Changing your mind-set towards healthy eating!

Changing your mind-set towards healthy eating!

Healthy eating has been made so confusing, it’s no wander the general public find it difficult to get a grip on their diet. One day eggs are healthy for us the next they cause disease. The media love to promote a popular new diet trend or some quick fix weight loss solution. The main one’s of recent in the media are clean eating and detoxing, going gluten free or following a no carb or dairy free diet. But in reality do we need to cut whole food groups out of our diet to be healthy, pop a pill to burn body fat or buy expensive meal replacement shakes to lose weight?

The answer in short is no. Cutting whole food groups out of our diet can be detrimental to our health as it can lead to deficiency’s in our diets. Let’s take the most popular diet trend as of late, going ‘gluten free’. Unless you have been diagnosed with celiac disease, there is very little supporting evidence to suggest the rest of the public react to it. Gluten has been in our diets for decades and very few people have reported problems from it. This is also similar to ‘dairy free’ diets. Unless you are lactose intolerant there is very little research suggesting you will be healthier with no dairy in your diet.
There are many different diets that excessively restrict calories, cut all carbohydrates as they are seen as fattening or tell you to follow a 'clean' diet or to detox. The diet and weight loss industry hype up so-called superfoods, supplements and exotic foods that can be extremely expensive. This can give the public a false representation of a healthy diet, being costly and unsustainable. Instead of falling into these traps, we need to change our mind-set to what we think is a healthy diet.

Below are some tips to get you on the right track:
 
*Don’t overthink it. Think ‘Back to basics’!!! If it has been processed, ready-made, deep fried or has an ingredients list as long as your arm with ingredients you can’t even pronounce then it’s probably not going to be good for you. Cook homemade meals more frequently, this way you can control what goes in your food. 

*Colour is everything, and I don’t mean artificial. Fill your plates with colourful fruits and vegetables. If your diet is all beige in colour then you’re not getting enough nutrients, vitamins and minerals. 

*Ensure to eat you’re five a day, get your intake of lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates every day. 

*Avoid buying into quick fixes. They are expensive and often they are not sustainable. It is easy for people to be attracted to a path that promises huge results in a short amount of time. 

*Avoid detox’s or cleanses. There is no real scientific evidence stating we need to cleanse or detox in order to lose weight. It will leave you hungry, out of pocket or with no energy for no real reason. 

*Try not to focus too much on set ‘Cheat Meals’. For some people this works and that’s great, but for others it may be better to focus on moderation and allowing yourself ‘junk food’ occasionally when you really want to indulge. There is nothing wrong with having unhealthy food once in a while, the good thing is once you start eating healthy and cleaning up your diet the less you want to eat ‘junk’. 

*Eat when you’re hungry and not when you’re bored! Be mindful of what you are eating, and try not to eat when distracted by the TV if you are not hungry. 

​*Think of swaps you could make. Are you someone who thinks it’s too expensive to get a gym membership? Someone who goes out and spends a ton of money on alcoholic drinks and food every weekend? If you are wanting to improve your health and your lifestyle, why not swap going out to socialise with friends in bars and restaurants to walking in the outdoors, hiking, exercising, or go for a coffee and instead use the money you save to buy a gym membership. The benefits will allow you to become healthier as you are not consuming the extra calories from alcohol (and a cheeky kebab) from the nights out and you will not be hungover the next day allowing you to be productive and make better food choices.