Dining

How to Choose the Right (and Realistic) Diet for You

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There are hundreds of diet plans out there, but you shouldn’t just try one because you learned about it on Instagram or know someone who tried it and lost weight. What works for one person won’t work for everyone. To find the right diet for you, consider your lifestyle, health history, exercise habits, and body type.

Define Your Goals

The first thing to consider when looking to change your diet is your goals. Are you trying to make a full lifestyle change, or are you trying to lose just a few pounds? 

To see a diet through and make it work for the long term, understanding how you eat and what types of food you actually enjoy are essential factors to consider. Being real with yourself is the most crucial part of the switch, as this will help you avoid making unrealistic changes. 

Partner a Healthy Diet with Healthy Fitness Habits 

When changing your diet, pairing it with a healthy fitness routine is the best way to achieve your goals. While eating healthy is critical, getting the proper amount of exercise is an equally important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. When considering your new diet, don’t forget to include a realistic workout routine into your goals. 

Identify Your Food Preferences 

Before starting a diet, be honest with yourself about what foods you like, tolerate, and detest. Would you feel satisfied if you only eat plant-based products? Do you enjoy your red meats and sweets too much to give them up entirely? Consider your typical diet, and what foods you just couldn’t live without to make the best plan. 

Account for Your Lifestyle

When thinking of your diet, it’s also good to consider how it will affect your lifestyle. If you eat out often, are there enough restaurants that offer meals that line up with your diet? Do you have time for meal prep? Are your local grocery stores stocked with the right foods to make your diet work? Consider these questions to understand better how a diet will mend with your lifestyle. 

Diets to Consider 

  • Vegan Diet– The vegan diet is entirely plant-based; when following the diet, you avoid all animal products and byproducts. If you love vegetables and can get creative in the kitchen, following the vegan diet can be easy and enjoyable and make you feel more energized throughout the day. If you’re new to the vegan diet, consider taking supplements, such as B12, to replace the nutrients from your favorite animal-based foods. 
  • Flexitarian Diet– If the vegan diet sounds difficult, but you do want to focus on eating a more plant-based diet, the flexitarian diet may be a great compromise. The flexitarian diet focuses on plant-based eating as the primary food source, adding meat and other animal products into the diet on occasion.
  • Intermittent Fasting– Intermittent fasting is more about when you eat than what you eat. The popular 16/8 method is when you fast for 16 hours and only eat in a daily eight-hour window. There are many other variations of intermittent fasting diets, and depending on your lifestyle, there may bee a schedule that works better for you.
  • Keto Diet– The ketogenic diet is a diet that restricts carbohydrates and focuses on a high-fat diet. The key to this diet is eating healthy fats to promote ketosis, a state in which your body can quickly and efficiently burn fat for energy. To get started on the keto diet, a lot of people use MCT oil products, like these keto MCT oil softgels
  • Mediterranean Diet– The Mediterranean diet is great for those who want to live a healthier lifestyle without too many drastic changes. This diet focuses on eating healthy fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seafood, and fish and using good herbs and olive oil. On this diet, you can still have chicken, eggs, and dairy in moderation and red meat and sweets on special occasions. 
  • Raw Food Diet– The raw food diet is another option closely related to the vegan diet, except it focuses on only eating unprocessed food that hasn’t been heated to any higher than 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Raw foods are also unrefined, non pasteurized, and all organic. The idea is that “real” food has all the nutrients the body needs.

Get to Know Yourself

The key to finding the right diet for you is understanding yourself and what you like to eat and when. Dieting is difficult, but it doesn’t have to be boring or joyless. By evaluating your lifestyle and choosing the diet that best fits your needs, you’ll be far more likely to stick to the diet and achieve your goals. 

 

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