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Adopting A Healthy Diet  |
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Your diet plays perhaps the largest role in your fitness plan. Regardless of the amount of exercise that you log on a daily basis you must still monitor what you eat. Not all foods break down into a form that is usable by our bodies.
Changing your diet to reflect your fitness goals will not only make you a healthier person, it will enhance your performance and allow you to reach higher plateaus in your workouts. Feeding your body a properly balanced diet will help it to respond much more efficiently to the other aspects of your program. Understanding dieting and nutrition is the key. Below are some of the basics of a good diet.
• Food Groups: Dating back to your earliest memories of health and science class you undoubtedly can recall messages about the four basic food groups and the rough proportion of each that should be represented in your diet. Essentially, a balanced diet means eating a variety of different types of foods from leafy greens to meat and potatoes. Moderate portions of all foods are what work the best. As a rule, and as recommended by the USDA, you should target foods from each of the six food groups daily. This will include 2 to 4 servings of fruit, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, 6 to 11 servings of bread and cereal, 2 to 3 servings of meat, 2 to 3 servings of milk products, and a very stringent use of fats, oils and sweets.
• Benefits: The benefits of a balanced diet will become immediately evident in your waistline. Eating well and exercising regularly will have you shedding old clothes for new, smaller sizes in no time. Beyond weight control you will feel better about yourself and have more energy than you had previously. You may even feel yourself becoming more attuned to your surroundings and a better person all around. A balanced diet can also help to prevent certain types of cancer, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, and heart disease, which are among the leading killers of most Americans.
• Long-Term: While changing the foods you eat, planning healthy meals, and controlling portion sizes can be easily accomplished by most anyone, the trick is to maintain this routine. Sticking to a diet no matter how healthy is a common problem among many striving for better health. To help yourself from the start, try to arrange a dieting plan that you can live with. While you can certainly loose weight by eating salad every day for lunch and yogurt for breakfast you will become bored with it. Be realistic in your menus. Try to keep reminders of your old self around the house as motivation. Occasionally take after pictures and place them next to one another for gradual comparison. You may also try to plan activities you will participate in when you reach your target weight like buying new clothes or visiting old friends. Try working with a friend on your diet and you may find that you can quite easily motivate one another and come through times of temptation much easier. Also, avoid situations that you know will be hard on your diet and your will power. Going to the movies is different without a bucket of popcorn so maybe renting a movie and staying home is the answer. Most importantly, if you experience a failure from time to time go with the flow and don't get too caught up in it. An occasional mistake will not ruin your entire diet.
• Fad Diets: Fad diets are everywhere these days. Everything from eating salad for every meal to avoiding carbohydrates and a number of other unhealthy choices. While these diets can have dramatic effects in the short term they are very difficult to stick with over the coarse of time. Rarely can you accommodate them in everyday life, which makes them a poor choice for health. They can also be incredibly dangerous causing various reactions to take place in your body without warning. Avoid these diets unless instructed by your doctor and work with the tried and true method of a balanced diet and exercise. There are no alternatives.
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