Healthy eating is something that a lot of people dismiss quickly enough without putting in a great deal of effort. They’ve tried salads, they don’t like them so they give up; simple as that. But it doesn’t have to be like this. I firmly believe that anybody can be healthy and still eat “bad” food in moderation (and stay sane). I believe this because I used to eat horribly – and I mean we’re talking no vegetables in sight and a diet of sugar and fat – and yet today I eat incredibly clean and am happy to do it. But even as I write this, a little after Easter and having eaten plenty of chocolate over the past week or so, I am not worried about falling off the wagon and going back to my old ways at all. Follow these steps and maybe you can do the same.
1. Learn to cook a little.
All too often, unhealthy diets stem from a laziness in the kitchen. It’s so much easier to pop down to McDonald’s than it is to cook up a healthy meal, so we all do it. But the truth is, homecooking food is often far better than what you buy at a restaurant and always better than fast food. I mean, we’re not talking Michelin star here but you should take the time to learn a little about food. For me, discovering the joys of Gordon Ramsay was a pivotal moment for me as I would copy salads of his, fall in love with them, and then cook them over and over. Then I would look at ways professional chefs add flavour to vegetables and meats etc and start experimenting. Healthy food quickly became exciting.
2. Don’t diet.
A diet is a temporary thing. From day one you restrict the foods you love and immediately you crave them purely because you can’t have it and you doom yourself to failure. The best method of transitioning into a healthy eater that i have found is actually the opposite: incorporate more into your diet. Before have that danish for breakfast, cook up some scrambled eggs first (healthy eggs, mind, don’t go adding a block of butter to them) and decide after you’ve eaten if you still want the danish. If you do, you may find that you can only finish half. You want to look at each individual meal, take something unhealthy from it and make it healthy. Do it gradually, which leads to my next point…
3. Don’t rush.
A good body is often attached to some form of timer. You need to get in shape before the summer, say, or you need to fit into that size 10 for the wedding, but looking at fitness in this way is a bad idea. Sure, you can lose a huge amount of weight and fast, but if you make that drastic switch so suddenly the chances are you’ll snap back to your old ways and harder than ever. Make the changes slowly and carefully, understanding that it has taken you a while to look as you are now, it’ll take a while to undo the damage. It’s a bit of tough love, but it’s the truth nonetheless. Patience is key and will lead to more lasting habits.
4. Focus on yourself.
You may think this an obvious one, but you may actually make this mistake without even realising it. You compare yourself to those around you. A workmate has lost 2 stone, she’s looking good and you want a bit of that. It turns into a kind of competition and maybe your results come a little slower than hers and suddenly you’ve lost a stone but it isn’t good enough because she’s lost 3. Or you go on instagram and are constantly looking at the models. The truth of the matter here is that these people do this for a living. To compare yourself to these people is unfair because they live and breath fitness. They cannot slip up even a little because their income may depend on it, so unless you are yourself planning to go down that route then it is a pointless exercise. You can enjoy your food, and as long as the results are coming in then progress is being made, regardless of how slow.
Just keep at it and enjoy the process. You can do it if you just be patient, and in a year’s time you will look back on a picture of yourself and be thankful you made those decisions. If you want more tips check out an earlier blog post of mine “6 habits that helped me get lean.”
The Writer's Block 