Healthy eating for weightloss does not have to be difficult but it may initially take some getting used to as anything new does. Think back to your first job…you had to be trained, it took time to get into the groove of it but eventually you did and then it just became automatic.
I don’t care for the term ‘diet’. To me a diet is something you do temporarily to achieve a specific outcome that is also temporary. For instance dieting to make a weight class in sport. In bodybuilding you diet to reveal the muscle you have spent umpteen hours building, but you don’t retain that level of leanness forever. So let me emphasis what I’m talking about in this post is not a temporary fix, it’s a way of eating that you sustain for life.
At this point I’m wondering how many of you put your curser on the little X at the top of this page and clicked! Who would want to deprive themselves of all the good things in life F O R E V E R ?!!
The good news is for those of you who didn’t exit this page…it isn’t about deprivation. I am not suggesting you eliminate anything in your eating at all. Although I do highly recommend eating natural foods that are as close to their original form as possible.
There is nothing difficult about healthy eating at all, it really comes down to being prepared, making good choices and being consistent. But you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge…I think Dr. Phil said that! And it’s true, if you are eating a lot of fat and/or sugar in your meals or snacks and you haven’t equated those choices to the result on the scale or in how you feel moving around in your day, then you will struggle with seeing changes. You need to get real with where you’re AT before you can get to where you want to BE.
So start where you are by noticing and recording everything you eat for a week or two. Take pictures with your phone if you’d like. Then go through them and ask yourself how you can make changes that would make those meals healthier.
The majority of us need three meals per day which contain a combination of protein, carbohydrate and a little bit of fat, with each of these being of the highest quality possible. Do your meals reflect that as a basic minimum?? If not, start there and work on putting each meal together with that guideline in mind then work on obtaining three meals per day consistently. For most of us this process will take at least a couple months. Just remember consistency does not mean perfection, it means implementing your new routine a good majority of the time and getting back on track quickly when you deviate from your new routine. It is also about being honest with yourself about how many times you are allowing yourself to deviate.
To reiterate; eating healthy for weightloss doesn’t have to be complicated…
- start where you are with a record of your current routine.
- notice and acknowledge changes that you could make to improve.
- work towards building consistency in implementing those changes.
- keep it simple; 3 meals/day consisting of a high quality protein, carbohydrate and fat.
- be patient; give yourself a couple months to establish this new routine.
- be kind; if you deviate get back on track quickly, beating yourself up is wasted energy!
Your body is the vehicle you are getting around life in, treat it well and feed it well!