“I need to eat healthier”, said everyone at some point.

Ugh…I need to eat healthier

How many of us have said this multiple times, over multiple days…or even years? There is just this gut feeling that we should probably be taking better care of ourselves. I hear this from my husband semi-regularly, especially after guys nights. The remorse is real. You should see the nachos they came up with. Insane. Maybe I should do a blog post on what NOT to eat and feature these, ha!

Over the years I’ve seen a few road blocks that can get in our way when trying to ‘eat healthier’, it may take addressing the roadblock before moving forward, a few of them are below:

• Not sure how or where to start, (we’ll talk about this one below).
• Seem to be too busy to ‘learn how to eat healthy’ and don’t feel like you have the time.
• Feel so far from healthy that all the ‘little’ things to change don’t feel like they will make a difference. So you don’t bother or go on an extreme crash diet and then once done, quickly go back to where you started. It wasn’t sustainable and no habits were changed.
• Lack of motivation or desperation (when desperate enough it becomes your motivation).
• Feeling restricted, like there is no freedom anymore. Instead of thinking about what you can have you are obsessing over what you can’t have.

One of my favorite quotes is from Larry Burkett, from his book Business by the Book:

“The point is to start where you are, not where you like to be in a year or two. But if you never start, you’ll be in exactly the same position a  year from now.”

Time passes whether we do anything with it or not, and if we continuously build good habits in our lives we will find ourselves in a very different place a year from now. And chances are you’ll look back and wonder why you didn’t make those changes sooner.

The key is make the change: keep the change, clearly this can apply to ANY area of our lives, not just nutrition. I am thinking of a few other areas for myself…but for the sake of Eating Well, there are a few ways we can start.

So where do I start?

What are 5 things can you do now to fulfill that goal of eating healthier? No matter what food preferences you have, these 5 things benefit everyBODY.

• Eat more veggies, make it a goal to do one massive salad every day and include a variety of vegetables in every meal (deep fried doesn’t count.. and neither do white potatoes).

• Hydrate! Drink lemon water, all day every day. And the recommended 8 glasses? Do that and add a couple more.

• Move your body, walking uses more muscles than a number of other physical activities, walk a brisk pace to get your heart rate up. Take the long way to the mailbox…whatever it takes. Move!

• Break up with sugar (this includes sugary drinks!), just do it. I have a pretty standard rule that we don’t have refined sugar in our house…if it’s not here, we won’t use it. Make that the standard for whatever your weakness is. Soda? Chocolate? Sugary baking? Just don’t have it in the house and find a healthier alternative to curb those cravings.  That way when you do have it, it’s a treat and not the norm.

• REST, find ways to rest not only your body but your mind also. When was the last time you sat in quiet? Even for a few moments. Being alone with your thoughts can be a foreign thing. Try this: find  a quiet moment to yourself and for 10 minutes do not read, listen to something, watch something, nothing. Just sit and be quiet and take a moment to pray a little and be quiet more. You might be surprised what you learn.

These 5  areas are also important for children… they just don’t need quite that much water.

It takes 63 days to change a habit, yes 63! Not 21. The first 21 days are just what it takes to let your brain know a change is coming and it begins to prepare. So keep at it. Over a number of years I reduced my average body weight by 30lbs, every year I was learning more and improving my health and my weight began to show it. Weight is not always the goal, but it can reflect where you are at nutritionally. For me the weight was not the goal, it was learning what my body needed and giving it that nutrition. These good habits over time make a BIG difference. And for me, it was 30lbs difference…and now…. I am working on eliminating all auto-immune symptoms little by little, day by day, new GOOD habit by new GOOD habit.

Everyone loves a good before and after right? The picture on the left is when I was close to my heaviest and not feeling amazing, the one on the right is the current weight I maintain. The weight loss accelerated over a period of 5 years as my lifestyle continued to improve, the last year seeing the most significant change.

Where are you going to start? Comment below which of the 5 you’d like to improve in.