How to start eating right - for weight loss and for body health

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A healthy lifestyle came into fashion several years ago and is not yet going to lose its position, attracting more and more people to its side. Young people who have given up bad habits and switched to proper nutrition combined with physical activity are especially proud of their commitment to a healthy lifestyle. It's important to understand that healthy habits are only healthy if they're right for you. A proper diet is a balanced diet, and it has almost nothing in common with strict diets. We will tell you how to start writing correctly from scratch and build a nutrition system step by step.

Get a doctor's opinion

In matters of health, the main principle should be the principle of “do no harm,” and without the necessary knowledge, it is very easy to cause serious harm to your health. The Internet is full of “helpful” tips and “tested” recipes, but you need to follow them carefully. At best, such advice will be useless, and at worst, it will land you in a hospital bed. Their main problem is that they are written “for everyone,” i.e. These recommendations do not take into account individual characteristics of a person.

Only a doctor can tell you exactly what nutritional rules you should follow; he will give his recommendations after studying your medical record and personal communication with you. Depending on age, weight, muscle mass, the presence of chronic diseases and other factors, the doctor will give advice on developing a diet and eating regimen. He may prescribe you a diet, advise you to remove certain foods from your diet or, conversely, add certain foods to it. This is necessary to maintain the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the body. It is especially important for overweight people to stop overeating and start eating right, because excess weight creates a large burden on the entire body.

How to switch to proper nutrition

To get started, make a list of everything you eat in a day, indicating the amount and time you eat it. This will allow you to more clearly evaluate and analyze your diet, and understand what changes need to be made.

And here many people ask how easy it is to switch to proper nutrition. According to research, it takes about three months to form new habits (including food habits). It can be quite difficult to survive this period and successfully cope with the task. There are some useful recommendations in this regard:

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1. Adhere to the principle of gradualism.

Start by teaching yourself to have breakfast, minimize your consumption of sweets, not eat fast food, etc. If you want to switch to proper nutrition, it is important to do everything step by step. There are two ways.

First, eliminate all harmful foods from your diet, find healthy replacements for them, and then reduce portions.
First, thoroughly reduce your consumption of, for example, baked goods, and then figure out what you can replace them with in order to switch to proper and nutritious nutrition.

2. Add spices to your food.

Often, after people have decided to switch to proper nutrition, you can hear feedback that there is a feeling of dullness of taste. This happens because industrial semi-finished products usually contain a lot of salt, food additives, spices, etc. They interfere with the normal perception of the natural taste of food by receptors. These sensations gradually pass. To reconfigure your body and switch to proper nutrition, add all kinds of natural spices to your food: herbs de Provence, turmeric, coriander, pepper, etc.

3. Try to create a varied menu.

There are many recipes for preparing delicious and at the same time healthy dishes, including many desserts.

4. Eliminate white bread and baked goods from your diet as much as possible.

Give preference to whole grain bread, made from rye flour or with added bran.

5. Eat as little fried food as possible.

When wondering how to switch to proper nutrition, you need to know that most foods contain many substances necessary for health, but frying in large amounts of oil reduces their beneficial properties to zero. The dish turns out to be fatty and very high in calories.

6. Eat lean veal, rabbit, poultry instead of sausage and all kinds of semi-finished products.

Studies have shown that consuming large quantities of beef, lamb and pork can provoke the development of gout, disorders of the large intestine, and urolithiasis. How to switch to proper nutrition given this information? Include red meat in your menu two to three times a week, but not more often.

7. Reconsider the contents of your plate.

If you set yourself the task of switching to proper nutrition and losing weight, then it’s better to forget about fried potatoes. Use cereals, eat more stewed or boiled vegetables.

8. Choose your dairy products wisely.

It is better to give preference to soft varieties of cheeses, and eat hard ones occasionally and a little at a time. Do not buy curd mass in the store, prepare it at home. It's very simple: just take grain cottage cheese, add any ingredients to it to taste, such as berries and dried fruits, plus low-fat sour cream. Mix everything and beat. This is much healthier than a ready-made store-bought product, especially if you are looking for ways to switch to proper nutrition.

