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Screw Diets
Eric Belliveau • March 19, 2018

My last blog post ended up being more of an announcement, of sorts. This time I wanted to actually start to dig in a little bit into the world of food and nutrition. It’s a crazy scary place, the world of food is (insert eerie spooky sounds here), but hopefully as we move along on this journey, journey of food that is, we’ll learn a few things along the way.

When you think about it, food really is a journey. Quite the prophetic statement if I do say so myself, re-read it, go ahead let it sink in a little bit….yeah now you’re with me, you get it. OK, enough pontificating and sounding like a pompous ass. (don’t worry I had to look up all these words to know what they meant too)

Seriously though if you think about it we come out of the womb and most of us start getting our nourishment/sustenance from well….you know….I’m not explaining any further, you should know this. Moving out of our infancy stage and into childhood/adolescence we begin to eat “actual people food”, as mashed up as it may be, it’s not quite a liquid. The foods get more and more solidified as we grow and mature. We sprout teeth and we’re able to macerate heavier foods, our digestive systems begin to mature and are able to handle these heavier more dense foods.

The fact is that your diet is exactly that, YOUR diet, we are all different and there is no right way of eating for any of us, we all have different biological and environmental influences. WE. ARE. ALL. DIFFERENT.

We hit adolescence and we can eat anything we want, but some of us are picky bastards and don’t like this and don’t like that. The texture of this makes me sick, and I can’t stand the taste of that it’s so disgusting. We start to build likes and dislikes based off a multitude of different factors, and we all have different ones, some of us are picky and only eat a handful of foods (I hate you) and some of you are like me and eat E V E R Y T H I N G (within reason) and just enjoy foods. I can even find some positive aspects of foods that I have eaten but didn’t care for. I’m weird I know, but I like food and am not afraid of it.

Some of us have allergies and can’t eat certain foods, some of us grow out of allergies that we might of had when we were younger. Some of us might actually grow into food allergies as we get older, yes it’s a thing look it up. Gluten sensitivity, full blown celiac disease, lactose intolerance, shellfish, nuts, peanuts, eggs, green beans that were gown at a specific time, temperature, in a certain soil, in a specific state on a full moon, facing east during a solar eclipse….yeah I’m allergic to those beans…FUCK YOU! For real though, I make fun but this shit is real now, there are a lot of issues related to food, whether or not they are backed by reasonable and sound scientific data, they exist.

My point being up to this point, and to kind of sum up of everything that I’ve ranted about up to this point…

THIS IS YOUR F***ING DIET!

You don’t have to eat like a Paleolithic cave man from how ever many thousands of years ago, you don’t have to eat only meat, you don’t have to eat only vegetables, you don’t have to each on a beach that is facing due south (see what I did there), you don’t have to eat as if you lived in on or around a certain Sea in Europe (see what I did there too). The fact is that your diet is exactly that, YOUR diet, we are all different and there is no right way of eating for any of us, we all have different biological and environmental influences. WE. ARE. ALL. DIFFERENT. What works for me probably won’t work for someone else. BUT I will say that one thing that rings true for a lot of these so called “diets” is that we all should eat more wholesome, natural, maybe organic, REAL foods, and not have or limit how many processed, chemical shit storm, sugar laden foods we have. This I can totally get behind and agree with.

This was really a long way of saying that I have been reading and taking advantage of some of the “pre-course work” of the Precision Nutrition Certification that I will start working on in just a few short weeks. My previously held belief of, there is no real or right “DIET” was confirmed as I was going through some of this information, it also confirmed for me that this was an organization that really had people’s wellbeing in mind rather than selling them a bunch of bullshit just to make a quick buck.

FOOD is a journey, from mouth to the other end. DIET is a journey, from child to adult and everything in between. EDUCATION is a journey, I’ll advance and continue mine in a few weeks, hopefully you all stick around to hear some of my rants as I go through all of this. On the other side, maybe I can help you along your journey in creating a better relationship with food.

Cheers,

Mike

The Meat Hangover

By Eric Belliveau • October 7, 2020
When it comes to taking meat out of your diet, some people have the idea that they will only see positive changes immediately following this choice. While those positive changes are definitely part of the deal, so is an adjustment period for your body.

