Find Your Detour to Healthy Eating

“I’m too busy”, “It takes too much time”, “I work long hours”, and “the kids have sports”. Obstacles, barriers, or just plain excuses to healthy eating; we all have them. The benefits of consuming a healthy diet are numerous and range from simply feeling better, more energy (and who can’t use that), bowel regularity, improved control of blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol levels. A balanced diet that results in weight loss could reduce pressure and pain from osteoarthritis in the knees or hips. Regular eating habits that improve blood sugar control can decrease your risk of developing diabetes or help manage the pain of some complications such as peripheral neuropathy.

So why are so many satisfied to stop at the road block? Think of other areas in your life where you have run into road blocks. How did you respond? Chances are you actively sought to find your way around that road block. Maybe you asked others for advice, researched more info on the internet, bought a how to book, slept on it, or offered up a prayer.

Yes, healthy eating presents a variety of challenges, but there are ways around these barriers. I often advise clients to break things down and work on 1-2 small changes at a time. For example, the most well intentioned person will not be able to prepare healthy meals if they don’t know how to cook. In that case, the first goal should be to seek out a class or a friend to help them learn. It is also important to be able to “see the forest thru the trees” so to speak. I recently had someone approach me with the worry about which meal of the day should be the largest when actually he was only eating one meal a day. For him, the first and most basic step was to start eating 3 meals a day regardless of relative size.

In another example, I watched a financially struggling family in the documentary “Food, Inc” tell the audience that broccoli @ $1.29 was too expensive after we just watched them go through the drive thru for $1 burgers just to spend $3.60 on sodas.

Finding your nutritional detour may not be easy, but it is well worth the effort.

Send comments to editor@pain.com or post a comment below.