Each January millions of American’s New Year’s Resolutions include a diet. Unfortunately, most “diets” are restrictive, omit nutritious food groups and are hard to sustain. In 2021 let us shift our paradigm. Instead of a diet, aim to improve your lifestyle for long lasting benefits. What does this look like? Make 3-5 goals aimed at changing or improving a habit. These goals should be attainable and sustainable. For instance, eating breakfast daily or eating 3 fruit servings per day.
When we are talking about lifestyle, improving your sleep hygiene might be on the list. Small changes have big results over time, but this requires patience. As Americans we are not good at being patient but maybe 2020 has helped us learn to be just a little more patient.
At Advice for Eating, we make personal plans for our clients to help them reach their goals. We do not provide cookie cutter plans. Each of our clients is an individual with different goals, lifestyles and likes and dislikes when it comes to food. We work WITH each client when designing their plan so that they can be successful providing as much or little structure as they need. I love my job because of the variety and creativity that I get to use in each individual plan which leads to success for the client.
If you are still planning to start a “diet” this year as a reset, I would like to provide some tips on which are the healthiest diets that will lead you to success.
The following are the most popular diet/lifestyle changes from a healthy point-of-view..…
The Mediterranean Diet: This popular style of eating consistently ranks #1 among the experts. If you have followed our newsletters, you know that we, at Advice for Eating, are very big fans of eating Mediterranean style. Based on the heart-healthy lifestyle of Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal, Mediterranean-style “diets” are not really a diet but a lifestyle that these cultures follow. This includes eating healthy fats such as avocados, olive oil, nuts, and fish at least twice a week, plenty of beans, fruit, leafy greens, and whole grains, and even a daily glass of red wine. You can eat cheese in moderation, but limit the red meat to once or twice a week. It is generally accepted that the people in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and suffer less than most Americans from cancer and cardiovascular disease. Studies have found that following a traditional Mediterranean diet can result in weight loss of about 5-10 % of body weight over 12 months. That weight stays off. A recent British study found that for people who had lost large amounts of weight, those who consumed a Mediterranean-style diet were twice as likely to keep it off. The pros of the Mediterranean diet are it is nutritionally sound and contains diverse food and flavors making it easy to maintain and delicious!
The DASH Diet: Consistently #2 amoung the experts is the DASH diet. The low-sodium Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet was designed as a way to help people control their blood pressure without using drugs. DASH emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or nonfat dairy and limits saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. At Advice for Eating, not only have we seen the blood pressure in our clients come down but it is coupled with weight loss. Following DASH also means capping sodium at 2,300 milligrams a day, which followers will eventually lower to about 1,500 milligrams. DASH Diet is balanced and can be followed long term, which are the key reasons nutrition experts rank it #1 or #2 year after year. The diet is nutritionally sound and heart healthy.
The Flexitarian Diet: This diet continues to rank in the top 3 as well. Whereas the vegan diet goes one step beyond vegetarianism, the flexitarian diet takes it one step back. It is the combination of two words: vegetarian and flexible. This is a very pro-plant diet, but it gives you the flexibility to eat meat. By filling your plate with more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and plant proteins, you can lose weight and improve your health.
A recent review found that people who followed a flexitarian diet had lower body mass indexes and lower rates of metabolic syndrome than people who regularly ate meat. This diet is nutritionally sound and provides the flexibility that many Americans prefer.
When setting your 2021 goals, find a plan that fits your needs long term. There are many tempting diets out there that promise fast results while eating unhealthy food or are quite restrictive. These should be red flags to you. These diets can also be unhealthy. We would love to help you find the best plan for you to meet your goals in 2021! Just reach out to us at Advice For Eating.com we’d love to have a chat either virtually or you can make an in person appointment.