If you are still with me, and are now proceeding to Step 5 of our life-changing eating plan - well done to you !
We learned in Step 1 to change our attitude.
In Step 2 we started thinking about journalling our journey - if you have an online blog set up for this purpose, please let me know the address so that we can share our challenges.
Step 3 got us thinking about drinking water (or more water).
Step 4 encouraged us to get moving. Remember, baby steps...one at a time.
If we think about it, life is all about choices - bad choices, good choices, better choices and the best choices for us. Every choice we make has a consequence. There's no getting away from that fact. If I start out in life continually making bad choices of a criminal nature, never making any effort to change my ways, I could end up in jail or worse. There is a definite consequence to my choices.
It's the same in our Nutrition. We have a lot of choices we can make - good, bad and indifferent. And each of these choices involves a consequence - one that could harm our bodies, another that could do us good, and other choices that won't affect us either way. If we can learn to recognise when we are making a bad choice in our eating, we have a wonderful opportunity to make a substitution for that choice. In other words, choose something else. Something else that will be just as satisfying, but will be doing us more good than harm.
A lot of people don't know this. They have never been educated on nutrition. There is no shame in that. I started out eating the way my parents always ate - cooking the same way my mother and grandmother cooked - using ingredients I had seen in their kitchens year after year. Cooking and eating foods the way that they did is very comfortable for me (my comfort foods) - but its not always healthy. I know this now. I have the opportunity to choose better options - substitute - make better (for me) choices.
In Step 5 - we are going to make just a few substitutions...remember, baby steps. I'm not going to ask you to turn your world (or your kitchen) upside down. Just make a few better choices.
We are concentrating on Fats/Oils for the first of our substitutions.
- Fats contain more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates (will cause us to gain weight)
- Focus on substituting foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, and select more foods made with unsaturated fats. We'll be going into these different fats in more detail soon.
These choices will affect our bodies - remember...consequences. We will start feeling better, and we will see weight reduction...Gains ! Victories!
| Substitute with | |
| Full cream milk | Semi-skimmed milk |
| Semi-skimmed milk | Skimmed milk |
| Butter | Low Fat spread (Diet marge) |
| Vegetable Oils | Olive oil |
That's it for Step 5. Not too bad ? You don't have to change everything all at once. maybe it took you years to get into the condition you are in now. Its not going to change overnight, but with each small Step we make, the changes will come.
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