How to Outline Your Healthy Eating Plan
If you've come to a point in your life where you've decided that you're unhappy with the way you look or the way you feel, a change in diet can be just the thing you need. But knowing where to begin can be difficult. Before you attempt to lose weight or start a new diet plan, it's a good idea to get it outlined so that you have a firm starting point and realistic goals. Always consult a physician before beginning a new diet or exercise plan.
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Instructions
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Find your body mass index, or BMI, for short. This will let you know how overweight you are, if at all, and how much you need to lose in order to get into a healthy weight range. You can find your BMI at bmicharts.net -- see the link in Resources.
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Eat as you normally would for a few days, and write down everything you eat. Make note of the nutrition facts, including calories, carbs, fats, fiber, protein and food groups. You may not normally think about what you eat, so executing this step will bring your current diet into the forefront of your consciousness, allowing you to evaluate what does or doesn't need to be changed.
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Go over your list and begin finding a few things that you could do without. Eliminate just one or two things that are really bad for you. Don't worry so much about caloric intake at this point, but think more about how processed the food is, how much sugar it has, how many trans fats are involved and things of that nature. Eating healthy isn't all about calories -- it has as much to do with the type of food you eat.
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Begin incorporating new healthy foods to your diet. Eliminating negative foods is a good first step to eating healthier, but it's equally as important to add more nutritious foods. Find a couple healthy foods that you enjoy, such as fruits, salad or nuts and eat those instead of the bad foods that you've eliminated.
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Write down your new diet in a notebook, being sure to include some new healthy foods and omit the old bad foods. Compare this outline to the diet you began with, and make sure that it's healthier. Over time, you can begin omitting more bad foods and incorporating healthier foods, and eventually you'll have a healthy diet.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit diet image by pershing from Fotolia.com
