Should You Diet? The Ins and Outs of Healthy Eating
By Genevieve Cunningham
No one likes to diet. The thought of restricting your intake or skipping dessert just isn't an encouraging or fun thought. You start to question how badly you want to lose weight, right? It happens to everyone. But what if we're looking at diets all wrong? What if they didn't have to be so restrictive -- so limiting? If you're interested in being as healthy as possible, take a look at what you need to know about diets moving forward.
Is Dieting Necessary?
There's really good news: Dieting, in its traditional sense, isn't necessary at all. But there's a catch. While it's not necessary to diet, it is necessary to eat a healthy menu. The best approach is probably to alter our thinking about the word diet. Instead of thinking of it as a specific plan, think of it as everything that you eat. If you eat junk, that's your diet. If you eat fruits and veggies, that's your diet. Then take this new definition and create a diet that makes your body feel good from the inside out.
Diets to Skip
While it's OK to choose a diet theory to get you started -- something like Paleo or vegetarianism or low carb -- it's not OK to choose something wild. What does this mean? It means if the diet calls for only grapefruits, don't do it. Or if it calls for all meat and no carbs at all. Or if it calls for an extremely restricted menu. Don't fall for the extremes. Focus on creating your own diet of healthy foods, and skip the crazy fads for good.
How to Eat Healthy
So how do we create a healthy diet? First, we can talk to our doctor. Doctors are a wealth of information. They can guide you toward the right foods for your body. After that, focus on learning about nutrition. What foods are good? What foods are bad? Which are in the middle? Then start creating a menu with mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean meats. Start off slowly so as not to bombard yourself, and then allow the diet to grow organically as you learn more. Taking this approach is better since it's more likely to become part of your lifestyle and last the rest of your life.
It's important to eat a healthy diet, but it's not important to diet in terms of restriction. Just be smart. Learn all you can. Get advice. Create a menu of healthy foods that you'll actually eat! With the right approach, you can have the healthiest body, a diet that's top-notch, and you'll never have to think about restriction again.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Brownsville, Tex.