Are you getting your heart rate up with a regular morning jog? Have you been more mindful of including more veggies with your daily regimen and cutting down on the sweets? Getting a bit more sleep? Or, are you having a bit of difficulty, along with the nearly 80 million Americans who ditched their goals after just one week?
Regardless of whether you’d classify yourself as being successful thus far or not, if you’re one of the 45 percent of Americans who have resolved to take charge and get healthy as part of their overall goals for 2016, you’ve started your year off right just by making the choice to proactively take charge of your health.
With 160 million Americans being classified as either obese or overweight, we all know change is in order. But how is this year going to be any different that all the others? After all, with a diet failure rate of nearly 100 percent, there’s something inherently wrong with our current approach. We want results now, even though it may have taken months or even years to get to the current state of health, or lack thereof, that has been attained.
And the diet industry caters to this need, in a big way; big companies that focus on weight-loss services raked in $6.3 billion in revenue in 2015. Sure, these diets may work in the short term, but one can only deal with caloric restriction for so long. Not only that, but if the education component is missing, a very fundamental piece of long-term success also goes by the wayside.
If the message is that one can eat a “diet” chicken-bacon-ranch pizza and lose weight, but the understanding that this doesn’t translate to pizza being a regular part of a healthy lifestyle approach after the weight is lost, those pounds creep right back on.
It’s everywhere we look; we’re inundated with eating trends, fad diets, quick fixes, pills, powders and mixes on a daily basis.The messages about what actually makes a healthy regimen are confusing, and we’re not eating enough fresh food. In fact, we’re eating so much packaged, processed items that the average American is spending an average of $1,200 per month on fast food.
Here’s the real deal: in a nutshell, if we focus on five key factors, we can set ourselves up for success.Think fresh, local, balance, in season and organic if possible.
Fresh
The sooner something gets to your plate from the tree or the farm, the healthier it will be. No need for stabilizers or preservatives designed to increase shelf life if you’re eating it right away!
Local
With advances in technology, we can have everything and anything we want, regardless of where we may be and where the food we want may have come from. The reality is, we’ve become greedy and sometimes forget to take the time to stop and think about how far that frozen piece of fish has traveled or how far that pint of organic blueberries we find in the grocery store may have flown.
In season
On a similar vein to keeping local, it’s equally important to be conscious of seasonality of foods, as well as how the climate dictates what we intuitively want to eat. Think about how in the summer, a light, grilled fish with a crisp salad sounds appealing whereas in the winter, we may be more inclined to want something hearty and warming.
Balance
Yes, at the end of the day, the number of calories we eat, the amount of fat, protein and carbs consumed and the amount of energy we expend through daily living and exercise will absolutely dictate weight loss, gain or maintenance. But rather than fixate on number of grams of fat or ounces of protein, go for a balanced approach and trust your gut.
Organic
Imagine an eating regimen where the all we need to do is remember to enjoy a balance of ethically sourced protein combined with a healthy portion of veggies and a good dose of natural fats? And the only thing to avoid would be highly processed, refined, GMO food by-products that are now all too common in our marketplace.
The benefits of following the Paleo Diet
This, in a nutshell, is what a real Paleo diet is all about. It’s the very approach I learned about back in 2005 when I first discovered the work of Dr. Loren Cordain and Dr. S. Boyd Eaton. This back to basics eating regimen is what I’ve followed myself for years, as well as with hundreds of clients around the globe; and it truly is the only approach I’ve found that works.
By following the Paleo diet rather than the traditional recommendation for weight loss (low fat, high carb), participants in a recent study experienced greater weight loss at 6, 12 and 18 months, more loss of body fat, waist circumference and sagittal and abdominal diameter.*
Implementing the Paleo Diet also caused greater improvements in blood triglycerides after 2 years than the low fat, high carbohydrate diet.* Other health benefits of following this healthy approach to eating may include: reduction or elimination of allergies, cessation of auto immune symptoms, lowered blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels as well as decreased chances of developing Type 2 diabetes–and that’s just to start!*
Slow and steady wins the race
So why haven’t we been doing this all along? In my experience, there’s one word for it: impatience. We want to lose those extra 15 pounds now. We don’t want to wait for the recommended, gradual, safe weight loss of one half to two pounds per week. And following a real paleo-inspired regimen won’t offer results like a gimmicky approach might.
But what it does have to offer is a slow, steady and safe way to peel off those pounds while improving your overall health simultaneously. Not only that, but by improving your energy levels, sleep quality and mental focus (yes, also inevitable positive outcomes of following a real Paleo diet), you’ll feel fantastic every step of the way.
It’s not just about the number on the scale. It’s about implementing a long term lifestyle eating approach that gives you that spring in your step while empowering you to know which foods not to eat simply because you know they’ll leave you feeling less than.
Eat real food. It truly is that simple!
*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.