Healthy Eating
Focus is everything when goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
The need to focus on your development skills should not be understimated.
If you approach nutrition goal setting following the
format outlined in the previous parts , you'll clearly identify early on, any
challenges or barriers to you achieving your goal.
You will 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 healthy 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 goal setting 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 for her comfort eating and why she would soon lose her motivation thus abandoning her healthy eating nutrition goal.
Her husband would often demean her efforts, which seriously grated on
her, undermining her healthy eating 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 how and why 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 nutrition goal setting, 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 healthy eating 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, or even to lose weight, 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 nutrition 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!
"Never trust a fat dietitian"
(Funny Quote: Anonymous)
Back To
Goalsetting Your Healthy Nutrition Plan
Resources:
http://www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines
(Get further information on Dietary Guidelines)
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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