Good nutrition isn’t all bad creating healthy eating habits

When I meet people for the first time and they find out I am a dietitian, there are often two types of responses. Some people are sincerely very interested in what I do and inevitably start fishing for answers to some of their own burning nutrition questions. I also meet a fair number of people who literally shut down at the mere thought of healthy eating.

I have always curious about why some people are so repelled by the idea of dietitians and the field of nutrition in general.

Perhaps it is because the word dietitian contains the word “diet” and also the word “die” both often perceived as very negative. Or is it because the diet industry and many so-called health professionals have them believing that in order to be healthy, food must taste awful, be part of some special product or be difficult to prepare? Or could it be that they feel guilty that this is one area of their lives they value tremendously but can’t seem to figure out?

Regardless of the reason, if you have been repelled by the field of nutrition, I would like to challenge you to think a bit differently about what “healthy eating” is all about.

Get over getting it right

If you have felt in the past that healthy eating is about deprivation, realize that you don’t have to be perfect. In fact, I like to say that “imperfect is perfect.” Get over getting it right and move to a philosophy of eating just a little bit better. Challenge the stubborn voice in your head that tells you, “Go big, or go home,” because inevitably trying to make too much change will result in “Go big, and go home.” Instead, choose flexible nutrition goals that cause you to work a little bit on your food choices but are not absolute.

For example, if you drink lots of alcohol and are looking for strategies to help you reduce intake, you might consider setting a target number of drinks for a typical work week coupled with permission to take a vacation from this during the playoff hockey season and your summer holidays.

When you avoid “all or none” thinking, you can’t lose. You can still choose to get healthier without sacrificing social fun and the amazing taste of sugar, fat and salt (since even dietitians know these really do taste good).

Believe in learning vs. failing

Tried making a nutritional change and found that you didn’t stick with it? Don’t worry about it; you didn’t fail. You just learned a valuable lesson สมัคร ufabet about yourself. A single strategy won’t work 100 per cent of the time, but if it works occasionally, it is still useful. Think of having a healthy eating tool kit with a variety of tools that will be useful at different occasions.

For example, if you usually skip lunch but remember to pack your lunch twice this week, celebrate the fact That your strategy worked two out of five times and work on devising different tools for the other three workdays.

If you bought a box of 100-calorie chocolate bars in order. To help you reduce your daily chocolate fix to a smaller portion. But ended up eating. Whole box in one sitting, you learned something about yourself. You didn’t fail. You learned that having the bars in the house is a trigger for wanting to eat them all at once. Take this information and try another strategy until you stumble upon something that makes sense.

Repeat

Trying something new and getting into a healthy eating groove takes time and patience. Repetition is needed to develop any new habit, so cut yourself some slack and remember. That anything new feels awkward until you get into the habit.

The first time you try adding a piece of fruit to your usual breakfast. Of toast and peanut butter won’t feel just right. How could it when you have never done it before? But after you have repeated this new awkward habit over time, it becomes second nature. Acknowledge that change, no matter how small, is hard.