Can Eating Waffles Be Good For You??

If our goal is to eat a healthy, balanced diet, then there's nothing wrong with having some not-so-perfect foods in there too. Not every ingredient needs to be the cleanest!

How do you feel about these foods – Greek salad and frozen waffles? Do you think that one is good and the other one bad?

A lot of people would say that this Greek salad with falafels on the left side is healthy and good, while the waffles and chocolate chips are unhealthy and therefore, bad. I argue that they both can be healthy, depending on what we're looking for.

In the context of Flexible dieting and mindful eating, all foods will be fine.

Black and White Approach to Food Isn't Healthy

Both of these foods are fine and can nicely fit into someone's diet.

Greek salad is obviously nutritionally better. The veggies in this salad are packed with micronutrients, olives and olive oil have healthy fats, falafels add protein. I don't think too many people would argue with that.

Waffles on the other hands, aren't as great nutritionally. The ones here are not even homemade. Does that automatically mean that they're BAD for you?

Many people would say yes. But they can still be a part of the otherwise nutrient dense diet because there are other good reasons to eat them, like satisfying your sweet tooth and cravings. They can easily be a part of flexible and mindful, dietless eating. Eating a reasonable amount of foods like this, that may not be nutritionally perfect but make you feel good and satisfy you, means that you're less likely to binge later.

Eat What Satisfies You

If you don't like waffles, you don't have to eat them! Eat the foods that you personally like, that satisfy your sweet tooth. Learn to them in reasonable amounts (join our challenge to learn how). Complete restriction and binge eating aren't the only options – there's a whole big grey area in between where you can eat your favorite foods without bingeing.

The first step is to stop telling yourself that any foods are forbidden. Try to eat a bite and see how it tastes, without thinking that today is the last day you ever get to eat it. Mess up, try again, don't give up, don't start another diet again when things don't go as you expected.

Doing the next diet would be the easy way to go but you know that doesn’t work, right?

Start being okay with the fact that you aren't going to eat “clean” every day of your life, avoid sugar at all costs and know every single gram and nutrient about every single meal that you're having. This is one of the first steps to food freedom.

Join the Moderate Eating Challenge!

This 10-day 10 Percent Solution Moderate Eating challenge is meant for women who struggle with over eating and binge eating, only to restrict their food again once the binge is over.

The goal is to learn to eat your favorite things without bingeing. In this challenge, you learn 4 practices that help you get to know your body better and eat things in moderation.

Note – this challenge is NOT for those who are currently recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea! You are still in recovery and can't rely on your hunger signals to figure out what you need. Check out this guide to learn how to eat for HA recovery.