Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet

Changing your diet is difficult and large-scale changes are especially hard. Most people want to do the right thing, they want to eat well. However for too often we see obstacles to this: work, life, lack of knowledge, inability to cook, tiredness – all these things can get in the way of leading a healthy life.

It’s easy to put off eating well. It’s easy to think – when I’m less tired, have more time, have a bit more money . . . then I’ll eat well.

If this is you, you’re certainly not alone. In fact, it’s one of the problems I face in clinic every day. It’s why my job is not just about the food, but it’s also about time-management, shopping skills, psychology, child-wranging, partner peace-making, coaxing and prodding.

BUT, this is your life, here, NOW. Don’t put off being healthy until some future date. It’s too important.

My basic view is that eating is a continuum. At one end is the TERRIBLE diet – KFC 24/7, oodles of coke, topped up with chocolate, chips. Everything full of trans and saturated fat and not a gram of fresh fruit or veg in sight. At the other end is the 100% organic, grown in the garden, perfectly balanced diet.

Most of us are not at the extremes, but somewhere along that continuum.

Improving your diet is about pushing yourself along that line. If at the moment you don’t eat any vegies and aiming for the full five serves is too hard, don’t give up. By adding in one serve a day, you’ve made your diet better and improved your health.

Large dietary flourishes are unrealistic for most people. But small and steady changes will ensure you keep on pushing and prodding your diets along the continuum. Small and steady changes will ensure you keep on making your diet better.

17 July, 2007