Are you about to embark on goalsetting your healthy eating plan?
If so, your approach will most certainly involve a process of
re-education. If you have set goals in the past without much
success, what you're about to learn will put you many steps forward
in understanding the possible reasons your goals did not materialise.
Just as with everything else, your approach has to be right for your
your goals setting success. The first thing you'll need to ensure
when goalsetting your healthy eating plan, is that it clearly focuses
on what you want to bring into your life, and not what you want
to let go of. Example - 'Eat a healthy diet', 'Eat healthy foods',
'shop for healthy foods'.
Here are examples of typical challenges or barriers you might
encounter when goalsetting your healthy eating plan. It is crucial
that you identify those that are unique to you and, that you
perceive could get in the way of you achieving your goal.
You have limited knowledge on diet and nutrition
By clearly identifying the challenges you will most likely
encounter, you're better placed to find solutions when goalsetting
your healthy eating plan. Here are examples of how you might
approach this task:
Finding solutions when goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
Could you now critically analyse your shopping list?
Could you do the same with the contents of your cupboards/fridge?
What have you learned about your diet and the foods you eat?
What percentage of convenience foods do you presently stock?
What percentage of your shopping budget do you allocate to
convenience foods or junk foods each week?
Are you aware of the additives - such as salt, sugar, e-numbers
the convenience or junk food you're eating contain?
How many days each week do you consume convenience or junk food?
Carefully consider the images/pictures on the food products.
What is it about these images that appeal to you?
What is the level of your current knowledge on food nutrition?
Use your journal to record your findings, as well as how you're
feeling about the exercise. You should now have identified clear
solutions to enable you to proceed with goalsetting your healthy
eating plan. This will move you nicely onto the action and
development stage of your goal settings.
Identifying the changes
you need to make when goalsetting your healthy eating plan
If you work longer hours, it can be very tempting to pick up a quick
meal on your way home from work. The same applies if you're not in
the practice of planning your weekly shop and you therefore have
nothing substantial in your fridge or cupboard to prepare when you
get home. You might even be an 'overworked' mum who cave in under
the pressure of your daily responsibilities and give the kids foods
which are quick and easy to prepare. In any case, the strategy of
'shop as you go', is seldom a successful one for
a variety of reasons.
It is a known fact that shopping when you're hungry just don't work.
You're more likely to purchase all the wrong foods - especially when
presented with those tempting pictures and images which are designed
to lure you. You'll most likely purchase foods lacking in
food nutrition for your healthy eating diet.
By changing your approach and goalsetting your healthy eating plan,
you can figure out in advance a course of action for developing your
skills, while changing your current habits in the process. Here
are some development areas you might want to consider for example:
Menu Plan approach to goalsetting your healthy eating plan
When goalsetting your healthy eating plan, managing your time doesn't
have to be the issue you fear. By planning ahead of time the meals
you intend to prepare during the course of the week, and the healthy
foods you'll need, preparing healthy meals becomes less time consuming
than you think.
Could you now make a start by planning at least two, three, or even four
healthy food recipes you'll prepare each week? Could you then gradually
increase this by one further healthy meal each week, or each month
thereafter? When you change your approach, goalsetting your healthy
eating plan becomes more attainable and enjoyable.
shopping approach to goalsetting your healthy eating plan:
How did you get on with writing your new healthy food shopping list?
Could you now commit to a weekly shop, based on your Menu Plan?
Could you shop for provisions at larger outlets which will offer
you a wider variety and selection of nutritious and healthy food?
Appearance is everything - if your cupboards and fridge look
interesting and exciting, then you're half way to getting excited
and interested about how to eat healthy. Even the most basic of foods
can look tempting and appetising, with a bit of presentation.
Restaurants do this; convenience foods manufacturers do this; you
too can do this to great effect, by taking a leaf out of their book.
Culinary skills development when goalsetting your healthy eating
Saying your cookery skills is less than adequate is no excuse for
not learning how to eat healthy. If you've become accustomed to
unhealthy foods over a period of time, it is more than likely that
your cookery skills are rusty. There are numerous cookery books
available, for as many different types of foods. Could you now invest in
a good book? You'll find many magazines will feature healthy
recipes you can experiment with. There are many online
healthy recipe sites. You might also want to consider setting your-
self a further goal of 'learning how to cook healthy foods'.
knowledge development when goalsetting your healthy eating plan
It is important to develop your food health and
nutrition knowledge about foods you plan to eat. You can also
achieve a great deal by learning about different kinds of foods and
how to prepare/cook them. Here is the first of many
healthy recipes which I plan to list in the coming
months.
The high salt, sugar and other additive content in junk and convenience
foods are designed to make them tasty and appealing, so don't be
surprised if your healthy foods initially taste bland in comparison.
However, this should be short-lived until your taste buds readjust to
the healthy and nutritious alternatives you start preparing. To
really go beyond junk food or convenience foods and succeed at eating
healthily, - as well as learning about food nutrition, you'll also need
to develop your knowledge of how to flavour, prepare and
cook healthy foods.
