If you're one of those whose pantry is full of healthy food, who has undergone detoxification, dieting, and still feels low energy, bloated or abdominal, stuck in weight, or sore, this article is just for you.
A lot of people come to me in despair. "We could write a book about nutrition," they say wryly. Something there doesn't work. The chocolate at night after a day of healthy meals, weight gain despite "obeying all instructions or rules".
According to statistics, 95% of people who make a dietary or diet change will not succeed in the process or experience the "boomerang" effect, i.e. compensation for all the deprivations and healthy food they ate and weight gain. So what do we do? How do you succeed?
With all due respect to health and purpose, it's important that food is also delicious, Photo: GettyImages
The most common mistake – thinking that in order to succeed you lack more knowledge
The statement that knowledge is power is true, but if you look yourself in the white of the eyes, you'll admit that much of the knowledge you already have about health and nutrition is hard to apply. More knowledge will only overwhelm and confuse.
You have too much health on your plate
A quick stroll through Instagram profiles of priestesses and health gurus will bring up spectacular pictures of Buddha bowls: brown rice, chickpeas, salmon, a variety of vegetables, always some exotic fruit. It photographs wonderful - but is it health?
To digest all of these foods, our digestive system needs to work hard. One of the things I always recommend to my patients is that when the reality is complex, the food should be simple. For that matter, you can break down the magical bowl into one meal of rice or fish or chickpeas and vegetables. Fruits are digested very quickly and should be eaten separately from meals.
You're missing a strategy
Most people don't have a strategic plan for regulated eating, and what happens is that things and events hijack them and disrupt their goals: chocolate that a co-worker brought to the office, family Friday dinners for which there is no plan that suddenly surprises. Build a plan of action that will both advance you to the life you want to live and meet your emotional needs and tastes.
You are an all-or-nothing person and building on your willpower
Many times people have an all-or-nothing perception. If we have already "broken the dishes" then everything is destroyed, and then instead of returning to the nutritional line we give up.
Studies show that people who succeed in implementing a healthy lifestyle are people who do things gradually. Willpower is perishable, hard to build on. On the other hand, going for the step and long-distance running is what will work for you.
You're not specific
Try to be as specific as possible. This is what predicts high success rates according to studies: What does it mean to eat more vegetables? Maybe decide to incorporate three types of vegetables into every meal? It's more specific. Instead of doing more sports - reserve an hour each week in advance for sports. It also needs to be specific (what sport?). And even if you decide to cook more, you should set a time in your diary and even decide in advance what you are going to cook.
You try diets and methods that suit others and less for yourself
Not everything that suits the cooking abilities and tastes of your neighbor or colleague will suit you. And not every method that was realistic for you in the past (before you had children, before COVID-19, when you were employed before you became independent, for example) or that will be in the future (when you retire) is suitable for you today.
Don't build on your willpower, Photo: GettyImages
Nutrition methods that cannot be maintained
According to the change model, the conservation phase is the most significant and challenging stage. It is precisely the gray one that comes after we have reached results and excitement. In order for us to maintain and get through this stage, it is important that the path we have chosen is suitable as a lifestyle and less as a gimmick.
Listen to external voices and less to yourself
Dietary trends, studies, some of them contradictory, appear en masse as mushrooms after rain. Many people find themselves confused and no longer know what is right to eat because for every healthy method or food there will be more studies that will claim that it is harmful to health.
If we agree to pay attention to the signals it transmits to us, we can produce important information that suits us.
Do not synchronize the preparation methods for the seasons
Our bodies are affected by the weather, just as we dress differently in the changing seasons, so too the food and the way it is made (and even the seasoning) are supposed to interface with nature. When the menu remains the same and there is no such congruence, something can go wrong and become out of balance in the body as well.
You don't enjoy the process
With all due respect to health and purpose, it is important that the food is also delicious, to get out of the comfort zone and adopt new healthy lifestyle habits that will do us good and we will not feel miserable in them.
Almog Gold, naturopathic, lecturer and therapist in nutrition and eating strategies, is one of the lecturers who will participate in INSPIRATION 2023, the largest annual conference in Israel for complementary and integrative medicine practitioners, which will take place on June 21-22, 6 at the Wohl Center in Ramat Gan.
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