Make Over Your Diet

The first step towards eating well is changing your thoughts about food

Being active is just one very important part of the healthy-living equation. Equally important is your diet. For many of you, diet has become a four-letter word. You’ve probably tried your fair share of weight-loss plans over the years and had some success – at least at first. But the problem is that most diets don’t offer a long-lasting solution because they don’t provide real opportunities for permanent change.

Start your Two-Week Total Body Turnaround by taking a good look at your eating habits and then following these simple tips to improve them

Get into the habit of “clean” eating.

That’s about as easy as it sounds. To make your body healthier, eliminate as many preservatives, additives, processed sugars and as much junk from your diet as possible. Clean eating means fresh fruit and vegetables, low-fat or fat-free dairy and lean meats, poultry or fish. It means whole grains or grain alternatives, like brown rice, quinoa and oats. It means avoiding most of the interior aisles at the supermarket and hitting up the perimeter, where you find produce, meat and dairy, not the processed, boxed foods loaded with additives and artificial stuff.

Keep three words in mind: plant, tree, animal.

Your food should look like it came from something living and should be easily identifiable – broccoli that looks like broccoli, fish that looks like fish. Fill your trolley with colourful choices so by the time you hit the inner aisles, your trolley should already be pretty full.

Bring a shopping list to the store.

Guidelines from the American National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute show you can cut down the time you spend cooking by using a shopping list and keeping your kitchen well stocked.

Be a label reader.