WHAT IS THE PERFECT DIET PLAN? PART II

In PART I we talked about all of the different ideas and thoughts about meal or diet plans that are coming and going each year.  This part, PART II, is going to be about how you can change your life through healthier habits without having to pay a company or nutritionist to do so for you.

First though, I want to cover some important logic:

To make this very simple I am going to say, most of the diet plans mentioned in PART I have something wrong with them.  American’s eating habits, in general, are very poor.  We live in a world where we want to eat on the run and we want to eat what “tastes good.”  Slowly over time we have lowered our nutrition standards and what we now have is a result of a compilation of these lowered standards.  So, really any eating plan you do will get you results because anything is better than the fast food diet that is so common in today’s world.  Now, rather than rant about all of these poor habits and get nowhere, let’s focus on how to change this. 

Some food for thought (no pun intended): if I asked you to pour sugar or salt down the gas tank of your car, would you?  Most likely your response would be “Hell no, why would I do that?”  That sounds ridiculous, right?  Well we know that it is bad for our cars and by no means do we want to ruin our car.  Why then, knowing also what is bad for our bodies, are we willing to eat it anyway?  Are we therefore saying our vehicle is more important than our body? 

“But eating healthy is expensive!”  I agree completely, but so is gasoline.  We are willing to fill our gas tanks and continue driving despite the rise in prices, so why then are we worried about the price of healthy food?  See below…

Logical solution (maybe too logical for some):  

1. Buy a bike
2. Save money on gas
3. Use saved money from gas to buy healthier food
4. Between the bike and better food you become a much healthier person

Now all of these things do us no good if we can’t stick becoming a healthier individual.  So then let’s talk about how realistically we can do this…

Much like we slowly lowered our nutritional standards over time, I have found that the best way to re-gain control of our lives and what we eat is by using the same formula that got us to the point at which we currently are.  If we try to quit eating unhealthy food and make the switch to only healthy food all at once, we are set up for failure.  Like we slowly lowered our standards of eating over time, the simplest way to raise the standard is by doing it slowly over time.  The easiest way is by introducing one new healthy habit at a time.  If you stick to this one habit for a week or even two weeks prior to introducing a new habit you are, over the course of time, more likely to integrate these into your lifestyle.  So say for instance, your first habit might be simply drinking more water on a daily basis.  If the goal is to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day (example: if you weigh 200 lbs you would drink 100 oz of water per day).  If you do this for a week and then introduce a new habit each week, by the end of a one year period you will have introduced more than 50 new habits.  At that point you are more likely to stay with these habits and also see the results you have been longing for.

So to finish this article I am going to leave you with a few healthy habits that you could introduce to yourself that can change your life.  These are broad topics that can be broken down into smaller step-by-step habits which may be necessary for sticking with each of them.

• Drinking more water on a daily basis (half of your body weight in ounces)
• Eat more fruits and vegetables (try to get one serving of both a fruit and vegetable with each meal)
• Eat lean meat only (chicken, fish, lean red meat)
• Eliminate sugared beverages from your diet (this may come in small steps as followed)
• Switch from regular soda to diet
• Cut the amount you drink in half each week until you are at 0
• Slowly eliminate processed foods from your diet (choose whole foods over processed)
• Find a good quality nutritional shake to incorporate into you daily routine
• Get more sleep each night (ideally 7-9 hours)
• Get a minimum of 3 workouts in per week

These all seem like simple things you can do, but realistically these are all lacking in most people’s lives.  If you can change these simple things and continually strive to incorporate more habits like this, you will both look and feel better!

If you are interested in some guidance along the lines of lifestyle habits, nutrition, and fitness, stop in and see us at Warrior Performance Gym so you can see how we can help you reach your goals.

-Jon

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