Making Healthier Choices Made Easy

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We all have difficulty making healthy choices. Here are some thoughts on how to inspire yourself to get there:

  1. What is the Outcome and the Purpose?– First question to ask is What to you want to achieve (health, weight loss, better sleep, get rid of sensitivities), then Why do you want to achieve that goal? If you take 5 minutes to write down why you want to do this, you will find something that might find you instead and hook you with an inspiration. May be your mom suffered from obesity and have painful knees and her suffering inspires you to live a pain free life. Take the time to think about what and why, and the how to get there, will come.
  2. Who doesn’t like color in life? Think of a rainbow. Does the thought of a rainbow make you smile? Always think about food as colorful plate – make it look pretty – it will put a smile to your face and that fires positive relationship with food. Don’t eat too many white, pale foods – think about the food people most indulge in – they are all colorless foods such as bread, rice, fries, chips, etc.
  3. Personalize something about the change you want to make – Find something to change in your kitchen, decide to cook 3 meals a day, decide to visit the produce section in depth and observe the beauty in shape, texture and the colors of different produce. When you put the time and thought yourself, you will feel very connected to the cause. If you cook, no matter how it turns out, you will eat it. When you put your time in your food, you will feel connected to food. Even if you decide to cook French fries, that would be a step in the right direction compared to buying it from a fast food drive thru.
  4. Learn to make it fun and understand it is cheaper – It is cheaper in the long run to eat healthier. Think about the drugs and healthcare cost. I am gonna be a satirist here. Think about it, if you are 200 lbs, you have to eat a lot more to stay satiated and when you end up at 150 lbs, you won’t have to eat as much to feed the body – less food = less money. 😊
  5. Take Small Steps – Some people are wired with “go cold turkey” mentality and it works for them. Cold Turkey approach works the best for me, but it also requires the most willpower. Smaller changes are less intimidating to most people. Do not make too many changes at once. Build one good habit to replace one, then when you are confident about the one, move to a second one. This approach likely will stick in the long run.
  6. Practice mindful eating and meditation – Enjoy the foods you eat. Don’t just eat to satiate the hunger, but pay attention to texture, taste, and aroma. Chew your food. Chew one time for every tooth you have 😊. If you don’t have wisdom teeth, chew 28 times… If mindful eating doesn’t work for you, visualize yourself in meditation where you are healthy and fit. Visualize yourself running a marathon or lifting weight – find your aspiration on what/how you want to see yourself in the near future if you made healthy eating choices.
  7. Find Someone to hold you Accountable – Join a Meetup group, read blogs, read new research papers on food, find a accountability buddy to keep you in check with changing habits. We are habitual creatures and if we made healthier choice often, eventually, that becomes our subconscious nature. Until then, stay on track by asking for help or using tools to help yourself.