THE odds are, your habits and way of life are killing you.

To move away from health risks, you need to change your lifestyle and make a routine of your new choices. You have heard people who have all the answers: “It’s simple. Just eat less, eat naturally, cut out the bad foods and exercise more, and you will get slim and healthy.

This outlook is oversimplified and does not take into consideration habituations and all the intricate issues of protein, caloric, micronutrient, antioxidant, pre and probiotic requirements.

So many people don’t know enough about nutrition and are being confused by misinformation, or are stuck in their own arguments such as:

• Look how many people eat this or that and nothing is wrong with them;

• I don’t weigh; when I lost weight before I just made small changes and went on how I felt and looked in the mirror;

• I don’t eat those things (seeds, berries, probiotic foods such as yoghurt, sauerkraut); I never did and never will;

• My supermarket doesn’t sell those foods;

• I don’t eat badly;

• I avoid all the things people say you shouldn’t have;

• I don’t have the time to prepare;

• I have a family and they have to eat differently;

• My husband doesn’t think I need to change anything;

• I know what I should eat and don’t need help;

• No matter what I do, nothing works.

All the time, becoming less and less healthy, and perhaps heavier and heavier and more at risk of heading for a ‘wellness cliff’.

Doing the same things and expecting a different outcome or just wishing for better someday is foolish — it’s like stuffing your feet into a shoe two sizes smaller, day after day for years, and wondering why your feet hurt.

If you truly expect to change, you must put energy into changing your old sickness-building habituations and actively replace them with an intelligent, moderate, balanced, planned, committed, and healthy lifestyle.

Here are 10 things you must do to change negative habits:

Throw away much of what you hold dear

Old choices and old habits gave you your old body and old health probabilities. New smarter choices will give you new health potentials.

Build new habits

Get help if you don’t know what to do or if you are not sure you can do it alone.

Habits can be as powerful as addictions, and the wrong habits can be damaging and deadly.

Embrace

Have a range of vegetables, nuts, fruits, berries, seeds, legumes, and probiotic foods. It’s time to let go of what you think you like, and think you don’t like.

Choose a supermarket which sells a variety of whole grains, probiotic foods, natural foods, range of nuts, legumes, vegetables, and berries.

Eat almost only home-made foods

Build your diet on eating home-prepared foods at least six out of seven days per week. Studies have proven that eating from the road is damaging.

Have intelligent, home-made meals — not commercial foods. Eating out more than one day per week, and on special occasions, is shooting your health goals in the knees.

Commercial foods are over-enhanced and designed to keep you coming back. Whether they are processed or packaged, fast foods or from your favourite salad restaurant, it is all the same. Make it yourself; get help to make it simple.

Learn to appreciate moderate servings

Eat more moderately than you ever imagined. It is proven that excess calories kill and controlled calories save lives.

However, alarmingly, research has shown that most of us can’t control our own moderate eating. When asked to evaluate ourselves we are incapable of accurately judging our choices.

Essentially, we lie to ourselves and others about foods that we enjoy. And yes, you may not believe so, but the chances are that’s true for you, so you probably need help and answerability to stay on track.

Consciously research and partake in a balanced diet

I don’t just mean eat proteins balanced with high-fibre carbs and eat your veggies.

• Eat a spectrum of vegetables, fruits and berries of different colours. Not even nature sticks to one food. Foods are seasonal and force us animals to partake in a range. If you were living in the wild, as your ancestors did for many thousands of years, you would be forced to eat a variety of fruits, berries, nuts, and legumes.

• Eat some foods preserved by natural fermentation (probiotic foods), as your ancestors also did or they may have died from starvation.

• Don’t let convenience, childhood preferences and dislikes take from your quality of life. Get wisely adventurous and live greater.

Make meal planning a habit

You live in a society where food marketing, commercialism and confusion run abound. Everything that will make you ill is ubiquitous, but information confusion works against public health. It appears that many people live a long life eating commercial foods, but as with the cigarette industry, the lucky ones live long enough to make it seem liveable and the dead ones don’t speak.

You are closer to an addict than you imagine, and if you don’t plan ahead and keep your household clear of “infectious” food options, you will falter. Plan, purchase, prepare, and partake of your healthy efforts.

You have to remain committed

Avoid distractions, temptations and spiralling into old or negative habituations. Commit to a support system, balanced meal planning, and preparation to pull you back onto your path towards healthy living.

Recognise that the food industry is not your friend

The current food industry is the equivalent of the tobacco industry’s 1950s-1970s approach — making claims that their product is good for you while spreading disinformation, ‘You are not fat because of our products, but because you don’t exercise enough’.

The reality is the medications are good enough to keep the tougher customers suffering for years and buying more of their products, while giving the illusion that their products can’t be all bad — a real win-win for the pharmaceutical and commercial food industries.

Change

Stop fighting the change. You either feel it or it has been made clear through your physician, the mirror, the scale, aches, pains, or weaknesses that something you have been doing is wrong.

Make a real change. Start with little changes which parallel your life. Cut out what we all know is hurting us — refined flour and sugar products and excessive alcohol.

Then, move onto managing your portions. More calories are almost as deadly as no calories.

Finally, adjust your eating times and increase your probiotic foods and micronutrients. Do the right thing for you and your loved ones. You can do it. Many have, and if you need support, it is here.

Stop fooling around. Nothing is more valuable than your wellness. You are worth more than you think, more than your habits, more than your job. Whatever you do, change and live.

Fitz-George Rattray is the director of Intekai Academy, which is focused on helping people live a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and weight management. If you are interested in losing weight or living a healthier lifestyle, give them a call at 876-863-5923, or visit their website at intekaiacademy.org.