Plan Your Diet

Chances are, most of us will feel the need to diet at some point in our lives. Whether it’s for a special event (a wedding or vacation), because our doctors recommend it, or because we just want to look or feel better and healthier, dieting occasionally or frequently is a priority.

Dieting is a huge industry in the U.S., probably because there’s no definitive answers as to what works best. The tried and true method of eating less and exercising more just seems to take too long in our quick-results-obsessed culture.

But following trendy diets, like high-protein/low or no carb diets, diets that have you drinking shakes, or the prepackaged food diets, isn’t your best bet. These types of diets are usually unrealistic to maintain long-term. Restricting your diet to just a few foods, cutting out entire food groups, or eating too few calories may help you lose weight in the short term, but will also help you pack on the pounds in the long term. The reason is that your body will start to slow its metabolism down while you’re dieting.

You’ve probably heard it before and you may want to roll your eyes, but you really shouldn’t look at eating health as a diet. It implies that it will be temporary and you will revert to old habits once you take the weight off. What good will that do? If you don’t stick to it, the weight will inevitably pile back on. So call it a lifestyle change or just new eating habits.

Finally, it’s okay to start with small changes. If you try to change everything at once, you’re really setting yourself up or failure. Trying making one small change a week or month. Keep making changes, track your progress, and by the end of a month or year, you should see some results.

Have patience with your eating habits. You didn’t develop eating problems overnight, so you’re not going to magically solve them overnight, either. Keep at it!

Having a background in psychology and counseling, combined with a lifelong interest in diet and fitness, I’m well aware of some of the positive mental side effects from exercise. Exercise helps to naturally boost one’s spirits and energy levels, acting as a natural antidepressant for some people.

Exercise, in moderation, also helps curb appetite, increases sex drive, and helps people to sleep more restfully at night. Now even more good news about exercise has been discovered.

According to a recent study summarized by CNN, exercise may help deter or prevent addictions to substances and chemicals such as illegal drugs and alcohol. According to the chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a previous study found that teens and tweens who exercise regularly were far less likely to smoke cigarettes (50% less chance) or abuse marijuana (40% less chance).

The NIDA chief believes this is because children are born knowing, instinctively, that it feels good to move. But in a society of increasing obesity (Obesity in children has TRIPLED in the U.S. since 1980), kids are becoming more and more sedentary, leaving fewer opportunities to feel good naturally.

Now the NIDA chief, Dr. Nora Volkow, hopes to see more research on the area of exercise and drug abuse. $4 million in new research grants are being made available from NIDA for this specific purpose. Hopefully we’ll continue to hear good news about this in the future!