Do you want to improve your diet, but feel overwhelmed? Not sure where to start? Whether you have a diagnosis that requires you to make changes or just want to move toward healthy eating habits (and maybe avoid a diagnosis), the time to start is now! Check out these tips for making dietary changes without going crazy or feeling deprived. You can do it!
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Are you overwhelmed by the idea of improving your diet? Do you “eat healthy” for a few days or a week, then revert to old patterns? Do you sort of know it would be good to eat better but never get around to it?
Have you gotten a diagnosis that requires to to make changes to get well? This can be motivating, but it can also be scary. Some of us don’t make progress very easily when we get scared!
Neither inertia nor fear need to hold you back when it comes to cleaning up your eating habits, whatever the reason. Whether slowly or quickly, you, too, can move toward eating habits that nourish you, that do not harm you, and that you enjoy more than your old way of eating.
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What I know
I am not a health professional, or a culinary artist, or a dietician. Nothing in an “expert” class of any sort. I am a very ordinary wife and mother, I like to cook, I like to read, I like to eat good food, and I have used food as one strategy for dealing with our family’s many health troubles.
I have made dietary changes a bunch of times, either for myself or for a family member. Of necessity, I have figured out how to do it tolerably well, mistakes included. From life threatening food allergy to celiac disease (twice- for two different family members), to voluntary diet changes for specific purposes like the GAPS diet, I have been around this block several times. Read more about our saga here.
The other thing I know
I will not tell you that diet is everything when it comes to regaining or maintaining health. Lots of factors comprise good health, and you can do quite a bit about most of them. However, I don’t think we can control everything, and I don’t think eating healthy is the only thing we ever need to do.
That said, the food most Americans eat is seriously working against us, both physically and mentally. The “Standard American Diet”– SAD– really is pretty sad. People are suffering!
Low nutritional content in food(read more) plus the presence of damaging ingredients (here are 12 of the common ones) in many foods make a double health whammy. I don’t like to think of food as “poisoning” us, but we seem to pretty much have twin problems of “malnutrition” and “poison” going on at the same time.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though!
Image by Gundula Vogel from Pixabay
So What Does “Eating Healthy” Mean?
I’m not going to give an exact answer. It isn’t too much of a stretch to suggest that real, high quality food without lab-produced or heavily processed ingredients is a decent starting point.
You can find all sorts of “diets”– some are better researched than others, many veer into fad-ish and even cult-ish tendencies, and they can clash wildly. From vegan to carnivore, opinions abound. So do horror stories and success stories.
Maybe you, too, have read many different articles and books from all sorts of perspectives. You may have formed ideas of what is most accurate, or figured out by trial and error what seems to work well for you. Perhaps you have a health practitioner advising you.
Or you don’t really know or want to know…
There might not be one simple answer for everyone!
Whatever your case, I would suggest that there are some principles that tend to promote health, and also that people vary somewhat. Perhaps this is one reason the vegan and the carnivore may honestly say that their totally different diets work for them, at least for awhile. (But they might find it challenging to be married to each other!)
Additionally, sometimes a person may benefit from some way of eating while in a healing phase, then no longer need that strictness later on. This can be true of both vegans and carnivores, as well as specific healing protocols such as GAPS or AIP.
Healthy Eating– How to Make Changes
I’m not going to tell you how to eat– it varies somewhat according to individual needs, anyway. Of course, I have opinions, and our family has figured out some things that seem to help and others that don’t. We’re still working on it! I won’t get into that very much. We’ll mostly talk over how to get improvements to happen in real life.
People take different approaches– as I have– and there is a time and a place for rather different ways of implementing healthy eating habits.
Cold Turkey
Sudden, abrupt, total transformation seems like the hardest! It may not be the best way to go for most people, and it might be critically important for others.
I used the cold turkey approach when we figured out our son had multiple, severe food allergies. He was still nursing at the time, so I had to follow his diet. I threw a lot of food away that my husband wouldn’t likely eat. You may be able to donate sealed food packages to a food pantry or give them to a friend.
If you go cold turkey, figure out one breakfast, lunch, and dinner that works. It may be repetitive at first, but you can expand your options pretty soon.
This happened to me when I found out I had celiac disease. I didn’t throw anything away, since my family didn’t have to change. I identified a few foods that I could eat and had a lot of those while I figured out what else to have. It was really just a few days, and soon I was eating more variety.
