated to eat these delicious treats as I got older and self-conscious about my weight. And Nana always said, “it’s ok as long as you don’t eat it every day.”
Recently, I listened to a podcast of an interview with Dr. Andrew Weil, a world-renowned author, speaker, and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. He mentioned several times that moderation is the key to a healthy and balanced life.
I remembered Nana’s advice. Despite not finishing high school, she was very wise. The man who is the father of integrative and alternative medicine and author of dozens of books and magazine articles agreed with Nana. Moderation is the key to success.
Eat a variety of foods
Dr. Weil recommends eating a wide variety of foods to avoid cravings and binging cycles. Occasionally, even a little sugar. For example, he suggested eating sugar in natural forms such as tropical fruits and maple syrup, even plain dark chocolate as long as the cocoa content is at least 70%.
Similarly, in his book Eat to Beat Disease, Dr. William Li described many wonders of the human body and how a variety of foods assist the body to heal itself. His 5x5x5 program details an array of over 200 foods to transform and restore our health and wellness.
Remember, diets don’t work
The list of diets goes on and on: paleo, ketogenic, vegetarian, vegan, low carb, blood type, Atkins, Mediterranean, Weight Watchers, South Beach and many more. I tried quite a few of them.
“Follow Jesus, not diets” is the mantra of my friend and fellow blogger Erin Todd. She knows as well as I do that restriction never works long term. Diets may work in the short term, but eventually, you gain the weight back when you return to old habits.
Erin writes about and follows the practice of Intuitive Eating. Follow ten steps to overhaul your relationship to hunger, food, your body, and your health.
Change your lifestyle
Instead of a diet, the Daniel Plan is a faith-based program to achieve wellness for life, not just short-term weight loss. The plan emphasizes taking care of your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Moderation is the key to a lifetime of wellness with the Daniel Plan.
Follow the 90-10 rule
First, the Daniel Plan is based on the 90-10 rule. Follow the food guidelines 90% of the time, but eat other foods you enjoy the other10% of the time. For example, at anniversaries, holiday celebrations, or birthdays. (Nana was right on again!)
Eat the abundance of real food that God made
Second, the Daniel Plan does not highlight what you cannot eat, it emphasizes what you can eat and enjoy—God’s abundance of real food. He made all of this luscious food for us to enjoy, such as the enormous variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, poultry and clean meats. It is not strictly a plant-based diet, but based on real food made by God, not in a factory.
You cannot fail
Finally, failure is a way to learn from our mistakes in the Daniel Plan. We are human. We are not perfect, only Jesus was perfect. If you make some bad choices, don’t beat yourself up. Just continue moving forward. Wellness is a journey. Jesus offers grace, so give yourself some grace too.
Summary
Instead of diets, the Daniel Plan offers a way to achieve success by changing your lifestyle from restriction and rules to moderation and grace. In addition, Intuitive Eating is a practice to achieve moderation and success by becoming attuned to your body.
Dr. Weil and my Nana would have gotten along pretty well. They agreed that moderation is the key to success—in health and life.
