56. How to learn to like eating healthy
How do you learn to like eating healthy? This is a question I received on Instagram and I found it very interesting because the meaning we attach to the word healthy can influence how easy or difficult we perceive it to achieve.
In this episode I discuss what healthy may or may not look like for you and steps to help you make changes to live a healthier lifestyle and eat in a healthier way without feeling deprived or overwhelmed.
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I received a question yesterday on Instagram from someone who asked, How do I learn to like eating healthy? With a sad face emoji at the end.
There are many ways I could interpret this, but the tone I read it in was with an underlying perception that eating healthy is boring and tasteless, I’m being deprived and missing out in all the good stuff when it comes to healthy eating. Scarcity, being on a diet and not being allowed to eat the tasty things I want… the black and white this food is good this food is bad sort of mentality.
Now I could give you a million and one different reasons as to why you could want to eat healthy. Weight, energy levels, skin, performance, appearance, fertility, strength, longevity, gut symptoms - some might mean something to you, others will be totally irrelevant based on your life stage and personal goals.
I find that often people want me to explicitly tell them what to eat, but that would be setting them up for failure because it needs to come from within.
I will throw the question back to you, why do or why would you want to eat healthy (and enjoy it)? What are you making it mean to eat healthy? What’s the end goal of eating healthier.. why is it important to you?
With any change in behaviour we need to be motivated enough to actually do something different because we won’t get different results otherwise.
So why would you want to eat healthy?
The number one reason in my experience that at least initially drives people is aesthetic. Weight, or physical appearance, body composition or leanness. They want to look good feel good in and about their body. Which could be to get leaner, to lose weight or on the flip side it might be to gain weight bulk up and build more muscle… They may not explicitity say it, but it may be a deeper driving factor.
Performance is another reason, wanting to optimise training and recovery. To be able to perform their best at work, in their sport and at home.
A third key reason for many people is health. Both present and future healthy. I have worked with many people who have been quickly motivated to level up their nutrition and health after a major health scare. That could be a diagnosis or a blood test showing high cholesterol levels, pre-diabetes. These are often very strong motivators to kickstart people in to doing a complete overhaul in their diet and lifestyle to support longevity and lifestyle related diseases. I'm seeing more and more people who's primary reason to levelling up their nutrition is for longevity.
What ever the reason is for you, you need to link the changes you are willing and able to make to the results you want to see and be clear on why those results are important to you. The WHY is what keeps you going back to the changes when you get off track.
I think I've spoken about it on the podcast the context of strength training for me before. I’m not consistent with it and it can take weeks for me to get into a rhythm and routine of regular strength training. What motivates me and drives me to incorporate irregular strength sessions is knowing that it protects my muscle mass so in 30, 40, 50+ years in the future I can still be strong and independent rather than being weak and frail due to muscle wastage that happens naturally as we age. Remembering that WHY helps me do a strength session when I'd be more tempted to brush it off for something else more enjoyable in the present.
With any change we are more likely to stick with it if we make small changes that can withstand the pressure of the chaos of life. And be able to stick with them long term. For me to say I'm going to go to the gym 3 times a week is setting me up to fail. But to start with 30 minutes once a week on a specific day at a specific time - I'm more likely to get it done and see how it links up with my long term goal.
So that’s the long winded answer. If you want to learn how to eat healthy, you decide what that looks like to you, why it’s important for you, what you are willing and able to change and you start making those changes one by one building them up. You won’t always notice the changes overnight but months and years back down the line you might just look back and see how much you have changed because you decided to take the first step.
That’s all for today like subscribe fuel, your ride and I’ll see you next time
Gemma