Daily Diet

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to give you a mindset that will help you to reach your nutrition goals in an extremely manageable way.  Although I am not a fan of fad diets, eating plans that restrict what you eat, I do understand that many people start these “diets” in order to change their poor eating habits.  However, one of the problems with these diets is that they have an end date, such as a certain amount of weight loss.  The problem with this is that as soon as the diet stops, so does the weight loss, and when you revert back to your regular eating habits, the weight eventually comes back.  Another problem with these diets is that they are often too restrictive and too different from what you normally do.  This makes them often too ambitious and hard to maintain.  In turn, this leads to people never reaching their goals.  What I propose is to instead adopt a healthy eating routine that can be maintained as part of an overall healthy lifestyle.  While finding what works best for you might take some time, research and possibly a consultation with a nutritionist, there is a very simple way to get started.  All you really need to do to start eating healthy, in a much more manageable way, is to address what you eat one day at a time.

Edwin is a member at the gym who has had a difficult time maintaining a healthy body weight and is on a different fad diet at any given time.  Eager to get to and maintain a healthy body composition, Edwin realized the importance of not only exercising regularly but eating well.  However, when it comes to his diet, he is constantly trying the latest fad diet.  Every couple of months he will come into the gym and tell me about the new diet he is on, which he had seen either on TV, online or in a magazine.  And the more drastic the diet’s requirements are, the more ambitious he becomes.  But sooner than later he falls off of the diet because it becomes to hard to maintain.  Fortunately, when he finally took my advice of simply trying to eat healthier one day at a time, he was able to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

I am constantly reminding my clients that maintaining a proper diet is just as important to achieving a healthy body composition as is regular exercise.  And I do understand that doing so can seem as difficult as finding the time to get to the gym.  But if you take a simpler approach to eating healthy it will not be as difficult as it appears.  What I suggest is to simply take a look at your food choices one day at a time…or even one meal at a time.  Instead of worrying about what you can and can’t eat for a set amount of time, just think about what is your healthiest option at that time.  Also understand it is easier to make healthy food choices if you have previously planned for them, for example it easier to choose a healthy meal option if you had already shopped for it.  But you can get started eating healthy right away, in a less intimidating way, if you make healthy choices one day at a time.

Don’t let making healthy food choices overwhelm you.  Simply think about what you want to achieve and think about how your food choices will affect reaching that goal.  When you are deciding what to eat, ask yourself "Am I making the healthiest decision?"  If not, change it as best you can.  Thinking about that one decision will be much less overwhelming and therefore much easier to keep up with over a fad diet. All of your decisions, if made as healthy as possible will add up to a healthier you.

Keep the task of eating healthy a meal by meal challenge.  As you make a food choice, ask yourself how it will affect your fitness goals.  Doing this will get you to your fitness goals much quicker and actually become easier as you do it.  This is how you form a healthy lifestyle, by continually making good nutrition choices instead of finding and failing at fad diets.  It’s this simple decision making process, taken one day at a time, which will help you reach a fit new you!