The healthiest way to lose weight is neither crash diets nor bursts of exercise. The body likes slow changes in terms of food and exercise.
For example, someone who hasn't exercised for years shouldn't rush into running miles a day or pounding the treadmill. Not only will the struggle to do so leave you feeling disheartened and not so motivated, you're also far more likely to injure yourself and set your fitness levels back further.
The same goes for people who suddenly start starving themselves. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food 'allowed' can lead you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.
Most of us probably want to eat healthier. It's not as hard as you think, in fact, it can be pretty easy. Here are seven super-easy tips that anyone can implement:
1. Don’t follow a diet. Most diets aren’t healthy. Eating healthy doesn’t include rigid rules or evil perfection. Besides this, diets only last for a short amount of time and when the diet is over you will gain weight again. Find a way to eat healthy that you can embrace as a lifestyle.
2. Realize that it is not only what you eat, but also the amount you eat that counts. You can use smaller plates to manipulate the eye and stomach into believing you are eating more than you actually are.
3. Eat slowly. We all heard it before without really knowing why. It takes twenty minutes from eating your first bite until you can feel any kind of fullness.
4. Eat to nourish your body, not to fill it. Be aware of what you eat. The food we eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.
5. Always take the time to sit down and eat. Pay attention to what you are eating. Examine the different tastes and textures of the food in your mouth. Try localizing the flavors and enjoy chewing. Honor and enjoy what you eat.
6. Find a motivation that works for you. It needs to come from you. No guru or expert can make you eat healthier if your motivation doesn’t come from within.
7. Try not to eat or buy food when you are tired or stressed. The lack of mental energy inclines you to choose unhealthier foods.
Sarah Kuretzky, MA, CPT, CHHC
