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Improve Your Diet With These Changes

Dieting can be a very challenging thing to do, especially if you feel like you aren’t seeing changes happen fast enough. If you are stuck with your diet, not sure what you can improve, or feel like you aren’t seeing any results. Then we bring you these simple, perfect, and easy to follow dieting tips. You can use these tips immediately with almost any diet. And did we mention that they are EASY! to implement.

Track Your Eating

Before you can clean up your diet, you need to know what you are putting into it. This is where tracking what you eat comes in. The majority of us believe we have a pretty good idea of how many calories we eat. The problem is we are usually wrong. Before making any type of changes in your diet, be sure to find out what it actually consists of. This can be as easy as keeping a food journal or tracking your calories using an app such as MyFitnessPal. Tracking what you eat is the best way to expose areas that need work. Once you know what you need to change, you can start making the modifications necessary to reach your goals. Measure your food intake and watch it improve.

Drink More Water

This is one of the easiest things to do and most often forgotten. Drinking more water has several benefits, the most important of which is that it can make you feel full. The body does not always do a good job of distinguishing when it is hungry or thirsty, which leads most of us to reach for a snack. When you feel hungry, try drinking a glass or two of water and see if it goes away. Also, reach for a glass of water before sitting down to eat. Track what you eat, drink more water, and you’ll be shaving off calories in no time.

Eat More Fiber

Fiber is complex carb that your body cannot easily digest. It comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble; soluble fiber soaks up water when broken down and insoluble fiber passes through intact. Both are undigested and thus provide no calories. Fiber can make you feel fuller longer and slow down the release of sugars in the body. Fiber is found in oats, unrefined wheat products, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Try replacing some of your grains with vegetables and you will not only increase your fiber intake, but decrease your overall calories. Aim for 20-35 grams of fiber per day. When you are first starting out, add fiber in gradually to allow for your stomach to acclimate, otherwise “your future, much discomfort will have.”

Eat More Protein

Protein is useful throughout the body to make hormones and enzymes, as well as maintain body tissues (think bone, cartilage, and muscle). If you are working out, protein will be the key to helping you recover and build muscle. Adding protein to your meals will help you feel full, combine that with additional water and fiber, and you can really get a boost in the right direction! Actual protein recommendations may vary but in general you want to aim for at least 100 grams, especially if you work out. Ladies do not worry it will not make you bulky.

Experiment

This is possibly the most important tip we can give you. You have to experiment and find out what works best for you. There are many dietary trends out there and all of them may hold something useful. You need to try out different things and keep what works while discarding the rest. Some diets will just simply not fit your lifestyle, no matter how effective they may be. A fitness professional can be a great tool in refining your dietary habits, but ultimately it will come down to you. Diets should reflect your goals while being flexible enough to allow you to live your life. The more challenging the goal, the more restricted the diet will have to be. Food should be enjoyed, but you need to learn to differentiate utility from pleasure. Sometimes you need a diet that works (utility) because it will get you to your goal.  This does not mean that you can’t enjoy what you eat from time to time.

A healthy balance is what you should strive for but it will take time. Be patient and keep trying. For most of us this is a lifelong effort and a well worth one. Did you find these tips useful? Try them for yourself and let us know how you’re doing.