You might benefit from a cold turkey approach if:
- you are addressing a life threatening food allergy you just found out about
- celiac disease– not instantly life-threatening, but you won’t improve without totally ditching gluten
- other very serious diagnosis– cancer, diabetes, etc.– that may require other treatment than food, but also that absolutely demands the right food for healing
- you have that temperament– maybe you want to get the adjustment period over with, or maybe you thrive on the total-makeover approach and will be more likely to maintain your progress this way
- you have a limited time window to tackle it– maybe you can take a month off work to focus on diet and such, but then you will be back at work and you need things functioning by then
You may find that you go through a more intense detox reaction if you ditch unhealthy food fast.
Prioritize and Spread Out Changes
This approach is very manageable, and you can set your own pace. If you are prone to overwhelm, you might find it easier to work on one goal, then tackle another, and just keep on at the pace that works for you.
Work on one thing first and move on when you have that one mastered. Once you have a second change under your belt, go for the third one. Changes add up, and you will probably find that you get more skilled at implementing new food habits as you go, so the pace might pick up. If not, you are still progressing!
Or give yourself a time frame!
If you like a schedule or a deadline, pick one change per week, or month, and do just one thing in that amount of time.
A drawback to this step-wise approach is that you may have to keep rethinking the same thing. For example, if you figure out how to make good gluten free pancakes, then later remove sugar, you might have to take the sugar out of the recipe and also rethink your syrup choices. It’s not the end of the world, but it can feel like a never-ending process.
Wait until you run out of something
I tend to favor this way of changing to better personal care or cleaning products. I am still sort of doing it, though I have mostly changed those items. Basically, when you need more toothpaste, pick a better one. Don’t toss everything, research better alternatives for 179 products, and spend a fortune all in one day.
You can do this in the kitchen, too. When the canola oil you now know isn’t so good for you is gone, switch to something else. This way, you make a few decisions and changes each week, but you don’t have to tackle everything at once. You also don’t have to spend a bunch of money to replace all your staples in one grocery run!
Improving as you go has the drawback that you need to do quite a lot at first. If you have been relying on boxed cereal and frozen waffles for breakfast, for example, you might find you are tempted to give up or do it next week. One way to deal would be to figure out just one breakfast item and have that until you get around to adding another.
Image by -Rita-👩🍳 und 📷 mit ❤ from Pixabay
Mindset around Healthy Eating
You may get as tired as I of hearing about mindset. The thing is that the way we think about the changes that could help us really does affect our success. As cliché as mindset seems, we all do better when we coach ourselves along. Find true, encouraging ideas and strategies that work. Here are some tips:
Make a list of what you can (or choose to) eat– not just what you will avoid
This could be single foods (like an apple) or particular recipes that work (like a soup) or a meal combo (like a beef patty, baked potato and cooked vegetable). Keep ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, treats, snacks, eating out, etc. Whatever categories you need.
Even if your list seems short at first, you have a start. As you go, your list will expand. Every new item will greatly improve your repertoire at first, and you will feel better about things. You also won’t have to expend energy thinking dinner through over and over– your list will relieve some of that.
Enlist help
Consider hiring a professional, even for just one session. If you know someone who has made similar changes, talk with them. Specific products or recipe sources, stores or farms to visit, encouragement, pointers, etc., all help.
I have talked with many total strangers (often friends of friends) who were embarking on the food allergy adjustment. Friends of friends may offer support, and you will help others later!
Find a “community”
Though community is another overused term, it is good to find others in your situation. I didn’t have this when we entered the food allergy or celiac worlds, but I read magazines back then. We made it.
When we started the GAPS diet, I joined some online groups. Even online, it helps to “know” others doing the same thing. Not only can you learn a lot, but you may find encouragement in connecting with others who are in the same boat. All the more if you don’t know a soul in real life with the same situation!
Know why you are making these changes
If it is because of a life threatening food allergy, for example, this is pretty easy!
If you just want to keep your health, the whole thing can seem nebulous and easy to abandon. Spend a little time reflecting.
Do you want your kids to keep on the good side of the statistics and thrive as they grow? Are you hoping to be an energetic and fun grandmother? Do you have an athletic goal? Is there a diagnosis you hope you lose, or manage well?
Define your reasons as precisely as you need to so that you have a focus for your efforts.
Expect mistakes and failures
They are normal and not totally avoidable. Try not to worry too much about them when they happen. Just deal with any consequences, pick yourself up, and move forward again.
Also, I find I usually learn some little thing from each mistake. They don’t have to be a total loss.
