Healthy Eating Regime – what does it mean to you?

Nowadays, we are bombarded by images and adverts that depict ideas of a healthy lifestyle. However, there are so many out there, which one do you choose? Which healthy eating regime will be the best for you? Which healthy eating regime will give you the results you desire? Is it a eating regime that is a quick fix or is it one for long term health?

These are questions that should be going through your mind when you are thinking about starting a new healthy eating regime. Note that I do not mention the word “diet”!! All to often people start a diet with the primary goal of losing weight for an occasion or something and once they reach their ideal weight, they stop their “diet” and gain all their weight back again. Does that sound familiar? I was to me as it is what I did for years and years!! I was a serial yo-you dieter! Each time I lost weight, stopped and gained it back I gained a little bit extra for good measure!!

So why did all my dieting fail me?

The countless dieting failed because it was a diet!! A diet has a start date and a finish date! I didn’t learn anything about my eating habits, I didn’t address my relationship with food and back then all I wanted was a quick fix. It was like I was putting a sticky plaster on something trying to fix it but each time the plaster failed!!

How did I finally get in control of my eating habits and adapt a healthy eating regime?

I used a programme back in 2013-2014 for 20 weeks and I lost 41 pounds. I can now say that nearly 4 years later I have never found them again!! Result!! What was different this time? Why did it work for me and has my weight stabilised?

There are a number of reasons and I could talk about them for hours but let me give you a summary as to why I feel that I have had success:

• Ate real non processed foods
• Drank at least 2 litres of water
• Did not eat diet foods
• Increased my fat intake
• Increased my nutrients intake
• Knew the foods that are suitable for my body
• Fuelled my body with what it needs and now have energy to burn
• Am not longer reliant on sugar for my energy.
• Got myself educated
• Had personal programme for ME!
• Now never ever need to “diet” again.

The health industry is a mind field and I know how it feels when it comes to starting a hew healthy eating regime. I feel your pain!  If you are trying to make healthy changes and you are considering changing your “diet” I advice you to look at the points below and then base your decision on what you think about the points raised.

Points to consider when choosing a New Healthy Eating Regime

1. Will the regime fit into your lifestyle? – Make sure that you are able to do the things that the programme recommends. Will you have time to do what is expected?
2. Is your weight loss dependant on doing lots of exercise? If this is the case be aware that if you use lots of physical exercise to lose weight you need to continue with that level of exercise. If you stop doing the exercise, what will happen is that you will put weight back on. (this happened to me on many occasions after doing a “boot camp” for a number of weeks.
3. Do you have to attend a group in order for success? Can you fit this into your life? Think about the purpose of going to the group. Are you going to benefit from sitting in a room with 50-100? Is the service offered personal or generalised at the group? Are you going to learn anything or is it just a social occasion? Will you get the chance to have a personal consultation with the leader? Is the leader living a healthy lifestyle? Do you want to be “a number” in a large room of people, if you are comfortable being “hidden”, then a large group is the way to go for you.
4. Are you encouraged to eat “their foods”? There are programmes out there that encourage you to eat “their” foods. These foods are processed and quite often filled with sweeteners, salt and lots of artificial flavours and preservatives. The long term effects of these foods are not great. Fresh homemade cooking is much more beneficial to your body.
5. Does the programme encourage you to drink your calories and not eat real food? Yes you will lose weight quickly with this but as soon as you go back to eating actual food again, you will most likely gain your weight back again, plus some extra! Your body is design to chew food and it is so important for the digestive process that this happens. These programmes can have long term health implications unfortunately.
6. Are you encouraged to eat as much as possible of certain types of foods? For example lots of potatoes and pasta. The effects on your blood sugars is crazy when you do this. Your stomach will also stretch to accommodate all the food that you are eating so that then in the long run you will need to eat more to fill your stomach which will lead to weight gain. Portion control is vital for long term health and weight management.
7. Are you being encouraged to have “treat/cheat” days? When you are embarking on a healthy eating regime to lose weight treat/cheat days totally set your body off track. The foods that you tend to eat on these treat/cheat days tends to be highly addictive, full of sugar, artificial flavourings and trigger your brain to want them again. This makes your long term goal harder to reach. You must change your mindset with food in order to achieve long term success
8. Are you being encouraged to eat fat free/calorie free foods? This is a huge warning to me that a plan is unhealthy for long term health. Your body needs a certain amount of good fats. Fat is not evil! Fat free foods tend to have lots of sugar/salt/sweeteners in them to make them tasty. Again these are not good for your body. I have coached so many people that are addicted to diet drinks that it is scary. These have serious detrimental effects on your body.
9. Is the plan a one plan suits all plan? Are you being told that the plan works for everyone and if you just follow the guidelines it will work for you? Alarms bells should ring if this is the case. Everyone is an individual and no plan will work for everyone. You need a personalised approach for your specific needs and lifestyle. Everyone’s bodies process certain foods differently. For example, if you are being told to eat lots of carbs and you have a gluten intolerance that you are unaware of, you will feel like crap on that plan – but you will be told that you are doing something wrong!! That the plan works for everyone!!
10. Are there rejoining offers? If the programme that you are looking at continually does promotions for rejoining or restarting, ask yourself the question – if this plan really works, why would people need to rejoin?

These would be my top 10 questions to ask when you are starting a new healthy eating regime. When you can answer the questions and are comfortable with the answers, you have found the programme for you. It is so important that you enjoy the programme that you choose and that you can see yourself eating the foods long term. Healthy eating is not a diet!! It is a lifestyle in order to ensure your body can function properly!

If you need any other advice about a plan you are considering, give me a shout and I am only to happy to help.

If you would like to find out about my SMASH programmes click here

Yours in Health & Happiness