Eating Healthy as a Lifestyle Choice

Being on a diet, one that restricts you to bland food and makes you feel like you’re suffering, is probably not the best choice you can make to start off with living a healthy lifestyle. Once you take the joy out of anything, you don't want to continue with it for too long. This applies to everything in life as well, not just diets.

Diets that make your eating habits take an about turn are always doomed to failure, as they might work in the short term but you will always, always fall off them.

Instead, as I'm sure you have heard this at least one more time elsewhere, don’t go on a diet — go for a healthy lifestyle change instead. That means, make changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life.

5 Ways to Lead a Healthy Lifestyle

Live Healthy!

Here are some simple lifestyle changes you can make and keep in your diet:

1. Eat "whole" - Substitute whole grains for refined carbs. Stop eating white bread and eat whole grain bread (note that wheat bread and whole grain bread are different – the first uses enriched wheat flour, which is refined, and the second uses whole grain flour, which isn’t). Eat whole grain pasta instead of regular pasta. Eat brown rice instead of white. Whole grain bagels instead of regular. You get the idea. Whole grains are much healthier — more nutrients, slower to digest, more fiber. Refined carbs offer nearly no nutrition in exchange for lots of calories. And after a little while, you won’t want to go back — whole grains taste better and are more satisfying.
2. Fruits and veggies - Even though your mother told you to eat your fruits and vegetables, you probably did not follow her advice into your adult years. But it’s an easy change to make — just stock up on them every week when you go shopping, and snack on them throughout the day. Have berries for breakfast. Snack on fruits at your office. Eat raw or steamed veggies with lunch and dinner. Fruits are great as desserts (juicy pears yum!) or as a snack at anytime of the day. Fruits and veggies not only provide nutrients and fiber, but they fill you up without giving you too much calories and fat.
3. Lean meats - Switching beef for lean chicken or turkey is an easy adjustment. No matter how much you say you like red meat, it’s killing you! Even better, substitute the protein from meat with the protein from beans, soy or even whole grains. It might be hard to make this change so do this one steadily. Start with once a week and see how it goes.
4. Watch your sweet tooth - Cutting back on sweets can be very difficult. I used to eat a whole lot of cookies, cakes, brownies...oh God! the temptation to wean yourself off sugar is probably the hardest thing you can do. The solution you need here is to follow steps 1 and 2 to the best of your ability.
5. Cheat - What?! All that effort and you want me to just throw it all away and gorge myself?! No, not exactly gorge but treat yourself for a job well done, for ONE day only. Let it be once a week, once a fortnight or once a month. You'll feel better and it will give you a sense of accomplishment. Just remember to set yourself back on track the following day.

If you implement these changes one at a time, slowly and over a long period of time you will start seeing results. Trying to stop everything you were used to tomorrow and starting a new way of life will not work. You will have a difficult time, suffer, and fail within a few weeks or even days!

Post  inspired by Zen Habits.

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