Every moment of everyday we make decisions about how we treat our bodies and our minds. As the saying goes garbage in garbage out, but it’s easy to forget the impact our food and beverage choices have on our health. So I’ve got a few tips to help you start being more conscious about what you’re consuming and why you should take the time to think about what decisions are right for you on a longer-term basis.
Why should you think about what you eat?
There are various reasons why you would want to think about what foods and drinks go in your body but here are two of the big ones:
- Food impacts the way you feel on a daily basis, it can make you feel alive or sleepy, and this very much depends on your individual body, everyone’s is different!
- It impacts how you feel long term, your long term physical health can suffer from too much fat, cholesterol, or iron, conversely, you can suffer because you lack these nutrients in your diet as well.
When it comes to food it is important to take a balanced approach.
Why is it so hard to be conscious about what you eat?
Socialising
The reason it’s so hard to think about what you eat and start eating better is that the consumption of food and drinks are very much linked to how we socialize with others. Think about the last five times you spent time with friends or family and what you were doing with them.
I can guarentee that every interaction involved some kind of food or drink.
I will give you some examples of the social activities I had in the last week and what foods were present at the time.
- Monday: We had morning tea at work, this involved a plethora of cakes and snacks.
- Tuesday & Wednesday: Leftover cake from Monday was enjoyed
- Thursday: Pizza and drinks out with colleagues
- Friday: Lunch out with a good friend
So, when we gather for social events food and drinks are the glue and inherent in our daily lives. Let’s face it if you are a human being you are likely to enjoy the company of others over all kinds of food and drinks. This means there is no getting away from eating or drinking! Which is why it is so hard to make changes to what you’re consuming when everyone around you is eating things you’ve decided aren’t good for you.
Emotions!
Food can be a way for you to deal with emotions good or bad – have you ever stopped to realize how connected your emotions are with what you eat?
If you’re happy you may reward yourself or sad comisserate and eat cake.
Think about it, when you’ve had a hard day what do you reach for? Is it carrot sticks and kale? I think not. This is because things like chocolates and cake are what give us a boost at least for the short term and make us feel better about life.
Things like stress eating are real! And really are an unhealthy way of dealing with your emotions. Apart from the fact that the food you’re consuming isn’t good for you, the real issue is you aren’t really dealing with the cause of what is bothering you. Eating or drinking only serves to put a temporary blanket over your emotions but later once the effects of these have worn off you will still feel the underlying problem lurking.
Becoming Conscious about what you consume
Now you know why it’s a difficult road toward changing the way you consume food and drinks we’ll discuss how you can start to become more conscious about your choices.
First up the thing is to begin to track what you’re eating and drinking and how you’re feeling at the time you consume it.
Because thinking about how much you eat is one thing but why you’re eating X, Y, or Z is another. This may be an uncomfortable thing to realize and a reality check about what is really driving your eating and drinking behavior. However, becoming aware is the first step to being able to make the changes you want to make in order to Get Healthy!
Just for you, we’ve created a free downloadable tracker [no email required, the link will take you directly to Dropbox] to help you with becoming more conscious about your eating habits.
Deciding what to change
Once you have become aware of the pitfalls you commonly encounter that are associated with your eating and drinking habits you will be ready to really deal with the underlying cause of your consumption battles. You may have already found some of this out while attempting a plethora of different diets that ultimately fail likely because of one or both of these reasons.
Ultimately it’s up to you to decide what changes are important to you that will get you from where you are to where you want to be. And it is also up to you to decide what sacrifices you are willing to make in order to get there.
Check out our blog post answering this question: What should I do to get healthy? which will help you figure out what the next step is for you.