9. Consume more vegetables, berries, fruits, at least twice a day.

You should only be careful with fruits rich in glucose. This advice especially applies to those who are overweight. How to switch to proper nutrition and lose weight? Do not overuse bananas, figs, and grapes. Two bananas contain the daily glucose requirement for an adult.

10. Completely remove sugar from your diet.

You must follow this rule if you are faced with the question of how to switch to proper nutrition for weight loss. Almost any nutritionist will give this recommendation. Some people will get used to going without sugar in three days, while for others the “suffering” can last for a couple of weeks. Carbohydrates essential for health are found in vegetables, fruits, grains and grains. Eating sugar in its pure form leads to excess weight, the appearance of pimples and acne, caries, calcium leaching, the development of fungus, and the formation of cellulite. How to switch to proper nutrition without harming your body? Replace sugar with honey, dried fruit or maple syrup.

Analyze your regular menu

Would you be surprised if we told you that many people simply don't notice what they eat? Eating is a process that we repeat several times a day, every day. When a person is immersed in other matters and thoughts, he eats almost “automatically,” and while we still notice the main meals, snacks often go unnoticed. There is a danger in this, because snacks mainly consist of “junk” food, the purpose of which is to quickly satisfy a slight hunger or provide momentary pleasure. Therefore, it often contains excess fat or sugar.

General rules and principles of healthy eating

The first study on healthy eating was conducted in 1973 in Finland. Over the years of the experiment, in the region where the study was conducted (North Karelia), the mortality rate of the population from obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases decreased by 7 times. This is just one of many studies that prove the need for healthy eating.

We bring to your attention 10 basic principles that will help you create a healthy diet for every day, change your attitude towards food choice and food culture.

Diet. To eat healthy, you should have at least 5 meals a day. This is breakfast, lunch, dinner and light snacks in between. It is optimal that no more and no less than 2.5 hours pass between meals. For convenience, until the regime becomes a habit, use checklists and mark each meal.
A varied diet. Eat as many different vegetables and fruits as possible. The more vegetables on your plate and the brighter and more colorful it is, the better.
Calorie content. The process of calorie absorption is individual for each organism and depends on the characteristics of metabolism. Instead of counting calories in each serving, keep a food diary and note in it every day what foods you ate and in what quantities, how it affected your condition, mood, and health. If this method seems difficult to you, use special programs and applications for calorie counting, but do not focus on them. The more you limit yourself, the more difficult it will be for you to get used to PP.
Replacement of harmful products with useful analogues. Instead of white bread, buy whole grain bread, instead of sweet bars for a snack, choose 1-2 bananas, instead of instant cereal - cereal porridge.
Studying the composition of products. Carefully read the ingredients of the products you choose in the supermarket. Buy products with natural ingredients.
Elimination of harmful products. Eliminate chips, soda, sausage, sauces, mayonnaise, ketchup, and fast food from your diet forever. Go to the supermarket with a pre-compiled list so as not to be tempted by various “harmful things”.
Preference for unprocessed foods . Eat more fresh vegetables and fruits than processed ones.
More water throughout the day . It is advisable to drink at least 2 liters of water per day. Drink in small sips, slowly.
Mandatory snacks . Fruits, nuts, bread, cottage cheese and any other light dietary products that help dull the feeling of hunger between main meals are required.
Reduce salt intake . Salt retains excess water in the body and puts stress on the kidneys. Monitor the amount of salt you consume per day. Eliminate unhealthy pickles from your menu, such as dried or smoked fish. (read more about how to give up salt).

Develop a balanced menu

The main advantage of a balanced menu is that it does not impose prohibitions. You don't have to give up sweet or fatty foods in favor of lean cereals. It is important that all the foods you eat are systematized and fit into the overall system of distribution of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The Ministry of Health and WHO recommend maintaining the following proportions in the diet:

proteins - 10-15%
fats - 30%
carbohydrates - 55-60%

It’s quite difficult to figure out all this on your own, especially at the beginning, because we are not used to “counting calories” and don’t know the calorie content of even familiar foods. A nutritionist comes to the rescue. He will teach you how to properly create a menu and take into account the necessary balance.

