Don't go on a diet. Correct your diet.

I have never been on a diet. My Mom tried to get me to do some sort of fat and toxin flush thing with her once that was supposed to make my belly flatter, but I refused. No way am I downing nothing but some lemon-cayenne pepper-who knows what else drink for a couple days.
I've observed other people and their dieting ups and downs though, and I have to admit it's amusing, in a rather pathetic way.
The thing about diets and dieting is that typically people are looking for a quick fix, so they down nasty concoctions or don't eat enough, and then at the end they say, "whew" and get back to their old habits, only usually they're so relieved to be done with the diet that they double their comfort food intake. Often times they end up MORE overweight than before.
The saddest thing is when people who are a perfectly healthy weight decide they need to diet. They get on the yo yo diet Ferris wheel and end up fat and sad because for some reason they didn't love themselves the way they were.
I believe in adopting these simple rules to eat healthier all the time, and then I don't have to worry about dieting, and I am a healthy, happy weight.

#1 Be happy with who you are. When you don't like yourself, you wander around in this nasty miasma of unlove that affects everything you do. You don't take care of yourself, you surround yourself with people who confirm your self-hate, you eat bad foods, and you just keep spiraling downwards. Change the spiral. Make it a rule that until you learn to like yourself you are only allowed to say nice things about yourself. Get rid of the people in your life who constantly criticize you. (If you can). Pick a couple things that make you feel like you're really taking care of yourself, like a bubble bath or a hike in the woods, and do them at LEAST twice a week. When you love yourself and are sure that you are awesome, then you can start carefully allowing in criticism, but remember that for every negative word, (and all criticism is negative. A little is necessary but only a very little. Don't ever buy that constructive criticism garbage), you need at LEAST ten positive ones. More is better.

#2 Avoid processed foods for the most part. Even "health foods." Granola bars contain tons of sugar, margarine is loaded with trans fat, flavored yogurts contain all kinds of junk. Don't buy things if they have all kinds of weird chemically sounding ingredients. Even if the label says it's supposed to be good for you.

#3 Pick whole foods most of the time. Whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, plain yogurt, unprocessed cheese, plain old meat without all the preservative junk, herbs, olive oil, butter, stuff like that. The less that's been done to it before you get it the better.

#4 Learn how to cook those whole foods so that they taste good! Food is supposed to taste good. If it tastes bad, you don't enjoy it, and then you go looking for something you WILL enjoy. Like a pint of ice cream. If you hate vegetables, don't keep avoiding them. Experiment with trying new vegetables, or cooking vegetables in different ways. Take a cooking class if you have to. It's worth it. Your body will thank you.

#5 Don't cut the things you like out entirely. Just cut back a little bit, and find alternatives that make you happy. Do you love butter? Use butter most of the time! If you love Italian and eat lots of buttery, cheesy garlic bread, try replacing it with this occasionally: toast a slice of sourdough or some other sturdy bread, cut a garlic clove in half and rub the cut side against the hot toast, and then drizzle with olive oil. It's good. I promise. Do you love pumpkin pie? Make yourself a pumpkin pie from scratch, instead of buying a pie, and then take half to the neighbors! Can't live without soda? Try mixing your soda half and half with 100% fruit juice. And every now and then go ahead and eat a whole tub of ice cream for lunch with your husband. And don't feel bad about it. Enjoy every second. Because when you don't deprive yourself totally of the things you love, they lose that forbidden fruit attractiveness that they gain on typical diets.

#6 Remember that God gave us all kinds of veggies and grains for a reason. He also gave us ice cream for a reason. Food is SUPPOSED to be a nice experience. But we're also supposed to eat right and take care of our bodies. They don't have to be mutually exclusive ideas. We just need to learn how to cook what we've been given, and balance our ice cream intake with our veggies and whole grains intake.

#7 READ LABELS!!! Just because it SAYS whole grain doesn't mean it's not mostly nutrient devoid white flour. Just because it SAYS trans fat free doesn't mean it IS. See, if the trans fat per a serving is under a certain amount, they are allowed to say trans fat free. So they get sneaky and pick a small enough serving that they can say it's trans fat free, even if hardly anyone eats a serving that small. So keep an eye out for those hydrogenated oils and fats. IF it contains that, it has trans fat. Not to say a little dose every now and again is terrible for you. Just be aware of when you're putting it in your body.

#8 Eat at home most of the time. We eat restaurant food on average once every two weeks. Eating out, especially fast food, is a recipe for unhealthiness. If you must eat out often, try to pick healthier restaurants like Taco Time or Wendy's, and then try to pick healthier choices, ones with more veggies and less meat and mayo and deep fat frying. If you eat out rarely, when you do go for what you really want, even if it does have five layers of bacon.

How do you eat healthy? What are some of your favorite healthy recipes?