April 21, 2023
Here you are living your life as best you can. Of course some days are better than others, but we pretty much tend to fall into a routine.
Your diet is a reflection of your lifestyle. As you go about your busy life, your diet may gradually and very subtly change. You may not even feel it happening.
Did you ever wake up one day and reach for a favorite dress or that great-fitting suit you haven’t worn in a while and see that those once perfect fits are now a little off? Sometimes changes in eating habits happen without realizing it. Maybe you developed some “shortcuts” throughout the day to help fit everything in and your diet may have suffered a bit. Hopefully, the journaling is helping you realize what you thought you were doing versus what you actually are doing.
My goal is to help you ease into a nutritionally sound, healthy diet without too much drama.
The “ains” I am referring to are: attain, sustain and maintain. Take a good look at your current diet. To attain one that is nutritionally sound, make sure you’re consuming carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Eliminating any of these macronutrients will counteract your pursuit of good health. (I will be getting into this more in future blogs). Your diet needs to sustain your life. Food is energy. Energy propels us to get through our day. You need to be able to maintain a healthy diet over your life span. This brings us to the ain’ts. (please forgive my grammar but “ain’t” really works here). There are so many poor diets out there that make a lot of strong promises. Not all plans are all bad, but most are not good for long-term sustainability. These are what I refer to as the ain’ts. Anything that sounds too extreme in one direction or another (like only eat protein or lose 50 pounds in 6 days but still eat whatever you want), I warn you to proceed with caution (or better yet, don’t proceed at all). As I mentioned earlier, your diet reflects your lifestyle. Engaging in a poorly designed nutritional plan will not benefit you in the long run. A short-term fix is not the answer to long term good health, as tempting as the projected outcomes may seem, especially since those outcomes probably won’t last. It can take years sometimes to see the effects of poor nutritional intake. By the time you can physically see the effects, the internal damage may be irrevocable. Put in the time to balance your diet as well as you try to balance your life. It’s all connected. Add energy to your life by adding color to your plate. (you know I am not talking about all those deliciously colored gummy candies. LOL). Do the prep work ahead of time. Make time to do it right for you and those you care about (bad diet equals bad mood every time. Trust me on this. LOL).
ATTAIN a nutritionally sound diet that will SUSTAIN your life so you can MAINTAIN good health. Complex carbs, lean sources of protein, and unsaturated fats are all necessary. Don’t buy into the hype or false promises that state otherwise. You need to put in the work to make a healthy diet work for you. Concentrate on making one change at a time.