But it is important not only “what is”, but also “when it is”. It is important that the body receives most of the required daily amount of carbohydrates in the first half of the day, because this is the energy that we can spend on work and performing daily tasks. So, load up on carbs for breakfast and lunch, but remember that not all carbs are created equal. It is better to give preference to slow carbohydrates, which are found, for example, in cereals. These carbohydrates are digested and absorbed slowly, so the feeling of fullness lasts longer, and the person does not need to run for the next portion. Fast carbohydrates, which confectionery products are rich in, are quickly processed, so hunger will not keep you waiting, and with it, extra pounds.

Choose the “right” sweets

It is most difficult for those with a sweet tooth to follow a certain diet or diet. They cannot completely give up sweets, and if they try to do this, they often “break down,” which can be even more dangerous for the body. Fortunately, proper nutrition does not imply a complete exclusion of sweets. It is only important to choose the right source of pleasure and switch to sweets that contain natural sugar. These are fruits, berries, nuts and homemade dried fruit candies. Natural sugar is better absorbed and will not contribute to weight gain as much as sugar used in confectionery production. But if you cannot completely give up cakes and pastries, then supplement them with your main meal, so you can limit yourself to a small portion and satisfy your need for sweets. But it’s better to pamper yourself in the first half of the day, since the carbohydrates that entered the body after lunch will not have time to be used up and will be deposited in adipose tissue.

Learn to count calories

Sooner or later you will have to learn to control the calories you consume. It may be difficult at first, but then it will become a habit. You will remember the approximate caloric content of the main products of your diet and can easily maintain balance. If you lead an active lifestyle with regular physical activity, then the calorie content of your daily diet may be higher, and if you don’t move much, then reduce the amount of calories you consume. When determining your individual norm, you can follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health: 2400 kcal for men and 2200 kcal for women.

Dietary supplements and vitamins

Advertising for dietary supplements follows us everywhere, and every manufacturer claims that supplements are simply necessary for a normal life, while Russian residents do not receive some natural vitamins. To some extent, this is true, iodine and vitamin D deficiency is indeed common, but this is not a reason to abuse supplements. What is characteristic of “many” is not necessarily characteristic of you personally. A real deficiency of some microelement can be shown by a blood test, and the deficiency can be caused not only by an incorrect diet, but also by the presence of a disease. The same can be said about an excess of microelements. In this case, dietary supplements will only worsen the situation.

Do not try to prescribe “treatment” for yourself, this is the doctor’s task. Even if you purchase over-the-counter medications, you are responsible for how they affect your body. Proper nutrition is a system, not a lottery, so you need to build it from the basics and wisely, guided not by the opinion of the majority, but by the advice of experts.

Power Mode Meaning

“If we imagine a person mentally busy in the midst of some heated official activity, then how often it happens that such a person cannot take his mind off his work for a minute. He eats as if unnoticed by himself, eats in the midst of uninterrupted work... Such systematic inattention to food, of course, prepares in the more or less near future a disorder of the digestive system with all its consequences.” – wrote Russian and Soviet physiologist I. P. Pavlov

During a meal, for some time after it, the digestive glands produce quite a significant amount of juice, after which they need to rest. During a pause that lasts several hours, the glands receive from the blood new portions of the substances necessary for the production of digestive juices, and then resume their activity again. Due to this rhythm of work of the digestive glands, it is necessary to follow a certain diet.

You should always eat at the same time, and then the digestive organs adapt most perfectly to the next meal, and appetite appears at the usual hours. The activity of the digestive glands will be most active, and the digestive power of the juices will be the highest.

Irregular meals disrupt the functioning of the digestive organs. Doctors' observations show that a significant part of chronic gastrointestinal diseases occurs due to irregular nutrition. This is why it is very important to have specific hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner.