Children & Adults: Successfully Making Diet Changes
I find it to be most important to acknowledge with clients that change IS difficult, especially when it comes to something we’ve done all of our lives: eating, cooking, tasting, and enjoying food. For one reason or another, you may decide or learn that you need to make healthier changes, and finding support from someone like me will be the best choice you have ever made. You WILL go through periods of frustration and anxiety with changing your diet, but if you want to be successful, you CAN make it simple- reach for help and support from those who already live the way you want to. It will save you time, stress, and money.
Addressing the diet first is most important for the people dealing with the following:
- Any Autoimmune Disease
- ADD/ ADHD
- Autism
- Anxiety/ Stress
- Celiac Disease
- Digestive Problems
- Diabetes/ Blood Sugar issues
- Food Allergies
- Hormonal Imbalance
- Fatigue
- Obesity
- Weight Gain/ Loss
- IBS
- Memory and Learning
- Mood, and many more reasons!
Most children and adults end up very motivated to stay compliant because they receive the immediate feedback of improved health and the resolution of any symptoms. Changes do not come overnight. With children, it is important for the parents to make the first move toward wellness in their life, and experiencing the fruits of good health themselves, soon after bringing along the family and children. Wellness of this nature is an ecological shift, like a pebble tossed in a pond that ripples slowly to those around us.
With most people, we started slowly. We will do an initial clean-up of the worst (most problematic/toxic) foods in the house, and then removed one problem food per week from the diet. Sometimes we would negotiate one food change a month. It’s important to move at your pace and ability to integrate change.
Generally, when a child needs to make major dietary changes, it does require the whole family’s buy-in. A significant move away from being unconscious about what we eat toward paying very close attention to where food comes from, what it’s made of, the toxin and nutrient content, and the macro-nutrient composition requires a powerful and intentional return to our roots, how we evolved to eat. We must also pay attention to how we feel after we eat, and notice the impact of food on our health and well-being. We need to have everyone on board in the family, even if only a little, when thinking about food from this perspective. The home front is the nutritional frontier and is where unity must be established for success in nutritional changes.
To succeed with such changes, the basics need to be addressed:
- Where to shop/what to buy
- How to avoid antigenic foods
- How to replace the foods being eliminated from the diet with healthy alternatives
- How to read and understand food labels
- Identifying hidden food additives and antigens
- “Natural” versus “organic”
- Healthful, affordable foods
- Easy, quick recipe ideas
- Eating healthy on the go
- Eating well at restaurants
- Knowing the nutrient content of foods
- Relying on foods, rather than supplements, for long-term nutrient needs
- Understanding the appropriate balance and quantity of food
- Stress-free eating: rest and digest
- Resources for healthy eating: cookbooks and internet sites
See my In-Home Nutrition Solutions Packages to start making the changes you need!
