AN INFORMED APPROACH TO EATING
When it comes to food, balance is everything: Balance of nutrients for nourishment, ingredients for taste, and different food types for pleasure. A balanced approach to eating keeps your mind happy and your body healthy. As such, it’s important to learn how to make food choices with each of these factors in mind. That is, you must be mindful to eat foods that nourish your body and allow yourself to eat foods that taste good and bring you pleasure.
On my journey to find a more balanced approach to eating, I followed these steps:
- Gain core knowledge
- Master the basics
Together, my undergraduate and graduate studies in nutrition helped me gain a deep understanding of the basic nutrition principles. Learning and really having a solid grasp of the fundamentals was the first step in finding a more balanced approach to eating.
The second step was to master the basics, which involved implementing the basic nutrition principles. I put my knowledge into practice by trying the various methods I learned through study, which helped me adopt healthier eating habits and find my way to better health. I began this practice when I committed to overcoming an unhealthy relationship with food and is something I continue to practice to this day.
In the links that follow, I break down each step and provide you with the information I found to be most useful in helping me find a balanced approach to eating. My hope is this information will guide your efforts in finding an approach to eating that helps you achieve better health, greater happiness, and all other outcomes you so desire.
Step 1: Gain Core Knowledge
You need food to survive. Food promotes growth and gives your body life. For these reasons, it’s important to understand how to interact with food to keep your body thriving.
Unfortunately, food has become a major source of stress for many people. With a new fad-diet being promoted every few months, new and opposing views regarding nutrition showing up in the media every week, and conflicting advice about what to eat coming from every person (healthcare professionals included), it’s no wonder people have developed somewhat of a love-hate relationship with food.
My goal is to clear up the confusion by bringing your focus back to the basics. With a foundational knowledge of nutrition, you can easily master the skill of healthy eating, which is a must when it comes to achieving any health or fitness goal. A solid understanding of the basic nutrition principles will help you make better food choices daily, which means better eating year-round and less time spent trying to undo unhealthy eating habits.
Click HERE to learn the basic nutrition principles.
Step 2: Master the Basics
Once you have reviewed the basics, it’s time to put what you know into practice. The learning process doesn’t stop at gathering information; it requires two additional steps: applying that information and analyzing the outcomes. By applying your newly acquired knowledge, you’ll begin to solidify the basic nutrition principles through your own experiences.
I’ve seen these steps at work in my own life. As my nutrition knowledge grew, I continued to implement what I learned through study in both my personal and professional life. After ten plus years of putting my knowledge into practice, experience taught me which choices, and thus which behaviors, were the most likely to result in the desired outcomes for myself and my clients. There are four behaviors and seven choices coinciding with each behavior, which are outlined in the chart below.
Adopting these behaviors promotes a balanced approach to eating: an approach that has proven time and time again to be effective, sustainable, and best of all, enjoyable. The way to adopt these behaviors is by incorporating the choices illustrated in the chart into your daily eating routine. Each choice offers a great deal of flexibility and allows you to find a way of eating that best supports you and your evolving needs.
Click on the boxes to find detailed information about each of the choices. I encourage you to read through this information, as it will deepen your understanding of the importance of each choice and give you examples of how to include them in your daily life.
