Over all I would say that I live a healthy lifestyle. And when I say healthy lifestyle I mean
physically, nutritionally, mentally, and spiritually. For me, this is an ever evolving process,
something that I am constantly working on.
I am always trying to push myself to be a better me. If I am not making
goals for myself and following through on them then I get anxiety and I just
stress out. I am the type of person that
once I put my mind to accomplishing something I will work on it until
its done and then I have a feeling of contentment, but it doesn’t last long
because I feel like there is always something to work on to better myself. I feel like life is an amazing journey where
we are her to learn, make mistakes, grow and just try to be the best version of
ourselves. There has always been a part
of me, even at a young age that just pushed me to go outside of my comfort
level. The older I get the more confident I get in my own skin. I think some things just come with age and
growth.
The moment I realized I was pregnant with my first child I
knew that I wanted to learn more about nutrition. While I was working out all of the time and
felt good about myself I really didn’t know a thing about how to eat right. It really worried me and weighed heavily on
my mind and so not long after she was born I started working on my degree in
nutrition and ever since then I have been changing my eating habits for the
better. While I am not perfect, nor am I
trying to be perfect, I have come a long way and have learned a lot. Being healthy is something that is very
important to me and something that I am very passionate about. I truly believe that my body is a temple and
work very hard at protecting it.
Changing eating habits is not easy. It is not something that
just happens overnight. When you think about it, when you change your eating
habits you are in a way changing a part of you.
A part of you that is familiar and comfortable. There are many reasons that we eat the way
that we do. We turn to food when we are
happy, sad, depressed, bored, the list can go on and on. Food is the centerpiece for holidays,
birthdays, family gatherings, and celebrations.
I get that changing your diet is hard and at times seems impossible, but
with a little love for yourself and a lot of will power it can be done.
The first thing that I did to change my eating habits was to
take small steps and set
goals. Don’t overwhelm
yourself. I have never heard of anyone
that went from eating out all the time, eating processed foods, and consuming
lots of sugar to just start eating healthy the next day and staying that way. If
I give up something cold turkey, I think about it all the time and it just makes
me want it even more. I used to a drink pop every day so I set my goal to quit
drinking pop all of the time and to stop relying on it to get me going. In
order to break this habit I started with small steps. I started out only letting myself have it
every other day, then every two and so on, until my craving went away and I
didn’t rely on it anymore. When I learned about how trans fats/hydrogenated
oils are bad for you I decided that was going to be my first thing to take out
of my diet. My first goal was to omit
trans fats out of my diet. At times it
was frustrating because that meant I had to give up a lot of foods that I
loved. It was overwhelming because it
meant that I had to start cooking meals and I really don’t like to cook. Cooking is now growing on me but it did take
some time to get there. Once I was feeling good about not eating trans fats I
started omitting artificial colors and flavors from my diet. Each time I accomplished my goal I would set
another goal. Right now I am currently
working on my sugar intake and portion control.
These are hard for me because I have a huge sweet tooth and tend to go
between long periods of time without eating so when I do eat I overeat.
Please! Don’t kid yourself with Fad diets! I don’t want to offend anyone and if you
had a fad diet that you loved and it worked great! But the majorities of people
fail when it comes to fad diets and gain their weight back or even gain more. I
never, ever, ever, ever, diet and never will. Fad Diets tend to take away from
your diet such as, carbohydrates, fats, or proteins. The recommended intake for
adults is 45% to 65% of their calories from carbohydrates, 20% to 35% from fat,
and 10% to 35% from protein plus, all of your vitamins and minerals. In our
house we eat whole foods diet, meaning foods that come as natural as possible
and are not processed. I am not big on
calorie counting and do not stress on it.
What does concern me is what I am actually putting into my body, so I
always read what is in the ingredients. My diet basically consists of lean
meats, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. One of
my favorite books called A Whole Foods Primer by Beatrice Tum Hunter, explains
what it means to eat whole foods and gives instruction on how to eat a whole
food diet. The more I read about healthy nutrition and how food can either help
us or harm us, makes eating healthy easier for me.
Something
that really helps is not bringing in junk food into the
home. If
you have junk food in the home then that is what will be eaten over anything
healthy. The rule is, if you want junk
food leave your house and go get it.
There have been many times when I am bored and go through the cupboards
trying to find chocolate or something unhealthy, well if it is not there I
can’t eat it and most of the time I will not go out and buy it. I have also noticed a big difference when it
comes to my children. They are eating more fruits and vegetables and eat better
at meal times. At first I was a little
nervous about not having graham crackers and gold fish around because I was
scared of tantrums but it really wasn’t that bad. I was actually harder for our two year old
because he loved eating graham crackers before bed. He is our pickiest eater and honestly I just
wanted him to eat anything. But after a few days and a few tears he realized
that we just don’t have any and he started to eat what we did have. Now he asks for apples with peanut butter or
yogurt. He is even getting more daring
and trying new foods.
A
quote from Jim Rohn that comes to mind is “If you change,
everything will change.” Just imagine how you will feel about
yourself if you changed your diet for the better. Imagine the confidence you will have in
yourself once you conquered your goals. Changing my diet has helped me in many
ways. I have lots of energy and get more
things done. I don’t rely on caffeine to get me through the day, even if I do
not get a good night’s sleep. I feel good and hardly get sick. I have confidence in the way I look. And most
importantly I know that I am being a great influence for my children. I can already see the impact that I have on
them. They know at a young age how food
affects their bodies and want to be healthy.
This change for me was hard and took time and will power but it was defiantly
worth it.
