The Key to Changing Your Diet--for Good!

{Want to change to a healthy diet?  Please welcome back Ruth Almon from Paleo Diet Basics who is sharing her best tips for healthy eating - and making a healthy change--for good!}

Have you ever watched a reality TV show where a dietician arrives at someone’s home, goes on a kitchen rampage, wildly tossing unhealthy food products into garbage bags? Once the kitchen’s bare, a famous chef saunters in and teaches the excited, but somewhat overwhelmed dieter how to prepare several healthy dishes.

Well this makes for great TV, but is the Cold Turkey method really the best way to switch from a SAD (standard American diet) to a healthy diet?

I think not.

Making changes "Cold Turkey" can affect you psychologically and physically.  Here's how.

Psychological Effects of "Cold Turkey" Healthy Diet Changes

Your present way of eating, whether it’s a combination of takeout and microwaved meals or whether you cook from scratch but using less than perfect ingredients –

however you manage it now, you have a system in place.

It’s a method you’re accustomed to and it fits your lifestyle. But when you give your system up in one go, it leaves you with a void.

So if you take out the old ways are--then what?

In with the new, before out with the old!

I’m a big fan of adopting new healthy options before removing masses of bad ones. You’re less likely to crave those old, unhealthy choices when you and your family have delicious, new favorites. But building a repertoire of healthy recipes to suit your tastes, your budget, and schedule takes time.

There’s another problem with getting rid of old foods en masse. When you throw out the old products and make a great production of it, it creates lots of exciting, fresh-start energy.

That’s good.

But that can also work like a pendulum swinging right back in the opposite direction.

Sudden changes tend to disappear as quickly as they appear (New Year’s resolutions anyone?). These changes may feel more like a diet than a lifestyle change.

But let’s face it: if you want to have a real impact on your health and weight, you need to change your eating for good – not go on a diet for a few months or a year.

Physical Effects of "Cold Turkey" Healthy Diet Changes

We’ve looked at the difference between gradual change and cold turkey, with respect to psychological/lifestyle factors, but what about how your body reacts to slow vs. drastic change?

If you drink lots of coffee and stop suddenly, you’ll probably suffer from headaches until your body adjusts. It would be better to gradually drink less coffee and more of a different drink like this coffee substitute so that the transition is easier.

Likewise, if you eat lots of carbs and go low carb overnight, there’s a good chance you’ll get what’s called “carb flu” (a few weeks of brain fog, fatigue, cravings, headaches).

The body doesn’t take kindly to drastic change. The exception to this is if you have an allergy or sensitivity, such as to gluten, and then suddenly remove it. You may feel better immediately. But it’s also possible that a drastic change will leave you feeling worse before you feel better, even if the change is a healthy one. The danger here is that feeling bad for a week or two may discourage you from continuing your transition to a real food diet.

Don’t forget that the digestion process involves gut bacteria. Your gut ecosystem adapts to match shifts in diet. When you make sudden changes, though, there’s a period in which the bacteria haven’t yet adjusted to the new regime and you may feel the effects. The benefit to gradual change is in letting your gut ecology keep pace.

How can YOU make healthy diet changes stick?

Step. By. Step.

Well, it’s like this. You need to incorporate new ingredients in your cooking and add new recipes to your repertoire.

It’s not enough just to start experimenting with new ingredients here and there, they have to become part and parcel of the way you cook. Sometimes it’s easy. Other times, change takes a while, as was the case for me regarding coconut oil.

My experience with coconut oil.

This was a definite learning curve!

1. I read all about this totally unfamiliar (to me) ingredient and decided to try it.

2. Bought coconut oil. It smelled foul and tasted like petroleum jelly. Oops. Turns out I had bought one that wasn’t food grade.

3. Bought the right product. No idea how to use it. Just looked at it for a week.

4. Experimentation. Tried it with stir fry (great!), tried it with eggs (didn’t like it), tried it with stew (perfect), and so on.

I figured out where it works and where it doesn’t - for me.

5. Incorporation. Today coconut oil is just a regular ingredient I use in my kitchen, like butter, salt, or chicken. I don’t give it a second thought. That’s your goal. Make healthy ingredients a regular part of your cooking.

It’s the same deal with recipes. Maybe you’re used to preparing ground beef with Hamburger Helper®. So you might have to experiment with a few whole food ground beef recipes before you find something that works for you, but when you do, chances are excellent it’ll be much tastier than that Hamburger Helper processed-food meal ever was.

You can even try out copycat recipes like this Homemade Hamburger Helper or this  Homemade Chili Mac on for size!

So--What’s best for YOU?

Does one size fit all?

While I do believe that for many people, the best course of action is a gradual change, people are individual. Cold turkey changes do suit some people’s personality, and if it’s right for you, then go for it. However, typically it's not the best path.

Pay Attention to Your Body

If you opt for gradual changes, pay close attention to improvements along the way.

As you slowly feel better and better, you might not even notice symptoms disappearing! It sounds hard to believe, but I’ve heard people describe how they suddenly realized that they haven’t had a headache or some other symptom for a year, though they had them regularly before.

Gone and forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.

It’s great to make your health problems a thing of the past, but don’t overlook the fact that their disappearance occurred after your switch to a whole foods diet.

What tips do YOU have for transitioning to a healthy diet?

Ruth Almon is a big fan of the whole foods paleo diet, having regained her health after decades of living with chronic fatigue syndrome.