TO DIET OR CHOOSE A LIFETIME CHALLENGE

To the average person the word DIET means losing weight for a special occasion or changing your eating habits because you have been told by your health professional that you need to.

The Dictionary explanation of the word says, could be related to your food, a selection of food and drink, provisions, nutrients, sustenance.  Eat sparingly, abstain, reduce, watch one’s weight etc.

It is interesting to note that it does not mention a lifestyle change, and it indicates that a diet is really just about food.  What food we eat is either a good diet or a bad diet.

In this day and age where obesity is prevalent, the word diet has become a “Fad” word, bandied about as fashionable to either be on a diet or not. It’s a bit like going to the Gym, but unless you change your eating habits going to the Gym will make you fitter but not make your internal body healthy.

A lot of us look at the different types of diet, and don’t look at the science behind them, or whether there is any actual basis for a particular diet.  They choose on the basis of whether it is easy or fast, or suits their lifestyle.

I believe that when you choose to go on a diet, there are questions you need to ask yourself.

1                     Why am I doing this?

2                     Are my current eating habits good, bad, or need tweeking

3                     What do I want to achieve by going on a diet

4                     Is this going to be a life-changing experience

5                     Is my head in the right space to do this.

Most of us need to change our eating habits, but we only think about as a short term exercise for just for a week or a month, so that we can fit into a specific dress,

or an event we need to look good for.  When you do this you will do this diet for the length of time that is in your mind.

The result of this will be, that when you have achieved your goal you will go back to your old eating habits and you will wonder why in a couple of months you have put back double the weight that you took off.

Why? Because your body is made that way.  When you are eating the wrong foods you are putting on weight because they are not what your body needs. So next time you are going to an event your go through the same process again, and again. End result your body starts to revolt and you give up, and you remain sick and lack energy and your excuse is diets don’t work. 

You are right they don’t work, because you do not think beyond the event, but as a temporary goal. Your mindset must be for long term not short term.  Changing your eating habits is not easy, & unless you have the mindset right you will not keep it up.  Don’t do drastic, do slowly. Set little goals and work up to your whole life goal

We eat because we feel we are hungry, and we eat what satisfies our hunger not what our cells need to reproduce healthy cells. 

We are not eating the foods that actually stop us from eating too much, and we are literally starving our bodies and our cells. 

Hunger generally is our body crying out for food that will give us the nutrition our cells need.

The answer to all our eating problems is NUTRITION. 

COMPLETE NUTRITION to feed our cells what they need.  You cannot get this from eating food alone.

Today the food we eat is lacking in all the vitamins and minerals because of many things.  An article I read about food written by James Russell says & I quote

  " Scientists studying 50year old US Department of Agriculture data made a discovery. Comparing the levels of vitamin and minerals in 43 different vegetables and fruits, to those they were eating in 1999, they found significant decreases in the amount of protein,   calcium, phosphorous, iron, and riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C."

This is basically caused through efforts to breed crops that grow more quickly, and bigger, and are pest resistant and adapt to climate change. This unfortunately, together with the reduction in minerals in the soil, has caused the problem.  The plants now lack the ability to uptake nutrients due to their rapid growth. However this answers only part of the many other reasons why our food is lacking in nutrients.

All around the world, there are deficiencies in our food, but in particular where I live in NewZealand the most common deficiencies are:
                                                Vitamin D
                                                Iodine
                                                Iron
                                                Zinc
                                                Calcium
                                                Omega 3                             

In New Zealand and Australia we do not have Selenium in our soils, so we should be taking this as a given, along with other nutrients, to top up the lack of what we get in our food.

So when you are advised by your Doctor or Health professional, to lose some weight or eat a better diet.  Look closely at your eating habits. 

Look carefully for a Diet that has some science behind it, not just a change of food. Do not treat this as a short term thing, if you want to improve your health, this is a lifetime change, or a journey that will improve your health and wellbeing for the rest of your life.

“Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hyppcrates

For help and advice or support please feel free to contact me.

Doria’s Fitness & Wellness Centre
http://herbal-nutrition.net/luzw8now