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Need To Change Your Diet? Then Take Charge!
David Junno Psy.D.
Many of us have needed to make changes in our diets to improve
our health. But how do we do this when there is often junk food
around, when many of the meals our families or we eat are not on
our diet, when there are social events with many high fat foods?
The answer- take charge!
As nice as it might be, we cannot expect others to start our
diets for us. If we are committed to changing our eating habits,
we need to take charge of what we eat. This cannot be done with
half way measures. To be successful we need to make a total
effort.
Preparation is everything!
If we were going to take a long journey in a foreign country,
we would put a great deal of effort into planning. We would find
out about the climate to know what would need to bring with us.
We would try to anticipate the potential problems we might run
into. We would want information on the language, the currency,
the best sites to see, the places to avoid. We would talk to
people who have been there, read up on it, study travel sites.
We would do everything possible to prepare ourselves.
We need to take the same approach with dieting. We can not just
declare one day we are going to start eating better and just
assume it will happen. We need to research what foods we need
to eat. We need to find out what foods we should avoid. We
need to plan for how we are going to have the food we need
ahead of time. We need to anticipate obstacles and prepare
for them.
My story.
When I was faced with needing to change my diet to lower my
cholesterol, I first read up on cholesterol and how diet
affected it. Once I realized what types of foods I could eat
and which I needed to avoid, I started collecting recipes that
used the right ingredients.Knowing that my diet would affect
my family, I made plans to address the difficulties.
First I took charge of planning meals based on the recipes I
knew were on my diet. I took charge of making the shopping
lists, so I knew the foods I needed would be available. I
anticipated that there would be times when my family might
want to have a high fat food for dinner, so I planned low
fat alternatives that I could have available as leftovers or
could easily make in a pinch.
I knew that on social occasions where people were bringing
food, I would need to bring a main dish, within my dietary
restrictions, so I could join in and not feel deprived. If I
was going to a social event where food was provided, I would
eat something before hand, so I would not be hungry and
tempted to eat foods off my diet when I was there. The bottom
line was- I took charge. I did not leave my diet up to fate.
I took full responsibility for making it happen.
For the first three months of my diet I planned all the meals,
made the shopping lists and actively participated in the
preparation. It was a great deal of work, but it did several
things. It made sure I had the foods I could eat at home. It
helped me become very knowledgeable about a wide variety of
meals that were healthy alternatives to the high fat meals I
normally enjoyed.
It took the burden off my wife for having tomake accommodations
for me. It made it so my whole family learned about healthy
eating and started making better choices for themselves as well.
In fact my wife lost some weight without even trying. Over time,
the work I put in became easier as my family and I developed
new eating habits. Plus I lost 15 pounds and lowered my
cholesterol by 30%.
You can do it, if you put your heart in to it.
So if you are willing to take responsibility for your problems,
committed to improving your health, needing to change your
diet, don't leave it up to fate- take charge.
·Research the foods you need to eat and the ones you
need to avoid.
·Start collecting recipes for meals that fit your diet.
·Plan your meals and shopping list for the week; don't
take it day to day.
·Anticipate the potential obstacles and have a plan to
address them.
·Trust that through active effort on your part, over time
it will get easier as you replace old habits with healthier
new ones.
Quotes:
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Allen Lakein
You don't get to control any outcome, only every choice you
make along the way.
Stephen C Paul
The difference between involvement and commitment is like
ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
Martina Navratilova
Remember, having the right diet and getting
enough exercise will not only improve your
health- IT WILL IMPROVE YOU LIFE.
Until next time,
Dave Junno Psy.D.
Dave Junno Psy.D. is a psychologist, coach and
author of Lowering High Cholesterol and Reducing
Your Risk of Heart Disease- READY OR NOT! An ebook
for healthier living. E-mail him at drjunno@...
of visit his website:
www.lower-high-cholesterol-ready-or-not.com
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