New Year's Resolution #1 - Eat Healthier

As I made my New Year's Resolutions the other day I thought about the typical 'I want to lose weight' resolution. But then I decided that wasn't enough. I didn't just want to lose weight, I wanted to become a healthier person. I've lost weight before, but greatly due to a very restricted diet. As par for the course with those types of diets, it didn't last. I also tried Weight Watchers once and it didn't work for me. I was kind of turned off by the people in meetings who would say they went to a Super Bowl party and only ate 5 carrots and drank 1 light beer. Personally, I would rather eat really well 80% of the time and bust my ass at the gym and still be able to enjoy wings and dips.

 

I decided that I want to be healthier over all. God gave me this body I'm in and I owe it to Him to take care of it to the best of my ability.

My first Resolution is to eat a better diet. Primarily cut out food with high-fructose corn syrup and fried foods. Eventually I would like to move to a 'clean-eating' diet. But I know that is a drastic change from my current eating habits and a drastic change like that would probably not be successful.

 

1. I am going to bring only healthy, nutrient dense food into my home. I'm not going to do a clean sweep of my kitchen and get rid of EVERYTHING that is 'unhealthy.' I think it's silly to waste that money. However, I will be mixing the good and bad foods and hope it's a good conversion for my little man.

 

2. I am going to plan out my meals. Meal planning is the easiest, most simple way to eat healthier. If you have a plan and stick to it, it keeps you from standing in front of the fridge wondering what to eat and settling on the tub of ice cream. (Which won't be coming into my house anymore)

 

3. I will be bringing my lunch to work everyday. It's much easier to control what you eat when you bring your lunch. Also, the only place near my office that is 'healthy' is a smoothie place and I don't want a smoothie everyday. Plus, it's expensive to eat lunch out everyday. So to save my health and money, I will be bringing my lunch to work everyday.

 

4. I will be keeping a food diary. This is a great way to keep track of what I eat. I tend to snack a bit during the day, grabbing a tootsie roll or two at work. And I don't want to see that 3 days in a row I ate 5 tootsie rolls. Also, keeping a food diary will let me look at what I've eaten over the past week and decide whether or not I should indulge a bit over the weekend.

 

I'm not saying my plan is fool proof, nor am I saying that I won't slip up and bring a carton of fro-yo into the house. But if I can stick to these healthy eating basics, I know that transitioning to an even healthier diet will be much easier. Ultimately, I want to get to a point where highly processed, over sweetened foods actually taste bad to me.

 

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy 2014!