Changing and improving your eating
habits
Changing your eating habits.
We are bombarded with advertisements pushing delicious
looking, fat filled, and obesity producing food in our faces
every single day.
We hear it on the radio; see it on TV and
on billboards and even in newspapers.
We go on a diet and
try to totally turn our eating habits around. We go from
eating hamburgers, French fries, pizza, hot dogs, and other
junk to eating lettuce and drinking water.
If we are really
disciplined we make it a week or so. But like most people,
we are back to our old habits within days.
The change is
just too drastic and makes it next to impossible for us to
stick to our diets.
I have slowly improved my eating habits over the years. I
have done this in a way that has been painless to me and has
replaced bad diet choices with good eating habits.
Of
course, before any diet changes you should consult your
physician.
I was not in any immediate health danger and
therefore did not need to immediately change my habits. What
follows is not a “how to” article but more of an article on
how I changed my eating habits over time.
There was a time in my life when I received my daily intake
from fast food restaurants. I was in a sales position and on
the road most of the time.
I would have the burger, fries
and coke combo from a different fast food joint every day. I
was much younger then and blessed with a decent metabolism
so I did not see much negative effect from all of the
unhealthy eating.
It was upon my taking a physical for
another job that I discovered my cholesterol was not in a
good range. I was way too young for something like this to
happen and I knew that I must change my ways.
I attempted to
totally overhaul my eating habits in one day. I would do
well for awhile and then go back to my old ways. I had made
improvements but they were not ingrained good habits like I
was hoping for.
Upon much reflection I decided to go a
little easier on myself. I decided to start substituting
food choices one by one until they became habit.
My first
substitution was with my beverage choice. Instead of having
the cola I would order water. It was kind of a mental reward
system for me. I would eat the burger and fries guilt free
as long as I drank water instead of cola. I know that you
are probably thinking “how can you eat a burger and fries
guilt free?”.
I could do this guilt free because I knew that
it was just a stage in my long term diet plan. I chose water
as my first diet choice because it came easy for me. It
required very little discipline on my part.
After a month or
so, drinking water with a meal became second nature to me. It
was no longer a sacrifice; it was a habit.
After that came the French fries. I substituted the French
fries with a plain baked potato. Burger diet now consisted
of a burger, plain baked potato and water.
I actually
started enjoying the baked potato rather quickly. They are
much tastier than grease drowned fries.
You can see where I
am going with this. If you have been trying to lose weight
for any time now, you know what a good food is and what a
bad food is. You will know where and what to substitute.
I
continued these substitutions and still do to this day. Now
I am more aware of an unhealthy habit starting. I am very
conscious of what I eat. Some of the great things about
these diet choices are that they became habits; the desire
for the unhealthy foods was replaced with a desire for
healthy foods.
Nowadays I rarely eat out. I have lost my
taste for such foods.
Some of my diet substitutions:
Water for Cola, Baked potato for Fries, Whole Wheat for
white bread, Soy Milk for cow’s milk, pretzels for chips,
salads for desserts, Meal replacement shake for cereal, and
the list goes on and on.
Habits are built by doing something over and over. I have
read it takes around 30 days to establish a habit. Do not
stop your substitutions with the foods you eat….carry it
over to other parts of your life. For example, substitute
the elevator with the stairs, substitute the car with a
bicycle, give up the evening news and replace it with a
walk.
Discouragement comes when we feel overwhelmed and want
results yesterday. Take your time, develop habits, and enjoy
a leaner healthier body!
I wish for you the best of health,
Bill
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