The Secret to a Healthy Diet

Here's a belief I've held for many years. I don't have a lot of scientific evidence to back it up, but I think it makes sense. If you want to eat a healthy diet and therefore lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, you only have to really do two things:

1) You have to enjoy eating things that are good for you, and;

2) You must do some sort of physical activity on a regular basis.

It's that simple. Fad diets, drugs, or anything else that helps you lose weight without doing anything different with your life just won't work. Either you won't be able to keep the weight off, or you won't be healthy.

Perhaps it's easier said than done to "like eating things that are good for you" but here's where I see the problem: people have too much of the "reward" mentality. It goes like this: "I've been GOOD all week so now I can have a TREAT". What's going on is that the stuff people think is good for them is stuff they don't like. Marketers have a field day with this by selling junk food designed as health food.

If you like real, good food like fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy meats and good bread, you're most of the way there. Don't drown your salad in bacon. Don't think that white bread is the only type that is palatable. Just like the real, good stuff.

The second part is equally important. The human body needs activity and if you don't get it, you're missing something. Diet can't compensate for this. With a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes a day of just WALKING you are most of the way there. What is so hard about that?