Are you stuck in a food rut and having a hard time changing to healthier eating habits? If you want to make lasting changes to the way you eat, you need a plan. Follow these steps for changing an unhealthy behavior into a healthy one:
1. List your behaviors that you think are unhealthy. For example, maybe you eat too fast, or snack throughout the day instead of eating regular meals, or eat whenever you're under stress.
2. Choose one behavior that you would like to change. (Trying to change everything on your list at once can feel overwhelming.)
3. As you think about strategies for changing, try to figure out how you developed the behavior. For example, do you tend to snack all day because you're under constant stress?
4. Brainstorm about ways to change your behavior. Think of five to seven possible solutions. Then pick one strategy that you think is practical and doable. For example, choose a healthy habit that you can substitute for an unhealthy one.
5. Figure out a way to make your new behavior easy to do. For example, how can you eat more fruit? Maybe you can make sure that a well-stocked bowl is always on your kitchen counter.
6. Identify obstacles that might get in your way. What conflicts might interfere with your strategy? What plans can you make to work around those possible hindrances?
7. Set a date for when you want to achieve your goal of changing your behavior and routine. Establish a comfortable pace for making the change.
8. When you reach the goal date, evaluate your success. What worked and what didn't? What would you do differently?
9. Consider what you need to do to maintain your new approach to food. Think about what you need to do to make your healthy behavior a permanent one.
10. When you're ready, select another behavior you'd like to change and restart the process.
The above is an excerpt from the book Fix-It and Enjoy It! Healthy Cookbook: 400 Great Stove-Top and Oven Recipes by Phyllis Pellman Good. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
Reprinted from Fix-It and Enjoy-It! Healthy Cookbook. Copyright by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Author Bio
Phyllis Pellman Good is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold nearly 10 million copies.
Good has authored the national #1 bestselling cookbook Fix-It And Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker (with Dawn J. Ranck), which appeared on The New York Times bestseller list, as well as the bestseller lists of USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Book Sense.
Good has also authored Fix-It and Enjoy-It Cookbook: All-Purpose, Welcome Home Recipes, Fix-It and Enjoy-It Diabetic Cookbook, and Fix-It and Enjoy-It 5-Ingredient Recipes, all for stove-top and oven use. (Fix-It and Enjoy-It is a "cousin" series to the Fix-It and Forget-It books.)
Good's cookbooks include Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes!, as well as four additional titles in the Fix-It and Forget-It series. Among her other cookbooks are The Best of Amish Cooking and The Central Market Cookbook.
Visit us at http://www.Fix-ItandEnjoy-It.com