Make healthy eating easier
BAD habits are very hard to break. If you’ve not been eating healthy all your life, it will be very difficult for you to start eating cleaner or start a new diet or meal plan. No matter how badly you want to lose body fat, tone muscles, or gain weight, if your will to eat healthy is not stronger than your desire to achieve your diet goals, then chances are that you will fail.
All the women and men who shared their body transformation stories with us in the last few months, however, have had to make some form of dietary adjustments to attain their fitness goals. We took pointers from them, on how to make the transition to healthy eating easier for you.
Start small
“Build a habit first, worry about results later” — Michelle Jones, lost 40 pounds.
It might be just a small decision to drink some more water or to not choose soda with your lunch, or choose raw veg instead of pasta, but once you make a habit of ditching or choosing a certain food, it becomes second nature to you.
Watch your calories
“I realised that simple things such as not adding butter to sandwiches or switching from juice to tea can really cut back on calories” — Kristen Laing, lost 80 pounds.
Keeping a rough count of the calories you consume each day can help you to ‘budget’ the amount of guilty pleasures you can enjoy, according to your fitness goals. This is an excellent way to constantly learn the foods you enjoy, and make more informed food choices.
Do your own thing“I had to come up with creative ways of making my own granola bars and specific smoothie recipes that I loved” — Julian Lawrence, lost 21 pounds.If you can’t bring yourself to eat the clean stuff, then you can always find creative ways to clean up the things that you do enjoy. Making your own food also gives you greater control over the amount of artificial flavours and preservatives in your meal. Plus, after all that work, are you really going to let it go to waste?
Treat yourself
“One or two times I will eat jerk chicken and steak and eat some Burger King/Wendy’s nuggets or an Island Grill sandwich” — Jamila Pinto, gained muscle mass.
Reward systems work in schools and businesses, so why not your diet? Think of something that you will indulge in only if you have stuck to your healthy diet for a particular period of time, and treat yourself to it. You may even find that after a while your unhealthy reward doesn’t even appeal to you anymore.
Just eat less
“I reduced the amount of dairy and sugar in my diet significantly and focused on moderating the amount of food that I ate” —Crystal Luke, lost 15 pounds.
If you’re having a hard time changing what you eat, then it might be a bit easier to focus on how much you eat. This means eating the same foods you normally do, but just less at each sitting. So instead of four dumplings for dinner, try three.
Have you managed to transform your body through weight gain or weight loss? Want to share your story with us? E-mail clarkep@jamaicaobserver. com
