Healthy eating for a healthy body

Healthy eating means many things to many people, and everyone has different goals for the perfect diet.  The key to following a healthy diet is to find a diet you can stick with for the rest of your life.  A diet should not be simply a temporary change in the way your live, eat, and exercise.  Rather, it should be a permanent change that you can live with day in and day out, year in and year out.

For some people, a healthy diet can be as simple as increasing the number of fruits and vegetables in the daily diet.  For others, a radical change, involving strict control of fat and cholesterol, may be required. 

Of course, what is needed will depend on the goal of each individual.  The serious runner in search of greater conditioning will of course has different goals than the couch potato who is concerned about the possibility of heart disease.

Even though every person will have different goals when it comes to healthy eating, the basic tenets of healthy eating are the same.  The most important thing is to eat a good variety of foods while eating less of the bad stuff and more of the good.

Oversimplification

That may sound like an oversimplification, but it really is that easy.  Putting that simple concept into proactive, however, is the hard part.  Everyone wants to eat healthier, but there are so many temptations in today’s world that healthy eating can be very difficult.  The key is to make healthy choices as appealing as unhealthy ones.

One way to make healthy foods appealing is by buying a wide variety of exotic fruits at the local supermarket.  There are probably varieties of fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store that you never even heard of before.  Why not make your next trip to the grocery store an adventure by sampling these exotic offerings?

Experimenting with new recipes is another great way to bring excitement and adventure to healthy eating.   A quick perusal of your favorite low-fat or healthy eating cookbook will likely present you with many fun and exciting recipes to try.  Often a new cookbook or a couple of new recipes are all it takes to spur a healthier lifestyle.

It is also important to know that eating healthier does not necessarily mean making a radical change.  There are very simple things you can do, such as cutting the skin off your chicken breast or trimming the fat from your favorite steak, that can result in significant fat reductions and health improvements.  Dieters should not overlook the importance of these small changes when seeking a healthier diet.

Other examples of small changes resulting in healthier eating include:

• Replacing whole milk with skim or 2%, both in recipes and for drinking
• Snacking on sorbet or low-fat frozen yogurt instead of premium ice cream
• Spraying pans with non-fat cooking spray instead of using butter or margarine
• Replacing high-fat cuts of meat with leaner ones
• Eating more low-fat fish and less red meat
• Using egg substitutes, the kind made from egg whites, in recipes, meals, and baking

There are probably hundreds of other such tips, and they can add up to significant health improvements, whether your goal is to get fit, lose weight, or improve your level of health.  No matter who you are or what your current level of fitness is, eating a healthier diet and losing weight may be easier than you think.

In the end, eating a healthy diet, improving your level of fitness, and managing your consumption of fat and cholesterol boils down to common sense.  Depriving yourself of your favorite foods can be counterproductive to a long-term dietary change.  Deprivation leads inevitably to cravings, and that can start a vicious cycle of dieting and splurging. It is best to think of healthy eating as a marathon rather than a sprint.  The goal of any healthy eating program should be to make easy, lifelong changes in the way you shop, cook, and dine.  Only by making changes that you can follow for a lifetime will you truly be able to enjoy a healthy diet.

DISCLAIMER:

This information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read.
Since natural and/or dietary supplements are not FDA-approved they must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”