Avoid the fads, make healthy eating a habit

By Maribel Santos, Staff Writer

Eating healthy and having a good eating pattern makes life much easier physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Although at this time many people begin to clean up their eating habits, in order to feel better in all aspects, it seems to often fail. This is almost never the fault of the person but there are many obstacles that mislead people to follow trendy fad diets and habits. Obstacles such as media, social relationships, and cultural factors. Healthline reported that many people are influenced by social media and their social surroundings when making meal choices. The “Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal” stated that cultural factors have shown to be a major part in influencing people’s diets. These factors can be a positive, but they can also become a negative in people’s diets.

There is a right way to change a diet into a healthy one, and knowing and considering these factors will help in successfully doing that. Getting into a healthy diet and not seeing the correct results or not feeling the best may cause discouragement that will also affect the motivation.

In order to maintain or start a healthy and appropriate diet there a few simple steps to take in order to avoid going into an unhealthy eating pattern.

There is no specific order to these steps but taking them will help in staying healthy while eating right. Do research and inform yourself before following a certain diet. Educating yourself and knowing the right things will help create a diet that is comfortable and right for you. Do not let social media completely influence what you eat. Things on the internet are not always true and not what it seems.

An important step to take is to start paying attention to what you are putting into your body. Your body is a temple and you have to take care of it so it can take of you. You have to read and be aware of what is in your meals, and cut out all unnecessary chemical and added articles.

Keep your food consumption at a normal amount. If needed, calories can be counted and tracked. However, you can just eat your usual meal and discipline yourself to not overeat.

Make sure to always have three meals a day no matter the diet you choose to pursue. Eating enough and giving your body the right amount of energy will help your body feel good energized. Skipping meals is not a good pattern to start, limiting and disciplining yourself is a better alternative.

Make sure to always have water near you in order to stay hydrated. Water helps your body feel more energized as well, and also contributes heavily in keeping you healthy. Water makes up 70 percent of your body and not having enough in a day will affect your body in a negative way.

Do not cut out nutrients your body needs. Many people are misled to think that carbs and fats are bad and “evil” but it is quite the opposite. These nutrients contain many things that are good for your body. Cutting them out can end up effecting your health negatively.

Keep the diet and eating habits constant. Starting a new healthy diet can be difficult which is understandable. Keeping a constant diet will help your body stay in routine and you will see your body give good and healthy changing results over time.

One step that is extremely important to be aware of is that it is ok if you break your attempt at healthy eating. It is ok to make a mistake. Mistakes are needed in order to see what not to do when you try again. One simple mistake will not define whether or not you can eat healthy and be healthy.

The most important step is to do this for yourself and do what works for you. At the end of the day this is for your well-being and health — all that matters is that you are healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Having a healthy lifestyle can change your life for the better, only if you are conducting it the right way. Forcing things or rushing the process will not give a good result. Time is needed in order to see the changes when eating healthy. Social media, and social or cultural factors cannot be the only things influencing your eating habits and patterns. Yes, they play a part in it but knowing what works for you and what is an appropriate way to stay healthy also plays a big part.