Have you ever said to yourself…”I will start tomorrow” when you are planning to start to change your eating habits or looking to try out a new diet? I am sure you have, because I know I have said it many times. That last day of eating whatever you want seems to be so validating and even a little mischievous. You say to yourself, “I am going to eat everything today because tomorrow I am going to start on my new diet”. And then…you don’t start on your diet. Oops, what happened? When you are planning on changing the way you eat or going on a diet there are many thoughts that run through your mind. One of them is that you won’t be able to eat what you want so it is going to be torture. What are you going to eat when you go to a restaurant, what will you eat when you go to your friend’s party, and I can’t deprive my kids of having goodies so how am I going to be able to stand to have that in my site and not eat it? All valid thoughts and all going to get in the way of you starting the process that you really want to start.
Benefits
So let’s turn this around and focus on what you are going to get when you start eating healthier.
The Benefits: this list is really long as the benefits of eating healthy are vast and cover the improvement or even eradication of some ailments. Basically, if you eat healthy, you are providing better nutrition for your body, thus allowing you to think clearer, move more, have more energy, get rid of aches and pains and overall, feel a whole lot better. The sum of this is that healthier foods contain the nutrients your body needs to function well. The benefits really warrant a whole article in itself because there are so many things you can improve by eating healthy. But to list a few: more energy, clearer skin, improving or eliminating diabetes: obesity, fibromyalgia, hypo/hyper thyroid, digestion issues, hypoglycemia, cholesterol, depression and the list goes on.
Expanded Recipe List – It is not about what you don’t eat, it is about what you are going to eat to support your body. You get to try new foods and recipes, think of unique ways to make your favorite dishes. You will also find new foods that you have never tried before and since your taste buds will change there will be foods that you did not like before that you will now love the taste of.
The Gift of Sharing – As you become more educated on healthy eating, you can share this new found knowledge with your friends and family. Invite your friends over for a healthy meal. Talk about what you did to change the recipes to make them healthy. Get your friends involved by creating a “healthy get-together” and rotate where the get together is hosted. Start out with helping your friends get ideas on how to cook healthy. Make it more fun to get together while supporting you and your friends health rather than getting together just to eat.
How to Get Started on Your Diet
More Organized Kitchen Cabinets – The best way to start a new way of eating is by cleaning out the old way of eating. Go through all of your cabinets and your pantry and get rid of the products that support unhealthy eating. If you live with others and don’t have control over all the kitchen space, then set aside a space for just you and make sure that area only contains healthy foods. Make the area special by having it neat, organized, labeled…whatever sets your area off as being different and better than the other areas.
Gradual Change – Make a menu or select a bunch of recipes from cookbooks that are focused on healthy eating. Don’t go to the grocery store without this as it will lead to choose the items that you are used to getting. Integrate these recipes into your weekly meals. If you are used to eating very high fat, high sugar and highly processed foods, you are going to have some challenges in switching because you taste buds are trained to like that food. The best way to not feel deprived is to start out by replacing a few meals a week with healthy alternatives and increasing the number of meals each week. In a few months you should be to eating healthy at least 80 percent of the time. Once you get used to this way of eating, typically you can increase that to 90% on an ongoing basis and you might find that you don’t even like the unhealthy foods anymore because your taste buds will have changed.
Go Shopping – Shopping is an educational field trip. When you are focusing on eating healthy, you have to read labels…our better, purchase foods that don’t even need labels. Those are the best choices. Make a list of the different foods you like. Then research and find an alternative that is healthier. You might really like pizza. What can you do to make it healthier? Make your own for sure. Buy organic cheese or maybe select a cheese that only gets sprinkled on the pizza instead of covering the whole pizza. Chose a sauce with the lowest amount of sugar. Make a crust out of flax, coconut flour or bean flours. Test out different variations to see what you prefer. Add as many vegetables as you would like to your pizzas. If you are a meant lover, thrown some ground chicken, turkey or beef on your pizza…just make sure it is grass feed, contains no antibiotics hormones. There are so many alternatives for unhealthy foods, you would be surprised.
Tell People – Tell everyone around you that you have decided to change the way you eat and you would like their support and assistance. Sometimes you may be met with naysayers. Think about this. What are they saying nay too? Do they not want you to get healthy or are they upset that you are changing the way you eat and they don’t feel they can do it. I know you can do it.
Enjoy the Feeling – You will feel better when you eat healthier. Depending on how zealous you are, will have an impact on how quickly feeling better will be apparent.
– Find a group of people with similar goals. You can find loads of groups on Meet-up.com, in your community or online. If you are following a specific diet methodology, a lot of the times there will be a group program or some type of support and even provide communities. Get a coach. Coaches can support you through a myriad of life changes. You can get a health coach that is experienced in your particular situation or join a group coaching program. You can also ask a friend to join you on your journey. Having some close to you that is working through the same challenges makes it easier for both of you to succeed,
When it comes down to changing the way you eat, you need to just start. Not tomorrow…now! Start in any way you can and be consistent and evolve each week in making better choices. There are so many fast, easy and healthy recipes out there. Don’t feel like you know where to start. You might find what you need right here on AllOverWellness.com but feel free to scan the internet; there are so many great ideas for eating healthy.
Thanks for reading
