Losing 90 pounds the second time was a breeze. In fact, it was too easy. I soon learned that there was more to dieting—its a lifestyle, mindset, and a dedicated relationship.
After adopting my new diet, It didn’t take long for my lifestyle to turn around, but there were so many times where I failed to be consistent, and actually do it. I was a relapse waiting to happen, on what was already a slippery slope — all I needed was the right trigger. So many times, I let myself get complacent, and I gained back what I had worked so hard to lose.
In order to look past the diet I needed to make sure I have something else that keeps my body nourished—mindset and consistency. Sounds strange?
Well, think about what is choosing the food I ate; me operating on a random set of beliefs or misconceptions? Feeding Impulses? Maybe I’m on the right path but being undermined? The mindset in any environment is key to making the plan work.
This is the healthy food habit when there aren’t many healthy options around.
Eating healthy is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Too many people are looking at the diet part of eating healthy and missing the big picture. In this post I will tell you how to focus on four key parts of eating healthy that being focused on diet won’t get you.
There is a certain mindset people have when they start a diet. There is a common belief that the diet itself produces significant results and that once you’ve completed the diet, all your problems will be solved. Unfortunately, this is not the truth – and that’s where this article comes in. I want to show a closer look at how having a set of simple rules for eating healthy can lead to long-term results.
There is a common pattern among the people who fall into a hole of poor nutrition. They typically lose interest in finding healthy alternatives or focus more on the foods they want to fit in the diet, versus the foods they should be eating to be healthy.
I remember many discussions with Facebook groups where I shared with others the dietary changes I made to fight inflammation.
Even people with obvious lactose intolerance were intolerant to the idea of giving up dairy for their own good—even with there being many authentic substitutes.
They would concoct bs excuses like “where would I get my Calcium and Vitamin D from?”.
People are even worse basket cases when eating out. Pizza and cigarettes easily qualify as vegetables and the diet can always wait another day.
However, it’s not easy dieting and going out–especially for the people who apply themselves.
Contending with the modern food selection is rather difficult considering we live in a world which considers sugar a breakfast staple and sugar mixed with fat a dinner staple.
How are we supposed to choose?
What helps me is to not choose the food that cheers me up but the food that gives my body the nutrients that it craves.
Having a plan for what is permissible and what isn’t has payed off and when I do go out to eat–even at a fast food establishment, I stay away from a certain set of ingredients. That said, I tend to steer toward the healthier of the establishments inorder to skew my options toward a healthier selection.
Mood is one hell of a thing to make decisions with…
I once was an obese kid. I was teased a lot about my weight. Kids were relentless with it and it has stuck with me for a long time. It’s something that still triggers me even to this day. I eventually learned to cope with the teasing and anger by picking on myself worse than they did. I also used food as a coping mechanism at times. It’s not uncommon or unusual in any way, it is just my story of how I got here and where I am now–sabotaging my impeccable diet by stress eating….yes it still happens but it’s how much I can limit the damage and how I recover that makes the difference.
I’ve suffered from depression, anxiety, social phobia and low self esteem for as long as I could remember. I’d always turn to food for comfort, because it was the only thing I had control over.
However, I learned much later that I have control over much more; and my habits can be compounded in my favor just as easy as they’re compounded against me.
What it took was to develop an edge over myself…and some other things.
One of the last steps was getting control over my environment; this is the final step to disrupt the vicious triangle between mindset, choices and environment working against me.
I don’t visit the Dollar Store so much for an outing–and that’s good because I’m not tempted to buy as much candy.
When I want to get out for a bit, I go to a park or go for a bike ride–nothing that involves a quick bit considering I make sure to avoid all the food spots.
I think about my savings goals and what need the future may bring–having a poor diet means poor health, less money, less friends, less goals met, less trajectory and so on. Health is a serious matter.
My policy with junk will always be as follows: “Out of sight, out of mind.”
The HealthyFoodHabit lies in the mindset;
-M
