This is the time of year when many people start dieting to look their best for the holidays. Some opt for strict fad diets that may take off pounds, but they leave you wiped out and less than your best. Instead, choose healthy eating that is a slower process but with results that last the rest of your life. What’s the difference between the two? Healthy eating isn’t restrictive. You don’t have a list of specific foods but a generalized list of options. That makes it easier to maintain healthy eating.
We live in a diet culture.
You’ve read about it before, but it bears repeating. We’re a society that values dieting, which results in food shaming. It’s created a warped view of food and nutrition, leading to eating disorders. There are no “bad” foods. Some foods are healthier and more nutritious with fewer calories. If you crave a sweet treat and eat it, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person who has eaten forbidden food. That type of thinking leads to binging. After all, you already crossed the barrier. If there are no “forbidden” foods, just foods you should eat more often than others, you might be satisfied by eating a small amount, putting the craving to rest.
Diets always end.
When you diet, you follow a specified regime until you reach a specific goal. That heralds the end of a diet. Then you go back to your regular eating habits that put on the weight in the first place. You’ll often gain it back and sometimes add more pounds. Yo-yo dieting is hard on your body and your mental health. Sometimes, you fail at dieting. That often ends up with binging and eating all those forbidden foods. Again, you gain the weight you lost and sometimes more. Eating healthy doesn’t have an end, even if you eat healthier on one day than you do on another.
Eating healthier helps you make smarter choices.
Dieting encourages you to look at food as simply calories or carbs. It often doesn’t consider whether that choice is the healthiest. You could lose weight if you ate nothing but rice cakes, but it wouldn’t provide the nutrition you require. Focusing on healthier eating not only naturally reduces calories, but it also boosts nutrition. If you switch from white rice to brown rice, you’ll not only boost nutrition but also save calories.
- Eating healthy also focuses on other factors of a healthy lifestyle. It includes getting adequate sleep, hydrating frequently, and getting plenty of exercise. All these things help keep you thinner and improve your overall health.
- You’ll save money on groceries if you eat healthy rather than dieting. You can plan your meal around healthy food that’s on sale or in-season to save money.
- Eating healthy allows your favorite foods that diets would otherwise forbid. The key is to eat a small amount and eat it less frequently.
- Some strict diets cut calories so drastically that it slows the metabolism and leaves you tired. That means you’ll burn fewer calories, making weight loss more difficult.
For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio