Ok, so you say to yourself,
“I want to eat better!”
Maybe you try a new fad diet, do a detox cleanse or try to restrict calories to a bare minimum. You find some success in the beginning but drop out after a few days, maybe weeks, because you’re constantly feeling hungry or find that it’s not feasible to make so many food sacrifices all these craze diets require. Maybe you lose 15 lbs in a month but once you go back to your regular eating habits, all the weight comes back…
Sound familiar?
Keep reading.
Here at Core Principles, we encounter many people who have attempted to improve their eating and tried many different things in order to get healthy, feel better and get in a better shape. What some of them don’t realize is that a lot of fad diets out there are just marketing schemes that pry on people’s emotions and make empty promises to the consumer in an effort to make money. If you hear about an eating plan that sounds too good to be true, or asserts that you’ll see fast results in days without a lot of effort, our advice is too steer clear!
We find that the most effective plan to really ‘eat better’ is building healthy nutritional habits that stick in a long run and will equip you with tools you can implement on your own, without paying $14.99 every week for some ‘miracle’ dietary supplement.
If you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense. A habit by definition is a routine of behavior repeated regularly that tends to occur without thinking, or automatically. If you can change your eating habits and get into a routine of healthy behaviors you really will see results, feel better and shed some extra pounds.
Now the hard part…it takes practice. You may already know the phrase “good things don’t come easy” and it is certainly not easy to change your eating routine. It won’t happen overnight. But if you work at it, put in some effort, focus on changing one thing at a time, and stay consistent you WILL be able to develop new behaviors and improve your eating. The key is to be patient and trust the process.
The best thing I can compare it to is starting a new job. It will take some time for you to get familiar with your new daily functions, learn the software your company uses, remember your new work-mates’ names, and get into a routine. It will probably take time for you to remember and master all these new tasks because you’re learning, and proficiency takes practice!
Same goes with learning to develop new eating habits.
You probably won’t be used to some of the new foods you’re eating or new cooking methods you need to implement. Maybe you’ve never done meal prepping or thought about planning your dinners ahead of time. Perhaps you’re so busy with your schedule that you’re used to scarfing down your meals, and the concept of eating slowly and mindfully feels a little strange at first. It’s ok! Nobody expects you to be perfect and get it all down within one week.
Developing these healthy habits takes time and patience.
Some of the key nutritional habits we teach at Core Principles are to eat whole real foods, balance your meals, be aware of your portions, plan ahead, prep your meals, eat slowly and mindfully and not over-restrict. Each week or month, our clients can choose a new healthy nutritional habit to work on, and we support them by providing short daily lessons and assignments that will put those concepts into practice. For example, if your habit is to eat whole foods, we give you a task to limit or get rid of all processed foods in your house, and provide you with ideas for meals that incorporate real foods.
We find that with 80% adherence to the program, people see great results and are motivated to do more.
So if you’re thinking about making a change, and you’re ready to really start “eating better,” feel good and take action, contact us at info@coreprinciples-sc.com or talk to one of your coaches!
