Life and Dreams: Wellness Wednesday: The One Key to Eat Healthy Successfully

So many people are hopping on the healthy eating bandwagon, whether they're going vegan, going paleo, cutting out gluten, dairy, and sugar, whatever. I joined the bandwagon out of desperation almost exactly a year ago now with the Repairvite diet and have remained on it out of necessity, since I can now tell what foods bother me and what ones don't. (Goodbye gluten, dairy, soy, corn, refined sugar, nightshades, and most nuts ... for now. But don't worry, I still eat good!)

But something I'm also seeing a lot of is people trying to jump on any of the above bandwagons ... and failing. Fast. And I think there is one key reason for that:

Too much too soon.

If you're used to going out to eat every week, living on gluten (guys, it's in like everything), having cheese daily, drinking pop with every meal, going to Starbucks every day, picking up Krispy Kreme whenever you see that light on, you're not going to be able to just wake up and change in one day. You'll go crazy. And give in really soon. Not to mention have blood sugar crashes and who knows what else.

So what's the key to eating healthy successfully? Just cut out one thing at a time. Don't go clean out your fridge and pantry and go out and buy all brand-new, healthy foods. You're just setting yourself up for misery. Which leads to failure. Even with my Repairvite diet, I didn't just up and cut everything out--I had already been gluten-free for over a year and also hadn't had potatoes or apples in years (that may not seem like a big deal, but think all fries and chips). I was also drastically lessening my pop intake. So if you want to cut out gluten and dairy and sugar, for example, just start with one of those. Let yourself get used to that for a couple weeks or so, then add another.

Even when I finally went without all the other foods listed above, it was hard. Yeah, I cried once. My body was used to eating crap, so it had to get used to the changes, so sure, it felt weird at first. But I didn't just give in, because I was desperate for health and the end goal was more important to me than Dr. Pepper or Little Caesars. Your end goal has to be more important to you than food.

So if you're thinking about changing the way you eat, go for it! You really can do it! Just pace yourself, set realistic goals, and keep your eye on the prize: health.

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Further tip: don't deprive yourself of everything remotely like your favorite unhealthy foods. Find you some substitutes--they're all out there!