Diet Tips for a Healthy Lifelong Eating Plan
Lose Weight by Listening to the Body and Learning When & What to Eat
Jul 15, 2009
Most American adults are now overweight or obese, but it doesn’t need to be this way. By following a few simple dietary guidelines, explained below, people can begin their journeys toward healthier, slimmer selves without going on a diet. Steps include learning what and when to eat, creating a healthy eating plan, listening to the body, and cultivating a healthy lifestyle.
Stop “Going on a Diet”
The problem with “going on a diet” is that it implies that at some point, this diet to lose weight will come to an end. However, in order to lose weight and maintain weight loss, it’s more effective to implement permanent dietary modifications that are realistically sustainable. Thus, it’s better to make small, gradual changes in eating habits that can be kept up for life than to drastically cut calories or embrace a fad diet.
Learn What & When to Eat
One of the keys to losing weight and maintaining weight loss is to learn what to eat and when to eat. This means becoming more nutritionally educated, including understanding appropriate portion sizes and proportions of nutrients in each meal, how the body utilizes different nutrients, the amount of nutrients required for each individual’s daily activity level, and an appropriate frequency of eating—usually small (200-500 calorie) meals or snacks every three to four hours.
Create a Healthy Eating Plan
Once a person has a firm understanding that they are not going on a temporary diet, he or she can create a healthy lifelong eating plan. This eating plan does not need to have severely rigid rules, such as making certain foods absolutely off limits. Rather, it should provide healthy dietary guidelines based on sound nutritional data that can help a person select the proper foods to fuel his or her lifestyle.
Listen to the Body
Sometimes, despite having a healthy eating plan in place, a person will discover that his or her body is craving more calories or sustenance than the eating plan dictates. In such instances, it’s best to take a few minutes to reflect on whether or not the body is genuinely in need of more calories. If it is, then attempt to choose to ingest at least most of those calories from a nutritionally sound option.
Be aware, though, that at times, the impulse to eat comes more from boredom or an emotional place than from an actual physical need. Using daily meditation can help a person become more in touch with him or herself and less likely to eat when the body isn’t truly hungry for food, but rather, is searching for nourishment that won’t ultimately come from food.
Cultivate a Healthy Lifestyle
A lifelong healthy eating plan is easier to stick to if a person cultivates a healthy lifestyle. This includes regular physical exercise, a healthy mental baseline, a lack of addiction to substances, and adequate stress management. Losing weight and maintaining weight loss are much easier to attain if all other areas of a person’s life are supportive of this goal. Strive for balance on all fronts for the best results.
How to Lose and Maintain Weight Loss—For Life!
By following the simple diet tips detailed above, people can stop "going on a diet" to lose weight. Instead, by learning what and when to eat and creating a healthy eating plan according to that knowledge, they can lose weight and maintain that weight loss for life. In addition, by listening to the body and cultivating an overall healthy lifestyle, people will find it easier to stick to a healthy lifelong eating plan.
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