Photos in this post via Pinterest.

Here at Alive in the Fire, I believe in a holistic approach to health. This means you can't just be practicing yoga; you've also got to consider what you eat, how you develop healthy relationships, and your overall mind-body-spirit vitality.

Today I'm excited to bring you a guest post from Brian Forester. He discusses easy ways you can eat healthier, which in turn can lead to sustainable weight loss.

How You Can Alter Your Diet In Order
To Realize Better Health

With fad diets rolling out one after the other, and the problem with obesity in America continuing to get worse, it may be that our whole approach to losing weight needs to be rethought.

Even if people are able to stick to these diets and see results, it’s often just a matter of months before the numbers on the scale are rising again. After all, cutting out all of a particular food group or drastically reducing your calories just isn’t easy to continue for long stretches of time, and is not very healthy to begin with, since you can be missing essential nutrients.

Instead of making a drastic change to your diet over a short period of time and expecting long-term results, why not focus on making smaller and more sustainable alterations?

Here are a few changes you can make to your diet that will contribute to your overall health and that you’ll be able to sustain. Try introducing them one at a time into your lifestyle, rather than implementing them all at once.

Invest in a water bottle. One of the most common sources of empty calories in the American diet is soda. It has no nutritional value, but it’s incredibly convenient since it’s in most restaurants, gas stations, and break room vending machines. Make a commitment to cutting it out of your diet completely (or saving it for special occasions), and you may find that you not only lose weight, but feel better, too.

Find your local farmer’s market. Fresh produce tastes better. You may find that after regular trips to the farmer’s market, you’re more excited about fruits and vegetables than you’ve been in a long time. There are likely many, many more varieties than you realize, and you may be inspired to try more healthy dishes to find out what treats like kohlrabi and chayote are really like.

Brown bag it. Often, it’s easy to eat well at home… but not so much at work, where there are temptations galore in the form of break room treats and eating out with coworkers. Instead, arm yourself with healthy snacks from home, and pack a lunch. You can still join your coworkers at the restaurant, but eat first so you’re not hungry, and thus not tempted to eat something you’d rather not.

Swap meats. Craving a hamburger? Why not try a turkey burger instead. Considering a steak? Go for the leanest cut. Even if you only do it half of the time, it can make a difference to your health.

Make cheating an event! Even with the best of intentions, we all like to “cheat” on our diets now and then. There are just some days when you want to sit down and indulge in a bowl of ice cream or a juicy bacon cheeseburger. The key is to not see it as a sign of failure, and then give up on all your good habits altogether. One way to help reign in your cheating habits is to create a rule that you will actually cook any “bad” foods that you enjoy. If you’re forced to spend the time to prepare the meal (and clean up afterwards), you’re likely to find that you do it less often.

After all, many of these foods take a while to make! That’s part of what makes them so good. Additionally, since you’re preparing it at home, you’ll use better ingredients than any store-bought or restaurant-purchased treat without even making much effort. Just the amount of sodium you’ll save is worth the effort. And cooking is a good calorie-burning exercise to boot! It’s an all-around win.

About the Author:

Brian Forester is a health and wellness writer in the Chicago area. It is his goal to help people learn more about healthy natural foods and incorporate them into their diets. Companies like Now Foods offer healthy options to improve wellness for everyone with natural options like the best moisturizing cream.

PS For more ideas about eating healthy, try these posts: green juicing, eating clean, eating (or not) before class, and smart grocery shopping. Cheers to your health!