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Just as with everything else, your approach has to be right for your your goals setting success. The first thing you'll need to ensure when goalsetting your healthy eating plan, is that it clearly focuses on what you want to bring into your life, and not what you want to let go of. Example - 'Eat a healthy diet', 'Eat healthy foods', 'shop for healthy foods'.
In the words of a famous quote, "a lot of us would like to move mountains but few of us are willing to practice on small hills". Yet, it's the small steps (hills) that you take every day, that will add up to you moving mountains. Start with clarity about what you're doing, why you're doing it, what barriers stand in your way of achieving it and how you're going to overcome them. You can learn more about how to gain such clarity by accessing this 5 part goals settings guidance and free goal setting forms.
Here are examples of typical challenges or barriers you might encounter when goalsetting your healthy eating plan. It is crucial that you identify those that are unique to you and, that you perceive could get in the way of you achieving your goal.
By clearly identifying the challenges you will most likely encounter, you're better placed to find solutions when goalsetting your healthy eating plan. Here are examples of how you might approach this task:
Finding solutions when goalsetting your healthy eating plan
Use your journal to record your findings, as well as how you're feeling about the exercise. You should now have identified clear solutions to enable you to proceed with goalsetting your healthy eating plan. This will move you nicely onto the action and development stage of your goal settings.
Identifying the changes
you need to make when goalsetting your healthy eating plan
If you work longer hours, it can be very tempting to pick up a quick meal on your way home from work. The same applies if you're not in the practice of planning your weekly shop and you therefore have nothing substantial in your fridge or cupboard to prepare when you get home. You might even be an 'overworked' mum who cave in under the pressure of your daily responsibilities and give the kids foods which are quick and easy to prepare. In any case, the strategy of 'shop as you go', is seldom a successful one for a variety of reasons. It is a known fact that shopping when you're hungry just don't work. You're more likely to purchase all the wrong foods - especially when presented with those tempting pictures and images which are designed to lure you. You'll most likely purchase foods lacking in food nutrition for your healthy eating diet.
By changing your approach and goalsetting your healthy eating plan, you can figure out in advance a course of action for developing your skills, while changing your current habits in the process. Here are some development areas you might want to consider for example:
Menu Plan approach to goalsetting your healthy eating plan
When goalsetting your healthy eating plan, managing your time doesn't have to be the issue you fear. By planning ahead of time the meals you intend to prepare during the course of the week, and the healthy foods you'll need, preparing healthy meals becomes less time consuming than you think.
Could you now make a start by planning at least two, three, or even four healthy food recipes you'll prepare each week? Could you then gradually increase this by one further healthy meal each week, or each month thereafter? When you change your approach, goalsetting your healthy eating plan becomes more attainable and enjoyable.
shopping approach to goalsetting your healthy eating plan:
How did you get on with writing your new healthy food shopping list? Could you now commit to a weekly shop, based on your Menu Plan? Could you shop for provisions at larger outlets which will offer you a wider variety and selection of nutritious and healthy food? Appearance is everything - if your cupboards and fridge look interesting and exciting, then you're half way to getting excited and interested about how to eat healthy. Even the most basic of foods can look tempting and appetising, with a bit of presentation. Restaurants do this; convenience foods manufacturers do this; you too can do this to great effect, by taking a leaf out of their book.
Culinary skills development when goalsetting your healthy eating
Saying your cookery skills is less than adequate is no excuse for not learning how to eat healthy. If you've become accustomed to unhealthy foods over a period of time, it is more than likely that your cookery skills are rusty. There are numerous cookery books available, for as many different types of foods. Could you now invest in a good book? You'll find many magazines will feature healthy recipes you can experiment with. There are many online healthy recipe sites. You might also want to consider setting your- self a further goal of 'learning how to cook healthy foods'.
knowledge development when goalsetting your healthy eating plan
It is important to develop your food health and nutrition knowledge about foods you plan to eat. You can also achieve a great deal by learning about different kinds of foods and how to prepare/cook them. Here is the first of many healthy recipes which I plan to list in the coming months.
The high salt, sugar and other additive content in junk and convenience foods are designed to make them tasty and appealing, so don't be surprised if your healthy foods initially taste bland in comparison. However, this should be short-lived until your taste buds readjust to the healthy and nutritious alternatives you start preparing. To really go beyond junk food or convenience foods and succeed at eating healthily, - as well as learning about food nutrition, you'll also need to develop your knowledge of how to flavour, prepare and cook healthy foods.
