What to Eat

Table of Contents

Exercise and eating.

You can do a lot of things to learn how to diet.

If you are overweight, like 60% of Americans, or you want to change your diet to one that is healthier, you may be wondering what to eat and how to diet so that you may lose weight and keep it off.

We all know that there are many different diets, including the well-known ones, the stringent ones, the ones that forbid entire food groups, medicines, various forms of exercise equipment, and food programs that offer every meal and diet tip imaginable.

After 20 years of experimentation and in-depth research, I believe you will concur with me that the principle is straightforward: eating well and exercising regularly are the cornerstones of nearly everything out there that is effective.

How do you go about doing it, especially at a time in our lives when we aren’t eating as well and aren’t exercising as much as we should be?

There doesn’t appear to be a simple solution, and figuring out how to diet was indeed not one for me. Sorry, there is no magic solution, but I have discovered that developing or implementing good habits into our lives is the key to successful, long-lasting, and even life-long success.

Altering Behavior.

Once more, how can we accomplish that?

Finding what works for each of us individually seems to answer this question.

This solution appears straightforward, whereas dieting is anything but; however, if you give it some thought, you’ll realize it has a lot of power. We can only try so much of anything if it goes against our preferences or what we can do in practice or realistically, so you have to discover what you can do to control your habits, alter them, or acquire new ones.

As I’m learning to diet, I realize that sometimes a cut-off approach works better than trying tiny, moderate improvements.

However, combining the two may be the ideal solution. I sometimes used a cut-off strategy and other times a more gradual, “little by little” approach.

Developing a set of guiding principles, such as those related to nutrition, was one aspect of learning how to diet that I found particularly useful. I knew our bodies require various nutrients from all food groups, including proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, vitamins, and fat.

Nutrition.

Knowing the amounts of nutrients my body needs each day was part of learning how to eat healthfully. I discovered that these amounts could be satisfied with tiny portions. For instance, all the proteins I need are in one little skinless chicken breast, all the sugar I need is in one power bar, and the most astounding fact I learned was that one olive has all the salt I need daily!

Exercising.

My body burns calories while doing anything, even while we sleep, so burning calories need not involve strenuous aerobic exercise. There is nothing wrong with it, but many other ways to burn calories exist. For example, I learned to change my perception of “exercising” to “calorie burning” when learning how to diet.

The Function Of Water.

One crucial fact about water’s function came to my attention while researching how to diet. Water is vital to our bodies, as you are probably aware. However, I recently learned that keeping hydrated throughout the day can help reduce feelings of hunger because iced water, for example, cannot be processed by our bodies and must be warmed up instead, which uses calories.

I also discovered that sometimes we misinterpret hunger signals from our bodies that are signals of thirst. One piece of advice I utilized was to drink water if I felt hungry before determining whether or not I was.

To illustrate how to diet when considering habit reversal, let’s use the example of water.

We can see how a habit of drinking our daily dose of water, 6 to 8 glasses, may not be in our everyday routines, so here is one habit change to master. If you are not drinking enough water today, you have a mini project here. You can start right away thinking about how to accomplish that. Some people carry their water bottles with them all day. Adding flavors or a piece of lime might work for others who cannot even taste it plain.

The Best Method for You.

I will therefore advise studying the fundamentals before customizing how to develop a good habit.

The key to dieting and losing weight ultimately comes in finding the right balance of calories consumed and expended. For this reason, you may find it helpful to keep track of what you consume daily and count your calories. To do this, you can help yourself by using a food calorie table; search for “calorie tables” on the internet to find one.

Most diet guidelines can be found online, including nutrition information, what our bodies require and in what amounts, where those requirements come from, meal planning tools so you can prepare ahead of time, calorie counting templates, numerous suggestions on the importance of water, portion control, and how to handle special occasions like dining out, family barbecues, weddings, and so on. With this knowledge, you can “master” a strategy that works for you.

You might also find it helpful to locate a weight reduction program, as I did, that compiles all or the majority of that information for you. These programs are typically inexpensive and offer a meal planner, recipes, helpful hints, professional support, and various other valuable resources.

Visit for more information, most of this helpful weight loss information, and resources for selecting the best diet.

admin