Ten Ways to Improve Your Diet

Diet. It's a word that has a negative connotation to so many people. It stands for starvation, "rabbit food", food that has no flavor, or is limited to those struggling with weight. However, that is not the case. Diet is quite simply what one eats. In the United States, the average diet is comprised of fast food, saturated fat and highly processed meals. These are not healthy choices. Here are the top 10 ways you can improve your diet:

1. Be honest
Take an honest look at your pantry, your fridge and your snack cabinet. Then take an honest look at your checkbook and see where you buy your food and how many quick snacks or lattes you grab while you are out and about. Most people think they keep to the 1,200 calories recommended by the FDA because they don't count all the things they don't make in their own kitchen. Just because no one sees you eat the twinkie, does not mean it's a healthy choice for your diet.

2. Portion out your meals
Improving one's diet starts with the quantity of food consumed. A proper portion size is about the size of your palm ... not your whole hand! Diet improvement starts with diet control.

3. Stop Grazing
Diets improve drastically with the cessation of "grazing." Rather than opening a bag of chips and picking at them, come home from the grocery store and portion it out. There are snack size ziploc bags that can be filled with your snack of choice. When you get the desire, grab a pre-portioned bag and stop when it's gone.

4. Eat Fresh
Fresh foods are best! Veggies and fruits are healthy additions to anyone's diet. Eating an apple can ease hunger. More than that, eating fruits and vegetables gives the body essential vitamins and nutrients that contribute to overall health, energy and longer life.

5. Consume the Rainbow
It is suggested to eat one fruit or vegetable every day from the rainbow. Reds can be apples, raspberries or radishes. Orange ... enough said. Yellow can be squash or bananas. Green is any leafy green. Blue is blueberries. Purple can be grapes, plums or 'red' cabbage. Eating just one serving a day from each color is a marvelous improvement to any diet.

6. Follow the 6-3 rule
Eat six small meals, every three hours. Doing this gives your body the fuel it needs to function at a healthy level, reduces overeating and helps control hunger and binging.

7. Keep a Food Log
Record what you eat ... every nibble, every bite and every swallow. Seeing it in black and white is a great way to realize what you are putting in your body. Offtimes, just being aware is an improvement.

8. Don't buy it
If it's not healthy, don't bring it home. If you don't have the chocolate, deep-fried or greasy food ... you can't eat it!

9. Be active.
Activity increases heart rate and metabolism and a fit body craves healthy foods. This is an easy way to improve your diet.

10. EAT! It sounds crazy, but most people do not eat. They shovel, stuff, gorge, binge or starve. Eat. Take time, enjoy a meal, let your body fill up and eat. It takes almost twenty minutes for food to pass through the mouth, enter the stomach and the body to register its presence. Take your time, enjoy your meal and improve your diet. When your body is satisfied, it helps your natural cravings and thus your diet.

Diet improvement isn't just for weight loss. It's about feeling good, about teaching your kids how to be healthy, about ensuring a long life and about basic health.