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How to have a healthy attitude to food

There is no magic formula or "super food" when it comes to eating a nutritious diet - despite what countless diet books will tell you. The body likes (and needs) a wide variety of different foods - eaten in a balanced way in numerous meals over days, months and years. What we all need is a healthy attitude to food.

Yet most of us have become entrenched in our eating habits and don't eat a wide enough variety of foods. Many of us always follow the same route when shopping and pick up the same goods. If you don't think this applies to you, just imagine what you would do if your local supermarket changed its layout: would you suddenly feel lost? Would you walk round and round until you found the brands you always buy? If your answers are "yes" it might be worth looking at your eating habits.

The problem with habits is that they are comforting, but often not helpful, especially when it comes to food. For example, do you automatically reach for a snack during the ads? Or always pour yourself a large glass of wine to help you relax after a hard day at work? These habits can wreck our intentions of good eating, but the good news is that they can be broken.

A key way to breaking unhelpful habits is to look at the reasons why we hold on to our routines. Very often our habits have little logic and do us no good. For example, it can be quite tempting to munch through a family-sized tub of ice cream if you're stressed about the state of your finances, or feeling low because of relationship problems. In the (very) short term this action may temporarily displace your concerns, but when you've finished they'll still be there, only now there will also be a sick, bloated feeling in the pit of your stomach and a tighter waist band. And, worst of all, you may then start to feel guilty for using food as a comfort blanket.

By looking at our habits and examining our beliefs, we can start to see where there's room for improvement and then make the right changes. Many of us expect our bodies to keep functioning even though we don't fuel it correctly, or even overfuel it. The result is often excess fat, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

The most important change we can make is to start listening to our body's needs - not just our mind's desires. But many of us have forgotten how to hear the signals our bodies are sending us. If you're wondering if this applies to you, why not ask yourself the following questions:

Do you always wait until you are hungry to eat?
Do you always know exactly what you want to eat?
Do you always stop eating when you are full?

If the answers to the above are no, then you may have lost touch with your body's needs. Of course it would be completely unrealistic to expect that we always eat only when we are actually hungry or always know what we want to eat but, if these are rare occurences for you, perhaps it's time to improve your relationship with food. As with all relationships, the key is striking a healthy balance.

So, how can we develop a healthy relationship with food? Well, making small, permanent changes to your eating habits will make a much bigger and longer lasting impact on your life than a short-term blitz. This is because making small changes that you can build on day by day are much more likely to become habits. And by examining your current eating habits and comparing them to the person you would like to become, and remain, in the future you can plan out the changes you need to make. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Listen to your body a bit more - if you're hungry, eat! If you are not really hungry, what would satisfy you instead?
When you do eat, slow down and really taste the food you're eating. If it's not hitting the spot why keep eating it?
Do something just for you every day, so that food will stop being a "comfort blanket".
Cut back on the caffeine and drink more water.
Start to build a mental picture of the person you want to be in the future.
Imagine what you will do and how you will look and feel. This image should help you to make, and keep, the changes needed to reach your goal.

While there is no magic formula to eating well, making small, continuous changes to your life will have a much bigger impact than any short-term detox! By examining your eating habits and motivation - and making changes where needed - you can (and will) become the person you want to be in the future.

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