The opportunities allotted each day to improve your health are innumerable.
Getting the right amount of sleep, eating a healthy breakfast, eating appropriate portions, and taking more steps are just a few of the choices we can make every single day.
As with any behavior, people tend to establish a pattern or habit. It is often a difficult, layered and emotional process when it comes to food.
If an adolescent grows up in a household where they do not feel safe or control in their life, they sometimes use food as a way to exert control.
Biological, environmental, and psychological factors play key roles in the development of life threatening relationships with food.
Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating disorder are extremely serious and must be dealt with compassionately and with empathy.
Everyone has their histories, stories, and personal relationships with food and everyone has struggled with it to some degree in their lifetime.
Part of the problem is an overwhelming percentage of Americans are unaware of the value quality food in appropriate quantities has on their preventative health.
Choosing the right kinds of food in the right quantities at appropriate times has a massive influence on your body composition and how you feel day to day.
Documentaries like Super Size Me and Food, Inc. have helped shine a light on the food choices we face on a daily basis.
This, however, has led to a very predictable overcompensation to the extreme in American culture. Anti-gluten, anti-GMO, and elimination diets are everywhere.
It is highly unlikely to be successful with a diet if it is not a sustainable and healthy way of living.
Sure, you can drop 20 pounds in 14 days (mostly water weight and muscle loss) with the latest crash diet.
But can you thrive on it?
A healthy diet is something you can consume without feeling deprived, you have the energy and vigor to live your life, and your body compensation and well-being are positively supported.
Everybody is different, and every body is different.
Whatever macronutrient ratios work for you may not work for your neighbor.
Endomorphs operate better with more fat consumption than ectomorphs, while ectomorphs operate better with more carbohydrates than endomorphs.
There is a plethora of information available for free online. Here are just a few trusted sources: