Diet: the four letter word

Who hates the word diet? I know I do! What do you think of when you tell yourself that you have to go on a diet? I think it usually sounds something like: “you can’t have this, and you can’t eat that” or “I know I can’t eat anything that tastes good!” It makes perfect sense that people dread diets and cannot seem to stay on them. Therefore, for the purpose of this blog, diet is a four letter word much like the ones our mouths would be washed out with soap for saying. Synonyms for the word diet include: watch your weight, cut down, starve yourself, fast, reduce, etc. all nasty words none of us would ever want to do. I will instead refer to recommended eating habits or nutritious foods as meal plans.

If I sat down with you for an initial nutrition consultation and told you that you could not have chocolate or chips or whatever your food weakness is, what would you want? I know I would think about one food and one food only; the food I am not allowed to eat.

So instead of focusing on the foods we should not eat, let’s focus on all the delicious foods we should eat. We also need to tell ourselves that we are entitled to enjoy our food weakness, but in moderation.

Making small, achievable health and wellness goals are motivational; so let’s start off 2010 without the four letter words. Let’s work on meal plans that promote healthy lifestyle changes and behavior modifications to make it last a lifetime!