If the focus of goalsetting your healthy eating plan is to do with
weightloss dieting, you might want to consult a nutritionist, who can offer
you guidance based on a personal assessment of your age, weight and
your genetic background. You can
You'll most certainly need to set a secondary
weight loss exercise goal, in addition to goalsetting your healthy
eating goal. You'll find a variety of
weight loss exercise you can do here.
Focus is everything when goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
The need to focus on your development skills shouldn't be understimated.
If you approach goalsetting your healthy eating plan, following the
format outlined above, you'll clearly identify early on, any
challenges or barriers to you achieving your goal. You'll also
gain awareness of the skills you'll need to develop to
overcome them.
Your development skills should also include activities such as
researching information on diet and food nutrition; how to eat healthy; as well as increasing your
knowledge with further reading on healthy cooking recipes,
healthy low fat recipes etc., You might want to learn more about what is perhaps the most healthiest diet in the
world Mediterranean Diet and the many benefits it can offer both you and your family.
By devoting your strict attention to this
aspect of goalsetting your healthy eating plan, you're more likely to
gain deeper insights into any underlying issues that might
impact significantly on your level of success. Here is a good example for
you to consider.
A close friend of mine was adamant that 'this time she was going to
stick to her healthy eating goal'. What was different this time to
all the other times? The level of focus she applied to the
challenges,
barriers and development skills areas of goalsetting her healthy eating
plan. You see, in the past she had succumbed to junk foods because she had
not appropriately addressed the root cause of why she soon lost
her motivation thus abandoning her goal.
Her husband would often demean her efforts, which seriously grated on
her, undermining her goal in the process. Needless to say, she lost her
motivation as many times as she had set goals and quickly reverted
back to junk food. Each time, her eating seem to escalate and although
she was aware that it was down to her losing her motivation, she was
oblivious as to the cause. She was encouraged to
journal her moods, what - and how she was
experiencing; her feelings and her perception of the need junk food was
fulfilling.
The journaling exercise revealed that her self esteem was being
eroded by her husband's hurtful comments - (albeit unintentional) - e.g.
being told she was 'too fat and it would take forever for her to lose weight',
or 'you know you're going to jack it in, in a couple of days time, so why
bother punishing yourself'. The exercise also helped her to realise
that she perhaps wasn't being as communicative with him as to how
his comments were making her feel. She further gained insight
into the fact that she was eating for comfort rather than out of
hunger each time her esteem took a bashing. By identifying these
barriers and blocks to her achieving her goal, she was able
to focus on her development skills - i.e. setting herself further mini goals
to improve her communications with her husband and to work on building her
low self esteem.
Do you see how by taking a big underlying issue and analysing it, you too
can break your larger goal down into smaller achievable goals? By
exploring all possible avenues, you'll see how easily each subsequent
step will then lead you toward achieving that bigger goal.
Whether your unhealthy eating habits are a time-mangement/
time constraint issue or to do with comfort eating - due to the present state of your self-esteem, the process of goalsetting your healthy eating plan can only help you to get to the root
of the matter.
Self Help on goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
Use your journal for goalsetting your healthy eating plan activities, as well as for listing everything you can now do to improve your healthy eating diet.
A good technique is to start at the beginning of the day and record
each meal for an entire day. Do include your views on what and how
you're eating and drinking.
You can then list all the changes you plan on making to your eating
habits. Keep it real - there's no point listing foods you clearly don't
like. You can spice up this activity by cutting out healthy recipes
as you come across them and even pictures or images of tasty looking healthy
recipes/meals that inspire you. Just paste them into your journal.
If you're prone to eat when you're low, then you'll want to record
your feelings and thoughts on the matter here. You can also journal
any ideas or concerns you have in relation to goalsetting your
healthy eating plan. For example:
Have you considered how the rest of the family are going to
respond to this new healthy eating alternative?
Might you encounter resistence?
Might family members have become set in their eating
preferences? How are you going to approach the issue?
How creative can you get? Your success is in your hands!
'If someone is going down the wrong
road, s/he doesn't need motivation to speed him/her up. What s/he
needs is education to turn him/her round'
(Jim Rohn)
Resources:
Get further information on Dietary Guidelines here
Check out this page for some handy tips on how to get
your family to eat more fruit and veg without them even realising it.
http://www.foodandhealth.com/fools.pdf
A good source of information on nutrition, including
numerous free resources such as calorie calculator
health calandar, menu planner, recipes etc.,
http://www.foodandhealth.com/index2.php
Provide a good source of information on the
nutritional value of a wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables http://www.foodfit.com/healthy/healthyFallFoods.asp
An excellent guide to nutrition
http://nutrition.about.com/mbody.htm?pid=2756&cob=home
they also have a food nutrition forum
http://nutrition.about.com/mpboards.htm
The information on this site is purely of educational value
and is not intended to replace your seeking medical advice. You
must consult your doctor over all your health concerns.
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