Plan to continue learning and improving
If you enjoy this area of learning, this is easy. If not, that is OK– whatever improvements you make now are not set in stone. You can keep improving on your own timetable.
Later, you may learn something that prompts another small change. Maybe your situation will improve and you will adjust, adding back in a food you used to be allergic to, for example. Or you may notice that a particular food makes you feel better (or worse) and make a change for that reason!
Life isn’t all food
If changing your food is hard, think a little about the parts of life that aren’t changing. There are probably a lot of them– faith, friends and family, church, work, books, music– the list goes on on and on. It helps to avoid too much focus on food, when life is full of a lot of other wonderful things! If you need to, list out the things you still love to do and review it when you feel discouraged.
Don’t let food isolate you
If you really must avoid a food or you could die, people will understand, mostly. If you are making a choice for health reasons, you might occasionally compromise in social situations.
Either way, keep the dietary needs and choices in perspective. While there may be events you skip, try to make it to those that you really want to attend, even if the food is a hassle.
If needed, take your food along. Social events are about the people, not the food. Even the ones focused on food are really about the people. Eat how you need to– and connect with your people! Have a treat later if you feel sorry for yourself. (We did this for our kids if they missed out then they were little, especially.)
In short– don’t let food run your life. Our kids attended their friends’ birthday parties. We go on trips and eat out. We have taken food to family dinners and not. Potlucks, outings, events, friends’ houses… it can be done. Once in awhile, we skip something just because the food seems daunting. Mostly, we don’t let our dietary needs hold us back!
Apply your faith
You may or may not share my beliefs, but I will say my bit here and you can skip it if you want.
I believe God designed our bodies to work well, and that things are messed up because of the general effects of sin on the world. (Plus specific effects, like if I overeat and feel bad. That’s on me!) Even though things are broken, I believe God graciously gave us many ways to help– good food, herbs, sunlight, etc. It is right to use them wisely!
Another belief I apply to health is that God intends us to take care of what He gave us. Our bodies and minds, for example. I suggest that we not feel guilty when we have health struggles, but work with His design in caring for health and addressing problems. (Probably Yellow #5 isn’t working with His design at all.)
In eating foods God made for us, I am respecting His design. (I am not attributing Yellow #5 to God.) Actually, the more I learn, the more I see the great kindness of God in providing so many benefits for us, even if we have messed things up. He knew we would need healing foods and herbs, for example, and here they are!
Be of good courage and hope
The hardest part of changing your diet is usually at first. As your new habits become comfortable and familiar, they will also seem easier. There is a snowball effect; the ease and effects grow ever faster as you go along. The first week might be pretty hard. But you may not even notice the tenth week. It gets easier! If you remember one tip, remember that it gets easier.
The changes may become preferences
You may have to take this on faith, but it has happened to my family multiple times. I won’t say that I never think fondly of a Twix bar or a loaf of San Francisco sourdough.
Still, I enjoy our meals now more than ever. When we eat out, the food is often a bit disappointing. Treats I used to like now and then– a Coke, a shamrock shake, a coffee shop pumpkin spice latte– actually taste awful to me now. (I love my own PSL, though!) Some of my family members say the same.
If it is a food you actually could eat but choose to limit, it can be a little disappointing at first when you find that your old “treats” are gross! However, training our taste is possible– in many areas besides just food. Liking the good stuff and not enjoying lesser things is beneficial in so many ways!
No Idea HOW to Start Healthy Eating?
If you know what you need to do, then go get started!
If you aren’t really sure, consider one of these starting points:
- breakfast! Most American breakfasts are pretty bad. If you start the day well, the rest is easier, too. Figure out a good breakfast, and get that going. There is no rule about what breakfast has to be– soup is great!
- switch to healthy fats and salt— both fat and salt have been vilified, but you need good versions of both. If you think about it, most dishes contain some fat and salt. If you address those, everything you make will be a bit better for you. A mineral rich salt like Himalayan, Celtic, Redmond’s, or similar ones, plus high quality fats like regenerative beef tallow, grass fed butter or ghee, unrefined coconut and olive oil, etc., make your food better for you and also good tasting.
- cook your own food— you will do better than factories, even if your ingredients aren’t perfect. Start simple if needed, and built up a repertoire! Scrambled eggs, a beef patty or chicken breast, a simple salad and dressing…
- to learn more, I suggest Weston A . Price and this cookbook if your health is good and the GAPS diet (starting with this book focused more on brain-related issues or this one that is more about physiological problems) if you need to heal something.
Happy, healthy eating!
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