Many things within an individual’s life hinder them from achieving sustainable goals. Before trying to make a change, one should become aware of the limiting factors that their lifestyle possesses and put together strategies to combat them. This will help to make improvements simple to achieve as you’re taking the unpopular route.
Let’s analyse some of these common factors:
Making up for missed meals with larger ones
Ideally, persons should eat meals frequently to meet their demands of calories and nutrients for optimal health. Too many people are skipping breakfast and trying to make up for it by eating the largest possible lunch they can stomach. They promise themselves that they’ll do better the next day but wake up and repeat the cycle. This usually leads to poor food choices.
Soda or beverages with added sugars
Carbohydrates contribute to the sweetened beverages that teenagers and adults love so much. Persons consume lots of carbs from these drinks each day and this affects your weight management and health status.
Eating too much processed foods:
These foods are very calorie dense with low nutritional status, supplying the body with too many fats, salts and sugars. Conveniently, they have a long shelf life, light up your taste buds, are very affordable and always available but daily consumption of them will most likely result in health issues at some point in life.
Eating too little protein
Protein is a very essential nutrient in the body with benefits of lowered calorie intake, loss of body fat and increased muscle mass. Ensuring your meals have protein in them will also improve your feeling of satiation during and between meals.
Emotional eating
Eating the tub of ice-cream while experiencing a negative emotion helps to take your mind off how you’re feeling and put it on the soothing food. That’s satisfying, in the moment. After all the food consumed, which is usually in abundance and with little attention paid, that negative feeling still lingers and you’ve just made an unhealthy decision as a form of a“cure.”The food only serves as a distraction but you should be focusing on taking in that emotional experience and learning to manage it as it is all part of being human.
Eating too little vegetables
Veggies are a good source of fibre, very nutrient- dense and serve to benefit the body in many ways. Each individual should aim for more than 6 servings per day.
Inadequate sleep and recovery
This tricks the body and sends inaccurate hunger pangs throughout the body causing you to want to eat even when you don’t need more food. The absence of a proper sleep and recovery routine will negatively affect your diet and exercise life.
The way you eat
Believe it or not, how you’re eating is an important thing to pay attention to. Eating hurriedly whilst standing up or beyond the point of stuffiness will hold you back, regardless if the meal is nutritious or low in calories.
Eating when the feeling of hunger isn’t present
If you’re not hungry but begin to eat, nothing is indicating when to stop. If you’re eating when you’re not hungry then there’s a good chance that you’ll run into health and weight management issues. This is often the case with persons who recently got off dieting and are trying to make up for everything they missed out.
Not enjoying the meals you’re having
Indulging in or following a nutritional plan that includes the healthy and nutritious meals that a person prefers can go a long way in maintaining results. This ensures satisfaction with meals and controls satiety between meals (less hunger between meals).
Failure to eat when hungry
Some persons avoid eating a meal when they’re hungry because they tell themselves that they are too caught up in work or busy with an important commitment. This results in them drinking or munching on snacks to suppress the natural response of their body. Hunger is a trigger meant to keep you healthy and alive, embrace it.
Tests of the weekends:
It’s no surprise that most of the bad dietary choices are made on the weekend. The weekend should be about you completing a successful week and not you making up for everything you missed out on during the week. That’s counterproductive.
Tempting environment
Having an environment that’s not encouraging you to make the right choices in your eating habits is like waking up every day and having to face a challenge that doesn’t get easier. Your willpower, if tested daily, can easily run out as it’s a finite resource. This will lead to you constantly beating yourself up and eventually giving up in your pursuit of change.
Trying out fad diets
This can affect your confidence in trusting your judgement since you’re given a plan to follow, which was most likely strict (most diets don’t allow for flexibility). When failing to comply with a diet, a person is most likely to make a poor dietary decision and the food usually has a “get it while you can stigma attached to it.”
» Not putting in the work: sometimes it’s not about gaining new knowledge or new products but rather implementing what you already have in your possession. Do your best to make the best choices from the resources you have available. Maintain positive mind-set and you’ll always find solutions.
Inadequate nutrients
It’s harder to get all your nutrients as you used to in the past because the plants and animals today don’t possess the same amount of nutrients like the ones in the past. Knowing this, individuals should opt for nutritional supplement use to make up for the potential lack in their nutritional intake.
Reluctance to learn basic food prep skills
This can help to create a friendly and supportive environment at work and at home, where nutritious meals are always available. This is an essential part of achieving results during a nutritional process.