We're Trying

By Eric Belliveau • September 23, 2020
We were all thrown on this crazy ride together. Emotions were running high but so were patience, empathy, inclusion, and respect. Most of us could rally behind the #WeAreInThisTogether manta. We wanted to do right by each other - donate to charities, lend a hand, check-in on one another. Do our part. As the days turn to weeks and the weeks into months these dispositions decayed rapidly. I know that this Quarantine order has been going on for a long time. I know that a great number of us do not agree on the why. I know an even greater number of us are “over it”. I am painfully aware of the difference of opinions surrounding the pandemic. It is impossible to NOT be aware of this. This leads us all to frustration, anger, resentment, and the feeling that you are not being heard. Very real and very human emotions! It is okay to feel this way. I am not only writing this from the perspective of a fellow struggling human. I do find myself struggling with everything I mentioned above. Not just daily but multiple times a day. My ability to focus has been challenged by my worry. My ability to create time for myself and focus on self-care has been derailed for fear of other things becoming more pressing. I work on this every day. I am not only writing this from the perspective of one of the business owners who were never given a playbook for this. For weeks on end I thought WTF happened to the business and how would our model need to change and remain viable, how each business owner had to either weather a period in which we were completely shut down or allowed to operate under capacity restrictions, etc. The unknown of what the timeline would bring and whether we would be able to continue our dreams or make an extremely difficult decision of not continuing. This still haunts every one of us daily. I AM very much writing this as a service provider! I am writing this as an impassioned human who genuinely loves what I do for a living. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have built a career surrounding something I get excited about every day. I am making a stand for all of us that make their living in the service industry. To the receptionist, hostess, waiter, cook, dry cleaner, teacher, technician, barista, utility worker, automobile service technician… It is truly impossible to be inclusive of everyone here.  No one human mentioned above asked for this ‘situation’ we are in. We are sure as hell trying to provide a level of normalcy, service, care, and happiness to the lives in which we choose to serve. With added restrictions, added expense decreased capacity and the fear of being fined or shut down for doing it incorrectly, everyday.

The Meat Hangover

By Eric Belliveau • October 7, 2020
When it comes to taking meat out of your diet, some people have the idea that they will only see positive changes immediately following this choice. While those positive changes are definitely part of the deal, so is an adjustment period for your body.

We're Trying

By Eric Belliveau • September 23, 2020
We were all thrown on this crazy ride together. Emotions were running high but so were patience, empathy, inclusion, and respect. Most of us could rally behind the #WeAreInThisTogether manta. We wanted to do right by each other - donate to charities, lend a hand, check-in on one another. Do our part. As the days turn to weeks and the weeks into months these dispositions decayed rapidly. I know that this Quarantine order has been going on for a long time. I know that a great number of us do not agree on the why. I know an even greater number of us are “over it”. I am painfully aware of the difference of opinions surrounding the pandemic. It is impossible to NOT be aware of this. This leads us all to frustration, anger, resentment, and the feeling that you are not being heard. Very real and very human emotions! It is okay to feel this way. I am not only writing this from the perspective of a fellow struggling human. I do find myself struggling with everything I mentioned above. Not just daily but multiple times a day. My ability to focus has been challenged by my worry. My ability to create time for myself and focus on self-care has been derailed for fear of other things becoming more pressing. I work on this every day. I am not only writing this from the perspective of one of the business owners who were never given a playbook for this. For weeks on end I thought WTF happened to the business and how would our model need to change and remain viable, how each business owner had to either weather a period in which we were completely shut down or allowed to operate under capacity restrictions, etc. The unknown of what the timeline would bring and whether we would be able to continue our dreams or make an extremely difficult decision of not continuing. This still haunts every one of us daily. I AM very much writing this as a service provider! I am writing this as an impassioned human who genuinely loves what I do for a living. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have built a career surrounding something I get excited about every day. I am making a stand for all of us that make their living in the service industry. To the receptionist, hostess, waiter, cook, dry cleaner, teacher, technician, barista, utility worker, automobile service technician… It is truly impossible to be inclusive of everyone here.  No one human mentioned above asked for this ‘situation’ we are in. We are sure as hell trying to provide a level of normalcy, service, care, and happiness to the lives in which we choose to serve. With added restrictions, added expense decreased capacity and the fear of being fined or shut down for doing it incorrectly, everyday.
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