Healthy Habits to Save a Sinking Diet, Part II

Quicksand Diet: Insisting on Adhering to a Strict All-or-Nothing Strategy
Healthier Habit: Moderation, Moderation, Moderation
Most health-conscious consumers should steer clear of a strict all-or-nothing approach to eating. By making such drastic, sweeping changes without realistically allowing for setbacks, we inevitably set ourselves up on a crash-diet collision course for failure. Progressive, gradual lifestyle and nutritional changes generally allow for a more effective transition to better health. A built-in buffer system will likely reduce physical cravings, as well as ease mental anxiety. Each day, week, and month we either progress or regress on our health journey. Honest, regular reflection remains vital to the personal assessment process, while providing inspiration for future positive changes. During these periodic evaluations, recognize both positive and negative habits. Always remember to take pride in past achievements! Rather than dwelling on occasional lapses, view the next meal, day, week, or month as an invaluable opportunity for positive health and wellness improvements. In the end, a mindset firmly rooted in moderation will likely prove advantageous to an abrupt, zero-tolerance philosophy.

Quicksand Diet: The Diet Approach to the Diet
Healthier Habit: Commit to a Nutrition Renaissance, Now and Happily Ever After
Another subtle, yet significant, mental modification remains in the suggestive power surrounding the taboo term, diet. Modern media and eaters everywhere continue to link "diet" to a temporary pattern of reduced eating, quick fixes, starvation, or other restrictive self-inflicted strategies. Rather than such oppressive outlook, transform the mindset to approach "dieting" from its intended connotation. View the "diet" in the sustained, long-term sense, encompassing the regular consumption of all food and beverages, along with our prolonged, patterned nutritional habits. Mentally and verbally recognizing our "diet," in the original sense, should foster a heightened level of commitment to positive, progressive changes, allowing for lasting, long-term nutritional benefits. Far too often, modern "dieters" become "prisoners of the extreme," dangerously cycling between periods of extreme restriction and extreme indulgence. Developing a long-term, progressive strategy (rooted in moderation) to permanently transform the diet remains the key to putting an end to the endlessly frustrating calorie roller coaster.

Quicksand Diet: Relying Solely on Dieting to Lose Weight
Healthier Habit: Enhance Nutrition with Positive Exercise, De-Stress, and Sleep Strategies
Our diet remains merely one significant piece of the weight loss puzzle. By failing to understand the interrelated nature between nutrition, exercise, sleep quantity and quality, stress levels, and our mental wellness, we subsequently fail to maximize our true health potential. Ultimately, recognizing (and acting upon) the continuous interaction of our physical, mental, and emotional systems allows nearly unlimited progress and fulfillment, while significantly enhancing the sense of balance in our daily lives. High levels of stress, inadequate sleep, or inactivity each possess the power to adversely affect metabolic components, such as overall hormonal activity, cellular function and repair, and fat storage. A comprehensive strategy to progressively improve each piece of the wellness puzzle remains essential to move beyond frustrating plateaus, and reach an unprecedented level of "total person fitness." When our physical, mental, and emotional beings exist in harmony, the systems in our body seamlessly interact in their natural, intended state, allowing our metabolism to run efficiently, while progress potentially breeds greater progress.