With endless information about what we should be eating available online, you’d think we would all be following a healthy diet. However, this is often not the case. With so many things going on in our lives, many of us know what we ‘should’ be doing when it comes to our nutrition, but whether we are actually doing it is a different story. Behavior change strategies are the key to eating a healthy diet and making it a sustainable part of your daily routine. There are so many ways that we can achieve this level of behavior change and truly make our lives amazing. To find out how, we interviewed Ellie Thompson, accredited practicing dietitian from Verde Nutrition Co. to find out more about how we can do exactly that. Keep reading for more on this topic!
Here’s Why Behavior Change and Nutrition Are a Match Made in Heaven
What is behavior change?
You may find that changing your behaviors is a lot harder than it may seem, however this is mostly because we tend to go about it the wrong way. Behavior change is about creating long-term sustainable changes to our regular routine. It’s a process that takes time and requires a few simple steps to set ourselves up for success. When it comes to changing our behaviors, it’s best to start by making small changes, which over time lead to larger improvements in our overall health and nutrition. This means breaking down your larger goals into one to two smaller steps that will get you towards your long-term goal. Make sure these are specific so you know exactly what you want to do and when you will do it.
Behavior change and nutrition
Nutrition is much more than knowing what you need to do. In fact, to obtain the many benefits of healthy eating, we need to be doing it on a regular basis. Behavior change is the gateway to making healthy eating a routine part of your everyday life. Behavior change strategies make the overwhelming task of following a healthy diet, much more simple, realistic and achievable. All it takes is time, truly as well as patience.
So how do we change our eating behaviors?
Here are a few quick tips to get you started to change your behaviors and improve your nutrition.
- Start with one to two key goals that you would like to work on. We often set ourselves up to fail by trying to change everything at once. Try focussing on one goal at a time and then once this becomes a part of your routine, move onto the next thing. For example, if you want to eat a healthier diet overall, you may choose to start by improving your hydration (i.e. drinking more water).
- Focus on small, achievable steps which will get you one step closer to your goals. For example, if you want to drink an extra 1L of water per day, try aiming for an extra glass each day initially. You can then increase the number of glasses per day at the end of each week until you meet your larger goal.
- Try habit stacking, this is where you add a new habit onto your regular behaviors. For example, you may have an additional glass of water with your meals, since you’re already sitting down to eat. This means, all you have to do is grab a glass of water at the same time as your food.
- Focus on positive outcomes. This means thinking about what you can add to your diet rather than focussing on taking things away. If you want to take this one step further, book in with a dietitian who can help you to establish the steps to take your nutrition to the next level.
Meet our Expert:
Verde Nutrition Co provides telehealth nutrition servicing, so you can access the best dietitian for you, from the comfort of your home. Having access to a dietitian who has expertise in your individual area of need should be an easy, stress free process – and not have barriers of geographic location or time stopping you from seeing the best dietitian for you.
Verde’s team of online dietitians are some of the best in the country, and are available for you to see via telehealth – so you don’t need to leave the comfort of your home or office, worry about traffic or parking fines, or spend your hard earned dollars seeing someone who does not have the level of expertise you need.
