We have all been there. We all know the pain. Every January we start the year determined to lose those extra pounds. Yet, after our initial success, we find ourselves slipping back into our old eating habits, and the pounds creep back. You most probably end up weighing more than you did before starting your latest diet. If this is your story, the 90/10 diet plan may just be something to look at.
The problem with most ‘regular’ diets is it focuses on exclusion. In other words, the focus, very often, is on what not to eat. Eat no chocolate (or any other) cake, no regular decadent cheese-topped pizza, no sweet dessert… and the list goes on. It is always the comfort food that should fall by the wayside.
Essentially, the word ‘diet’ implies a certain eating pattern that excludes any foods eaten for enjoyment or the psychological comfort they bring, like Grandma’s apple pie.
But you can lose weight, keep it off, and enjoy the occasional unhealthy treat by trying the 90/10 diet plan. You do not have to eat 100% healthy 100% of the time in order to shed your unwanted pounds. And it is easier than you think.
The business world, to a large extent, runs on the Pareto principle. This principle, in layman’s terms, states that twenty percent of your input results in eighty percent of your output. This 80/20 principle may fluctuate, with each figure rising or falling. But the result is the same.
What does this have to do with your diet or eating habits?
Following the 90/10 diet plan may give you great results with weight loss because it encourages a healthy eating plan while giving you leeway to enjoy some of the comfort foods you may crave. Essentially, you follow a healthy meal plan ninety percent of the time without cheating. The other ten percent of your meals are cheat meals, where you get to eat what you enjoy, pizza with extra cheese included (or chocolate fudge cake if that is your major weakness).
The 90/10 diet plan takes human psychology into account. Think about what happens the moment you tell yourself you are not allowed something you love, anymore. Take Grandma’s apple pie, for example, and a long Sunday afternoon meal where you know that the apple pie is going to take pride of place at the dessert table. And you are trying to lose weight!
Your head starts telling you things like ‘you can never have that again’, or ‘no more of Grandma’s apple pie ever!’
You may ignore that voice in your head for a while. But can you ignore it forever? For most of us, the answer is no. Many of us eventually forget our New Years’ resolutions, throw caution to the wind, and indulge. Very often the indulgence does not stop with one slice of apple pie. We go back to our old eating habits, throwing healthy eating out the door. Bring on the cake, burgers, hotdogs, and fries while you’re at it!
Soon, the pounds creep back, with us often weighing more than before starting our diet. This is typical of what we call the yo-yo diet effect.
The 90/10 diet plan allows you to indulge on occasion. This means, there are no guilt feelings when you indulge occasionally.
If you eat three meals per day, seven days a week, you could do two cheat meals per week. This allows you to factor that apple pie or cheesy pizza. Or any of the other, less healthy meals you love but leave out of your eating plan 90% of the time. The 90/10 diet plan gives you the right to splurge occasionally.
The good news is that the 90/10 diet plan allows you a certain freedom in eating foods considered not too healthy. However, you need to keep in mind that you can only indulge in comfort food occasionally. The key is to start the 90/10 diet plan, is by gradually cutting out the so-called unhealthy food, not all at once.
Starting on this plan means preparation. List down all unhealthy meals eaten in a given week. Then, start replacing those meals with healthier options. Ideally, you could allow indulging in a less healthy meal up to twice weekly. This gives you the ideal 90/10 diet plan ratio.
Something else to look at is your calorie score. Cheat meals tend to be higher in calories. You may thus need to keep an eye on your portion size. Enjoy the meal but consider a smaller portion. You still get to cheat, but at least you are eating less of it.
Interestingly, saving calories during the week so that you can splurge on a very high-calorie meal at the weekend, does not work. Continuously eating a very low-calorie diet will rob your body of the essential vitamins and minerals needed to function properly and fight inflammation. Maintaining balance would allow you to eat the foods that actively promote inflammation and keep you healthy. There is no win-win situation when it comes to saving up calories.
Eat your two healthy meals on the cheat day and limit your calorie intake on the cheat meal.
If you have any dietary restrictions, like gluten intolerance or a specific food allergy, remember these restrictions apply at all times including your 10% cheat meals.
When talking about inflammation, many of us think about the inflammation experienced when cutting a finger, for example. The typical signs of inflammation in a specific area are heat, swelling, redness, and pain. While we may not like these symptoms, they indicate the body’s ability to repair itself. In short, inflammation is your body’s response to stress and your immune system’s efforts at addressing the problem.
But there are different types of stress. In the scenario mentioned above, your body encounters stress due to an external factor. Stress is also the result of your environment, whether from your working conditions or pollution, or internal factors. The latter is often associated with what we eat.
Food, to a large extent, may either promote or fight inflammation. The 90/10 diet plan would help fight inflammation.
While short-term inflammation may indicate a body at work protecting and healing itself, long-term inflammation has a disastrous effect on your health. In many cases, food is the culprit.
Inflammation is part of your body’s NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response. Your NEM is largely governed by your brain. To be more specific, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis that governs hormone release as well as other body functions.
Long-term or low-level chronic inflammation is often not noticeable at first. In the long run, however, it may lead to psychological and physiological issues often related to Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.
Issues including aspects of inflammation, amongst many others:
Although there are many reasons for the development of chronic inflammation, research indicates that your eating habits may be one of the major causes. Following a 90/10 diet plan may help because a cheat meal contains high levels of fats, sugar, and processed food that affects your normal gut flora. Reducing this would benefit the gut and control inflammation.
Healthy eating with the 90/10 diet plan implies eating plenty of those foods actively fighting inflammation and giving your body the nutrients it needs for optimum health. This means opting for lean grass-fed beef, chicken, organic fruits and vegetables (remember your leafy greens), fish, nuts, whole grains like brown rice, and pulses like beans. Many herbs and spices also have fantastic antioxidant abilities, such as turmeric which contains curcumin. Besides adding flavor, these herbs and spices have great health benefits as well.
The 90/10 diet plan allows you to eat healthy 90% of the time while indulging a little for the other 10%. This allows you to eat some of those unhealthy foods many of us feel we cannot do without on occasion with the knowledge that we do things right most of the time.
Your body will start reaping the benefits of the diet plan in time. You will notice a slow, sustainable weight reduction. With this, you may also start noticing an improvement in certain health issues.
Please remember that the 90/10 diet plan is a lifestyle change and neither a quick fix weight loss nor a cure-all for any health issues. With this healthy lifestyle change, you will improve your health as well as maintain healthy body weight.
Take a close look at your diet and lifestyle. Is it one that supports your health or one that actively promotes inflammation? Don’t you think it is time you took your body, the machine that works for you 24/7, into consideration?
The 90/10 diet plan may just be the lifestyle change that works for you because you still get to indulge in those naughty meals or snacks on occasion.
© Copyright 2021 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Many factors may contribute to Adrenal Fatigue. Chronic inflammation is one of these. The 90/10 diet, with its healthy eating plan, may help address chronic inflammation. In so doing, it may very well support adrenal function. This implies that it may aid in long-term Adrenal Fatigue recovery.
