You’ve likely heard the saying, you are what you eat, and when it comes to living the healthiest you possible, no truer words have ever been spoken.
Quite simply, a healthy life begins with the foods you eat. What you put into your system ultimately dictates how you look and feel.
Makes sense, right?
A diet that consists of high-sugar foods, for example, isn’t designed to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Those kinds of foods will rob you of energy and leave you feeling lifeless and bloated, not to mention the havoc it wreaks on your blood sugar levels and puts you at risk of many illnesses.
Start by thinking about how you feel after you eat certain foods.
Do you feel sick? Do you feel bloated? Are you tired? Run down?
Paying attention to the way foods make you feel is key in changing your diet so that it supports a stronger, healthier body.
Few of us analyze the way foods change the way we feel or affect our moods, but when we start to pay close attention, we discover just how easy it is to boost energy levels, improve our ability to focus and simply feel at our best just by eliminating these harmful foods from our diet.
Pro Tip: Consider creating a food diary or journal that documents the foods you eat. Start writing everything down for 30 days. After each meal, write down what foods you ate, portion size and how you are feeling.
Keeping track of how you are fueling your body, as well as how those foods are influencing how you feel both physically and mentally, is the first step towards identifying food-toxins so you can set yourself on a better, healthier path by eliminating them from your life.
Some of these foods may be obvious ones that you know are unhealthy while others may come as a surprise. Therefore, it’s important to create a logbook of 30 days (minimum) so you not only have a detailed snapshot of how the foods you’re eating may be impacting your health, but over the course of a month, you’ll begin to develop a habit of considering healthier choices.
A food journal should also include a total calorie count so that you can reflect on the kinds of foods that are likely the leading cause of any weight-struggles you may have.