my DIY wine and food tour yesterday in Venice

Published: Sun, 01/25/15

Hi there ,

Yesterday I got into LA and bunked up with my girl Neghar Fonooni, founder of Eat, Lift and Be Happy, in Santa Monica. Neg and I always bond over our joint love for vino, and our mutual desire to be able to enjoy how we eat (or drink) and find a way to make it all effortless and well, effective.

So I thought I’d share with you an example of how (and why) I ate yesterday during a day out, trolling Venice beach. The reason I am sending this is because many of you have asked for examples of moderate eating from my personal experience. And I want to give you permission to not have to eat perfectly all the time. I want you to feel like there’s an alternative way to do things, a way that is less stressful and allows you to maintain your physique.

But first, let’s get something straight: I don’t want you to do what I do.

I want you to work on finding that perfect eating strategy for you, which takes patience, introspection, getting to know your body, understanding your unique metabolism and how it does on certain foods, and getting real about your personal preferences and mindset game.

All of that takes time. And practice. And looking inward. And tuning out the mental clutter of what you think you should be doing based on this diet, or this expert, or this meal plan or what this random internet fitness guru said.

No. Don’t do that. No one knows your body better than you do. The key is trusting that, and diving into the process of uncovering the things that make you YOU. No one can do that for you, and no one has those answers for you. I could sit here listing all the “rules” to you (drink this amount of water, get this amount of protein, eat this many carbs, exercise this way…) but none of that matters if you can’t actually do it because it wasn’t created for you and it won't work for you in the long run.

And remember:

The idea that two people eat the exact same way and get the exact same results is absurd.

Your body is constantly adjusting, so outcomes are never predictable, no matter how much you want them to be.

SO. What’s the very first step to creating the perfect eating approach FOR YOU?

Question the rules.

Start questioning all those to-do’s that you have in your head that you got from some random person on the internet or things your friend or personal trainer told you. Start questioning those million rules about how much this and what about that and but shouldn't I be doing this?

This switch can be really tough, but for me, it was THE first step in not only finding what will work for me (no one else!), but also being less stressed about the whole process. I could finally relax into it, without the pressure of potentially messing up every second!

So now that I know you won’t take what I do and think it’ll be the answer for you too, let’s move on.

Back to yesterday.

My early flight included plenty of coffee. The flight served breakfast – cheese omelet, sausage, fruit and a croissant – but for me, I know (as a result of playing the detective with my own body) that when I eat super early, it opens up my appetite for the day. When I eat early, I tend to crave more, stay hungrier and end up eating more. So while I am not all that hungry in the morning, I tend to fast a bit. So I picked at the breakfast, but for the most part drank water and read. Felt completely satisfied.

Note that this is an example of situational eating – when we eat something simply because it’s in front of us, or because “it’s free” or because we want to “get our money’s worth.” Which, while understandable, isn’t actually in line with our goals or what we know about our metabolisms. So why would I eat a meal that I don’t actually want and that I know for a fact won’t work for me just because it’s there?

This is hard to mentally wrap your head around but remember: eat without considerations to your environment. This is a practice that requires mindfulness. Ask, “Would I eat this if it wasn’t right here?” Usually the answer is no.

Next, I got to Neghar’s house late morning and had a Quest protein bar. Then Neg and I headed out around 2pm for some drinks and snacks.

Meal #1: At a local wine bar, a glass of Riesling and a bacon-wrapped dates appetizer. Totally satisfying, didn’t have to eat ALL THE DATES because they were so rich and enjoyable.

Then, we walked about a mile down to Venice beach to get ready to catch the sunset.

Meal #2: About 4pm, beachside café, two (miniature) glasses of Pinot Grigio and a huge Greek #BAS that Neg and I split. Totally satisfying, not stuffed and not deprived. Cheese FTW!

Next, we caught this amazing sunset (no filter) at Venice beach and walked around a bit:

Meal #3: We hit an early dinner (around 6pm) at Neg’s fav local spot, Oscars, and I ordered the 12 oz ribeye, side of Brussels sprouts and 2 glasses of Pinot Grigio. The steak was delicious, totally satisfying but it was huge so I ate a little more than half of it, polished off my veggies, a couple bites of rice and was good to go. Brown bagged the rest for this morning’s breakfast.

Walked home, feeling the 3-hour time change in full effect and hit the sack around 8pm. I drank plenty of water throughout our little beach adventure and went to bed feeling good – satisfied, not stuffed, no guilt.

Is this healthy?

I wouldn’t call drinking a bottle of wine healthy. It’s not. And I definitely don’t recommend it as a way to get lean or healthy or as something you should start doing. And of course, I don’t do this every single day, or even every week, but in the interest of transparency and realness, I think it does all of us a disservice to pretend that days like this don’t exist or that I eat perfectly all the time.

And if you know me (you do), you know that I actually don’t eat “perfectly” ANY of the time.

And that’s by design. Because my aim with everything I do is 2-fold: 1) decrease the amount of mental energy I spend on stressing about food, and 2) actually liking the way that I eat – sans guilt, remorse or even physique repercussions.

And the solution for me is moderation. I eat to feel satisfied and not stuffed. And I don’t ever deprive myself of something that I truly want. I just practice tasting it, without having to devour the whole thing.

Does this take practice? Absolutely. It took me three years to finally level off the up-and-down eating approach AND for my weight to level off! I used to be a lot more sensitive to things like alcohol or super starchy foods because my metabolism was constantly having to accommodate and adjust based on the deprive-then-binge cycle. It didn’t know what the heck to do! And so, it was scary to start moving to a more moderate approach. It felt like giving up. Little did I know, it would be the final solution for me.

So for now, I am working my formula. Every day. Getting up close and personal with how I feel, how certain foods affect me, and telling every single diet rule out there that it can take a hike unless it fits in with my lifestyle effortlessly. That's it!

Of course I’d love to hear your thoughts. How are you doing with this? Have you been playing around with #moderation365? What’s still a struggle? Reply and let me know!

Wishing you a fab week :)

Xo,

Jill

P.S. I'll be traveling quite a bit over the next 6 months, and if you want more examples of how I'm eating day-to-day, be sure to follow on Instagram!