Eating healthier: a common resolution in the new year
Many people make resolutions to eat better or exercise more to start a new year, and there is no shortage of diets and workouts to try. But beware. Not all of them will help you get to your healthiest.
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Many people make resolutions to eat better or exercise more to start a new year, and there is no shortage of diets and workouts to try. But beware. Not all of them will help you get to your healthiest.
“People see these different diets on social media, TikTok and Instagram and all these, and they are promoting all these different diets to lose weight quickly. These fad diets usually focus on restricting certain foods and that can lead to different nutrient deficiencies and can lead to poor eating habits,” Markham said.
Clinical dietitian Stephanie Markham recommends that people focus on eating better.
“We tend to focus people on more healthy eating overall. This is something that you can do for the rest of your life and it is not a short-term fix but more of a long-term, changing your habits and making healthier choices,” Markham said.
Markham says changing your eating habits usually inspires a shift in your lifestyle too.
“If anyone chooses to follow one of these fad diets, it does affect different things like the way that they grocery shop. They will need to change their physical activity levels. A lot of the products are going to be more expensive so you need to take that into account also,” Markham said.
Markham emphasizes that slow and steady wins the race. She says to focus on changing your habits for the long term.
“Usually, it takes about two weeks to change a habit so if you can try to maybe change one or two things at a time and try to stick with those until it becomes a habit. If you try to change to many things at one time, a lot of times we go back to the way we were doing before,” Markham said.
Markham recommends diets like the Mediterranean to improve overall health.