If the focus of goalsetting your healthy eating plan is to do with weightloss dieting, you might want to consult a nutritionist, who can offer you guidance based on a personal assessment of your age, weight and your genetic background. You can
You'll most certainly need to set a secondary weight loss exercise goal, in addition to goalsetting your healthy eating goal. You'll find a variety of weight loss exercise you can do here.
Focus is everything when goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
The need to focus on your development skills shouldn't be understimated. If you approach goalsetting your healthy eating plan, following the format outlined above, you'll clearly identify early on, any challenges or barriers to you achieving your goal. You'll also gain awareness of the skills you'll need to develop to overcome them.
Your development skills should also include activities such as researching information on diet and food nutrition; how to eat healthy; as well as increasing your knowledge with further reading on healthy cooking recipes, healthy low fat recipes etc., You might want to learn more about what is perhaps the most healthiest diet in the world Mediterranean Diet and the many benefits it can offer both you and your family.
By devoting your strict attention to this aspect of goalsetting your healthy eating plan, you're more likely to gain deeper insights into any underlying issues that might impact significantly on your level of success. Here is a good example for you to consider.
A close friend of mine was adamant that 'this time she was going to stick to her healthy eating goal'. What was different this time to all the other times? The level of focus she applied to the challenges, barriers and development skills areas of goalsetting her healthy eating plan. You see, in the past she had succumbed to junk foods because she had not appropriately addressed the root cause of why she soon lost her motivation thus abandoning her goal.
Her husband would often demean her efforts, which seriously grated on her, undermining her goal in the process. Needless to say, she lost her motivation as many times as she had set goals and quickly reverted back to junk food. Each time, her eating seem to escalate and although she was aware that it was down to her losing her motivation, she was oblivious as to the cause. She was encouraged to journal her moods, what - and how she was experiencing; her feelings and her perception of the need junk food was fulfilling.
The journaling exercise revealed that her self esteem was being eroded by her husband's hurtful comments - (albeit unintentional) - e.g. being told she was 'too fat and it would take forever for her to lose weight', or 'you know you're going to jack it in, in a couple of days time, so why bother punishing yourself'. The exercise also helped her to realise that she perhaps wasn't being as communicative with him as to how his comments were making her feel. She further gained insight into the fact that she was eating for comfort rather than out of hunger each time her esteem took a bashing. By identifying these barriers and blocks to her achieving her goal, she was able to focus on her development skills - i.e. setting herself further mini goals to improve her communications with her husband and to work on building her low self esteem.
Do you see how by taking a big underlying issue and analysing it, you too can break your larger goal down into smaller achievable goals? By exploring all possible avenues, you'll see how easily each subsequent step will then lead you toward achieving that bigger goal.
Whether your unhealthy eating habits are a time-mangement/ time constraint issue or to do with comfort eating - due to the present state of your self-esteem, the process of goalsetting your healthy eating plan can only help you to get to the root of the matter.
Self Help on goalsetting
your healthy eating plan
Use your journal for goalsetting your healthy eating plan activities, as well as for listing everything you can now do to improve your healthy eating diet.
A good technique is to start at the beginning of the day and record each meal for an entire day. Do include your views on what and how you're eating and drinking.
You can then list all the changes you plan on making to your eating habits. Keep it real - there's no point listing foods you clearly don't like. You can spice up this activity by cutting out healthy recipes as you come across them and even pictures or images of tasty looking healthy recipes/meals that inspire you. Just paste them into your journal.
If you're prone to eat when you're low, then you'll want to record your feelings and thoughts on the matter here. You can also journal any ideas or concerns you have in relation to goalsetting your healthy eating plan. For example:
How creative can you get? Your success is in your hands!
'If someone is going down the wrong road, s/he doesn't need motivation to speed him/her up. What s/he needs is education to turn him/her round' (Jim Rohn)
Resources:
Get further information on Dietary Guidelines here
Check out this page for some handy tips on how to get your family to eat more fruit and veg without them even realising it. http://www.foodandhealth.com/fools.pdf
A good source of information on nutrition, including numerous free resources such as calorie calculator health calandar, menu planner, recipes etc., http://www.foodandhealth.com/index2.php
Provide a good source of information on the nutritional value of a wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables http://www.foodfit.com/healthy/healthyFallFoods.asp
An excellent guide to nutrition http://nutrition.about.com/mbody.htm?pid=2756&cob=home they also have a food nutrition forum http://nutrition.about.com/mpboards.htm
The information on this site is purely of educational value
and is not intended to replace your seeking medical advice. You
must consult your doctor over all your health concerns.
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