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Health & Fitness

Eating Right vs. Dieting

Eating right regularly versus dieting.

Eating right is essential to becoming/staying fit and being healthy. I believe there is a difference between eating right and dieting; eating right is about having balanced meals throughout the day that consist of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc., where as dieting (as I see it) is about depriving the body whether you are cutting out carbohydrates or sweets or just eating grapefruit.

I would rather eat a better/ healthier meal and still be able to indulge on a scoop of ice cream rather than cut it out completely. What I notice is that I end up craving that one thing, like ice cream, even more, and then instead of one scoop, I eat the whole carton! And add chocolate syrup just to top it off. So all that “dieting” was thrown out the door.

If you are having trouble with eating healthy, start keeping a food diary. There are some apps that you can download that can help you track what you are eating. I like myfitnesspal, and it’s free. Once you start to write down what you are eating, you can get a better sense of what you are putting into your body. You might notice that on Monday, you ate no fruits at all and had only one vegetable. By tracking your meals, you can see where you can make changes.

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It will take some time before you find your right balance, so keep it up and I know you will succeed.

Sonja is a Santee Jazzercise instructor, learn more about her classes here.

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