It’s time for positive change

Making changes, it doesn’t have to be so scary! (Part 1)

It is often with dread that we think of making changes, especially within ourselves.  Many of us will procrastinate and make up excuses to prolong any sort of change.  It is only reluctantly that we will embrace it, and even look forward to it? Sound familiar?

When we decide that things need a little over-haul it is often diet and fitness that are the first things to be put under the spotlight. Unfortunately these are often the hardest two things to change.  It doesn’t have to be that way, there is a direct correlation between what we put into our bodies and how it makes us feel.  I’m not just talking about how full and physically satisfied we may feel after a meal. I’m also talking about how it makes us feel emotionally; do we feel guilty, self indulgent, angry, or elated? Do we feel pleased with ourselves that we made a good food choice? Seldom!

I feel positive changes garner the best results when they are planned.  Whenever we make big decisions in other areas of our lives, we plan for them. With positive planning we receive positive results.  The same will apply to making positive dietary changes.

With the social health issues of obesity and diabetes at the fore-front of news and current affairs within Australia, we are constantly reminded of the importance of eating well and exercising.  We try but nobody however is perfect, and why should we be?  Let’s set realistic goals for ourselves, plan for change and become the person we want to become.

In this first segment I’m not going to ask you to make drastic changes, in fact I want you to continue on with your regular eating patterns.  For seven days I want you to keep a ‘Diet Diary’.  The purpose of keeping this diary is to gather information on your exact eating patterns.  You need to be completely honest!

You can’t make positive changes based on untruths! And you will only be fooling yourself and be more likely to fail if you do not accurately record what you eat.   You will be tempted to start making positive food choices through-out the seven day period but don’t, just record what you would normally eat.

Here’s how it’s going to work.

Start you diary on a Monday, choose the easiest way to record it; an excel spread-sheet works well for an office worker, a diary is good or just make a A4 sized chart you can pop on your fridge if you are at home a lot.  Even pop it into your phone,  It must be easy for you.

It will have four categories:

-What you ate

-Time you ate it

-What was the quantity? Roughly estimate the portions of each food group,eg protein, carbohydrates, etc or use grams/kgs

-How did it make you feel after eating it?

*Include all snacks and drinks, supplements and alcoholic beverages

Once you have gathered, (accurately) your information isolate problem areas and look to making small and positive changes.   Potential problem areas tend to be portion size, balancing food groups and knowing when to eat.  I can offer motivational tips for staying on top of these changes and how best to achieve them.

So lets get started!