This has become my mantra with my clients in my Nutrition practice in Bend, Oregon. So often people beat themselves up because they “blew their diet” by having a sugary treat, or because they couldn’t resist the chips and dip at a party.
In The Restart® Program that I teach, it’s called the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of the time you eat clean and healthy so that 20 percent of the time you can eat the foods you’re craving or that are available in a given situation, without feeling guilty.
It’s also important not to compare yourself with other people. Everyone is on their own wellness journey, so if you can just do one thing better or different today than you did yesterday, you’ll be on your way to a healthier lifestyle.
Here are a few examples of some easy things you can do right now: if you drink sodas, if you just have a smaller size or one less daily, you’ll soon be able to decrease more as your body adjusts.
When ordering your favorite coffee at the local coffee shop ask them to make it “less sweet” then move to “half sweet”, then a “quarter sweet” and eventually either just order it with cream (it’s called a Breve) or maybe even black you won’t really miss the sweet flavor.
How about adding something in… not a big water drinker, just add an extra 4 oz. a day to get up to an optimal amount, or if you don’t eat a lot of veggies, add in one veggie a day and gradually add in more.
The whole purpose for eating clean and healthy is so that you can enjoy your life so eat what you like. If you don’t like Brussel sprouts, then don’t eat them, and find other vegetable that you do like. It’s not about forcing yourself to gag down healthy foods, but rather to enjoy the healthy foods that taste good to you so that your body, mood, energy level and mental alertness enables you to do the things you love.
As an added bonus, you’ll probably lose weight, sleep better and have more energy to enjoy life more!
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