More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese. Obesity is known to lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Our modern lifestyles – which have us working at desks all day, watching television all night, and eating unhealthy fast food – have led us to be fatter than ever before in history.
In response, America has created an entire culture and industry around weight loss. This industry is built on fly-by-night products, gimmicks and theories that make big claims and promises about weight loss – but usually disappoint or do more damage than good.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with improving one’s health. Dieting is simply not the way to do so. Diets are unnatural and their effects are temporary at best. Psychologically, they lead people to be depressed and anxious.
Here are nine tips to eat well and healthy, without dieting:
1. Enjoy eating
It’s as natural an activity as breathing.
2. Eat what you want
There is nothing you can’t eat – within reason. There is a middle-road approach to eating in which you neither go to extremes nor deprive your body of nutrition.
3. No miracles
Follow your own body, not a commercial diet guru. Your body will give you the most useful messages about when, what and how you should eat.
4. Exercise more
Exercise will always be a helpful addition to any effort towards better health.
5. Stop when full
Pay attention, while eating, to when you are full. Your body will tell you when you’ve had enough, especially if you eat slowly and with focus. Avoid snacking during distracted TV time or conversations.
6. Shut the TV
Stop falling prey to diet information that you find online or on infomercials. These messages are most often trying to sell you something and meant to play on people’s deepest insecurities. You will be better off eating what you yourself know to be healthy and experimenting with amounts.
7. Listen to your body
Pay attention to which foods make you feel certain ways. If your body has a bad reaction to a certain item, avoid it. Do you feel very bloated after alcohol? Reduce your consumption. Listening to your body’s messages is naturally intelligent. You will soon realize that it appreciates a banana more than an ice cream sundae.
8. Aim for balance
A balance in life, no matter what the issue at hand, is always the healthiest path to take.
9. Ignore numbers
Don’t get caught up in the decimal figures and numbers of how much weight you’ve lost in how many days. It will serve you better to follow how your body FEELS, whether you’ve lost or gained a few pounds. Healthy living is more important than a number like weight or waist size.
