Does healthy living seem more complicated than it should be?
When I’m not working on Health Kismet I sometimes do nutrition outreach work in Florida.
This past weekend I was taking a tour through a grocery store helping people read labels and make the best food choices.
It ended up being more complicated than I thought it’d be, and there were more than a few times when I was caught not knowing what to say, which is unusual.
So it got me thinking about what I’d tell someone who was beginning to think about eating right for the first time and didn’t know where to begin.
In my opinion loading people up with different diet regimens and nutrition facts is a bad idea. Leads you astray and makes it less likely you’ll stick with it in the long run.
Who wants to always live by strict rules?
Especially when it comes to something as fun as eating.
So here are my 10 Thoughts to Make Healthy Living Easy
1). Understand that the utility derived from indulgent foods quickly goes down after the first few bites.
2). Throwing food away is a lesser sin than digesting something that’s bad for you. Better to waste landfill space than your own well being.
3). Focus on taste and quality of ingredients first.
4). Don’t focus on calories and other easily quantified metrics like GI or level of carbs. Eventually they’ll all miss the point if you follow them too closely.
5). Learn how to cook at least 5 different meals before you decide to go on a diet.
6). Learn what vegetables you like to eat before you go on your diet.
7). When you decide to change your eating regime, focus on unprocessed foods that are fresh moreso than being vegan, vegetarian, paleo, macrobiotic, etc.
8). Pick up an exercise at the same time, you’ll see results quicker and be more likely to stick with it.
9). Eat right by yourself so you can afford to eat wrong when other people are around.
10). Either join a cooking group or team sport as you begin so you’ll have friends to work with. Make especially sure that they’re at the same level you’re at. It’s no fun seeing someone run circles around you.
Thoughts?
What would you add?
Health Kismet Blog 
“Learn how to cook at least 5 different meals before you decide to go on a diet.” is the best tip. I had a friend that wanted to start a diet but didn`t really know what type of stuff to cook or how. He spent about a week learning a few different dishes and it helped a lot.
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Thanks, Tony. I agree that getting a good handle on cooking healthy meals is essential to eating right. You just can’t (and shouldn’t) squelch on taste. It can only last for so long.
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I have had this problem myself in the past and still see friends and loved ones struggle with it today. I was full of motivation to improve my life so I went out and bought the first diet books I saw(or ones advertised on tv or magazines) and jumped right in without much preparation. After a week or so of obsessively counting calories, reading pages and pages of recipes I had never tried before and several trips to the local grocery store… motivation starts to wean. Unfortunately when I didn’t see significant weight loss within a few days, my motivation would be taken over by doubt and feelings of failure and I would give up and usually end up right back where I started or worse. It took more than a week, several weeks or even several months for me to get the way I was so it only makes since that it would take a while to reverse it all as well. It’s a lot easier to make major diet and lifestyle changes in baby steps and you are more likely to stick with it for the long run. It also makes a huge difference if you take the time to properly educate yourself on HOW to change your diet and avoid all the “fad diets” that are out there to make money off those looking for help. Good information is out there and this blog is a perfect place to start!
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