Why is Eating Healthy Important? Easy Healthy Eating Tips & Tools

Is eating healthy important to Waking Up Eager?

Only if you want to feel energized, motivated and clear-minded!  In the Wake Up Eager Habit: Re-Calibrate Daily Quiz you assess how well you're managing your body by determining how true this statement is for you: "I eat and enjoy healthful foods." 

There are three key actions and ideas that have helped me and can help you start making this statement more and more true for you.   So many of us struggle with eating nutritious food.

Many of us grew up in families where healthy food and a good body image was not normal.  I can remember in my own family an ongoing struggle with feeling good about food AND body confidence.

Growing up around 'body and food angst' - even if it's subtle can cause you to develop some less-than-helpful thought habits.  But you can change and evolve those habits.  You can create a happy and easy 'relationship' with food and your body.

Why is Eating Healthy Important?

Being able to change my own inner dialogue and outer actions has required focus and determination.  

But what does eating healthy have to do with being a successful professional?  Is all that focus and determination worth it?

Here's why this matters to success: If you, the busy professional are spending a lot of mental and emotional time and energy every day worrying about how you look and feel, you're allowing a your focus to be split and fractured.  This type of inner dialogue and worry 'takes you away' from being able to fully focus upon your work goals, your family, your life and your future.

In addition it's terribly distracting when you feel guilty and 'fat' every time you eat (which is all day, every day, for everyone) and self-conscious and 'out of shape' every time you walk into a room (again, something you do all day, every day) .

This kind of  distracting inner dialogue and worry makes it harder to be clear-minded, focused, 'on task' and motivated, to eagerly give your ALL ,at work and at home. Besides, you carry your body with you every where you go, and if you're not comfortable in your own skin then its not so easy to do and be all that you want to do and be.

So, why is eating healthy important? Because 'making peace' with food and your body means you're finding harmony with an essential part of who you are.

As you make more decisions to take care of yourself, to change inner angst around food and body and you choose to honor and love your body AND food, you tap in to the good feeling person you truly are, and you become more and more effective and happy in every other area of your life.

I feel lucky to have found people and resources that have helped me soothe my own inner tension and re-create for myself a more natural and easy relationship with food and my body.

Why is Eating Healthy Important?
Three Easy Healthy Eating Actions

These concepts and tools help me everyday. (It's an ongoing process...) Contrary to common belief, it IS possible to feel better and better as you pass through time.

Use these  healthy eating tools and tips to help you find more harmony with food, your body AND mostly importantly, the full and joyous life you deserve!

Action Step #1: Fully Grasp: The Law of Energy Balance

To feel in harmony with food (and to stay at a healthy weight) you must burn more calories than you consume.

If you're 'at war' with food (gaining weight and feeling lethargic) you're consuming more calories than you burn each day.

Wow. It's so simple.

Getting this is key to life-long peace with food and your body.

It's so simple (and so important) I don't want you to skip over it, let's say it again in another way:

Look at your body like a living calorie bank and calories, like money.
You store calories in your body, like money in a bank.
You make energy deposits and withdrawals from the bank,
depending on how high or low your energy costs are.
Eat too much, with limited energy withdrawal, and your account (you) gets fat.
Eat too little and your account (you), dwindles to nothing.

Help yourself fully grasp and internalize the Law of Energy Balance by:

• Download this free Portion Distortion Quiz. (This is a PDF Document, A New Window Will Open) Download it to see how you do on this quiz. Very informative...
• Write down everything you eat for 8 weeks. EVERYTHING. I did this. I soon realized I was eating unconsciously. I wrote everything down in the back of my Daytimer, something I carried with me all day. Today I use this online writing tool with a Food and Exercise log, The Journal.I also like the iPhone App: Calorie Counter.Writing down what you eat is the fastest way to get you back into the habit of paying attention to the Law of Energy Balance.

• For an additional and emerging view about nutrition- checkout Comedian and Video Producer (and former health writer) Tom Naughton as he tells us that everything we’ve been told about obesity and healthy eating is wrong.  What he shares makes sense - MORE eat healthy unprocessed whole foods, minus the wheat. Fat Head Follow Up - where he's bucking the 'usual' USDA Nutrition Guidelines.  If you've heard of the best seller Wheat Belly or the diet Paleo, here's a great overview. It's very interesting!

Action Step #2: More Water

Here's another 'secret': Drink water.

You're probably thinking, "Suzie that's not a secret!"

I agree, it's not really a secret but it's like one because it's ignored by almost everyone. We all know that drinking water is good for us, right?

But who's actually doing it?

Do you ever wake up feeling groggy? Do you get sleepy during the day?
Do you sometimes run out of steam when exercising? Do you feel fatigued?

Usually we don't associate any of the above problems with water intake. We assume we're catching a cold, that we're over-worked or that we didn't sleep well. Dehydration could be the problem.

Water is a simple solution to try. So simple in fact we often miss it.

Water is the most abundant nutrient in your body. Without water nothing in your body can function properly and it's the most important nutrient in your body.

Try the free App for iPhones - 8 Glasses A Day. You tap a water glass, for every glass of water you drink. It's an EASY, FREE reminder tool for creating the drink enough water Habit.

This works because it helps you measure and stay accountable, and you teach yourself how good you feel when you're drinking the right amount of water. You also notice the impact of how you feel when you don't consume enough.

Action #3: Healthy Eating Cook Book

You can't leave healthy eating to chance. Because if you do, chances are, it won't happen.

This cookbook, Eating for Life, is an oldy but goodie.  I've used it since 2003 and given to all the young people in my life when they move into their own place.  The meals are easy to make, tasty and healthy.  It uses basic ingredients from the grocery store and gets the job done, when on a busy schedule.   Over the years I've tried all the diet fads, and I always end up back with this cookbook!   

Check out these other - easy, healthy cooking and eating staples in my life:  Green Smoothies and How to Get Over Grumpy Mornings: Eating a Healthy Breakfast.

These recipes put you in charge of your food intake. Being in charge is empowering and that's why these Why is Eating Healthy Important actions are one of the keys to a Wake Up Eager Life.