Forming Habits vs Dieting: A Dietitian’s Top 3 Tips To Make Achievable & Sustainable Changes in 2022
Forming Habits vs Dieting
A Princeton Longevity Dietitian’s Top 3 Tips To Make Achievable & Sustainable Changes in 2022
By Elli Kmiec, RD
It’s only been a few days into the new year and I am already seeing an abundance of media coverage around predictions of 2022’s most popular diet trends. It is a never-ending cycle of moving from one “diet culture” to another each time the ball drops in Times Square. Instead – we should be discussing the latest research to build on our own knowledge about how lifestyle factors (i.e. nutrition, diet, stress, etc.) are influencing our minds and bodies as their demand fluctuates throughout our lives. I challenge you this New Year to apply my three tips to your nutritional resolution, whatever it may be.
Elli’s Tip #1 – LEARN
You don’t have to be a Dietitian to have a foundational understanding of nutritional sciences. Remember when they would tell you in grade school that learning did not mean just memorizing test answers? This is a good rule of thumb to take with us into adulthood. You can memorize what foods you should and shouldn’t have, but truly learning how the nutrients they contain impact your health allows the decision-making to be more effective, less stressful, and sustainable. Knowledge is empowering and when it is limited it becomes a marker for vulnerability. By gaining a baseline knowledge on how nutrients contribute to your health you won’t just pick that dark leafy green because you’ve memorized it’s good to eat your greens since you were in diapers, but because of the preventative properties of their phytonutrients motivate you to choose them. In other words, you are not going to form a positive and sustainable habit from the nagging voice in your head, but from one rooted in the possibility of promoting longevity.
Elli’s Tip #2 – ACCOUNTABILITY & STRUCTURE
This looks different for every single person, and I even practice this. I have in-depth knowledge from my experience and training to make knowledge-based decisions. However, I find with stress and living life on a “New York minute” my ability to make sound decisions goes out the window. For me structure provides me with accountability, I have a structured diet-style during the work week that allows me to hold myself accountable during the week for any mishaps that happened over the weekend. Structure and accountability are going to be different for every single person. Some types of accountability and structure include recurring sessions with a dietitian, being a part of a group with similar but varying goals, tracking your food daily or a few times a week with a focus on target numbers or just being mindful of choices, following a set eating frequency schedule, or utilizing a minimal prep or full prep meal delivery service.
Elli’s Tip #3 – PRACTICE AN “INCLUSION DIET” WHILE EXERCISING ACCOUNTABILITY AND INFORMED-DECION MAKING
This directly targets that pesky side effect of dieting: putting the weight back on, and then some. This approach shifts the focus to introducing nutrient-dense, health-fortifying foods as staples within our daily choices over strict avoidance of or going “cold-turkey” on harmful or less beneficial foods. I could tell you to eliminate a food because of lack of value to your health and the abundance of harmful proprieties, sure. But just like any preventative measure in life, we must fortify our defenses and structural foundation not just eliminate or minimize the threat. This approach also prevents many outcomes associated with restrictive diets including psychological effects of disordered eating, anxiety, body dysmorphia, cognitive impairment; and physiological effects such as deficiencies, weight regain, impaired metabolism, hormonal changes, cravings, growth impairment, bone decline, and so on. By being our own advocates for accountability and by engaging in making informed decisions can ultimately promote positive psychology of thinking to achieve sustained changes that will last no matter what the new year brings.
Sources:
Gaudiani, Jennifer K. Suck Enough: A Guide To The Medical Complications of Eating Disorders. Routledge, 2018.
Krist, Alex H et al. “Engaging Patients in Decision-Making and Behavior Change to Promote Prevention.” Studies In Health Technology and Informatics Vol. 240 (2017); 284-302
Mitchell, Ellen S et al. “Self-Reported Nutritional Factors Are Associate with Weight Loss at 18 Months in a Self-Managed Commercial Program with Food Categorization System: Observational Study.” Nutrients Vol. 13,5 1733. 20 May. 2021, doi:10.3390/nu13051733
