I spent almost a full year planning out, portioning and packaging each and every one of my meals and snacks to fit into a 1200 calorie daily “budget.” If you’re not familiar with the old calorie system, this is about the lowest you can go without, um, falling off the face of the earth. I would measure teaspoons of oil and half cups of quinoa and grill waiters for ingredient deets at restaurants. Not cute. Did I lose a bunch of weight? Yes. Did it stay off? No. Was my mind still a mess? Definitely.
Counting calories is an old paradigm that must shift. To make true, sustainable shifts in our bodies and minds we have to let go of our attachment to perfection, especially when it comes to food. The mental comes before the physical – when your mind is in the right place, your body will come into balance.

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. The two most common are anorexia and bulimia, but the often-overlooked and perhaps even more rampant and detrimental is orthorexia nervosa, especially in the world of “wellness warriors.”

Orthorexia literally means “fixation on righteous eating.” This means different things to different people, and can range from zero carb tolerance to strict veganism to the ever-equivocal and often confusing “clean” eating approach.

Do a quick check to see how fit your brain is when it comes to food and body psychology:

1. How often do you compare your body to other people?
2. Do you think you’re “supposed” to be a certain size or weight, and do you freak out if you surpass it?
3. Do you get anxiety when eating in social situations?
4. Are you planning out your next meal while eating, to ensure you’ll have access to a particular kind of food, like vegan or organic?
5. Do you feel low-grade depression, sadness, and/or dissatisfaction with your body?

If you answered YES! to even one of these questions, you’ll benefit greatly from the following practices:

1. Each time a negative thought about your body comes in, replace it with an affirmation that makes you feel calm and light. I love “I am calm grace” at the moment, which I learned from Kate Northrup in her book, Money: A Love Story. Excellent.
2. Meditate. Experiment with meditation. Try one minute each morning, then build your way up. When you sit in stillness, you carry that energy through the rest of your day and are less likely to compare yourself to others and judge your physical form.
3. Let go of diet titles. Do you claim that you’re vegan, vegetarian, or paleo? What if you were just a human, eating the foods that fuel you best? Try letting go of titles for 30 days, even if you don’t change your way of eating at all. By detaching from these words, you’ll be able to tap into what you really need in each moment.

With food, go for quality over quantity (or lack thereof). A calorie is not a calorie, and what you put into your mouth is far more important than exactly how much.

Your body and your brain will thank you when you start focusing on nutrient-dense food rather than worrying about how many calories are in your sweet potato.

What diet title or old, repetitive thought are you ready to let go of this week to let your mind be easy and your best physical form naturally take shape? Share in the comments below – I can’t wait to hear from you.

This week, I have a fun, indulgent variation on a Greek classic that I learned to make while working at a fancy Greek restaurant in college – kolokythakia tyganita. Say that five times fast.

These tasty little guys are usually full of gluten and dairy in the form of flour and cheese. This version is gluten-free and dairy-free, since I’m not super tolerant of either. Play with different versions to find what feels best to you! Let me know what you discover.

Kolokythakia Tyganita

Ingredients

3 large zucchini
2 cups gluten-free flour
3 eggs
Safflower, or other high smoke point oil
1 cup walnuts
Lemon
Dried oregano
Salt
Black pepper

Method

Add about 3 inches safflower oil to wide-bottom pot and bring to high heat.

Trim ends and slice zucchini in half the short way, then into slices the long way.

Combine flour with salt, black pepper and dried oregano, to taste, in a mixing bowl. Beat eggs in another mixing bowl. Coat zucchini in herbed flour mixture, then egg, then flour mixture once more.

Once oil is hot, drop zucchini pieces in and create one layer. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oil and let rest on paper towel-lined plate.

Add more zucchini to pan and continue working in batches. While zucchini cooks, add walnuts and salt, black pepper and oregano, to taste, in a blender. Blend until you form a fine-medium meal. Transfer to large mixing bowl.

Shortly after each batch of zucchini comes out, toss in bowl with ground walnuts. Serve with fresh lemon and/or tzatziki. Enjoy!

Photos: Jake Freeman