Agreed!

Kalyn Denny — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:42:17 -0500

I think Kathryn is brilliant at devising the kind of advice that really will be helpful and breaking it down into small enough pieces that it's do-able.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Yes to doing it gradually

Vered — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:47:58 -0500

I love that she says not to do it all at once. Changing one habit at a time, then - once you get used to the change - moving to the next challenge, works far better than trying to change several bad habits at once.

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I blog at MomGrind

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Improve Your Eating Habits with "31 Days to a Better Diet"

Kalyn Denny — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:56:46 -0500

Australian nutritionist Kathryn Elliott counsels people individually on diet and health for a living. She's serious about helping others develop healthful eating habits, and during the month of August she posted a new tip about improving your diet every day on her blog Limes and Lycopene.

Kathryn's tips could be a powerful 31-step plan for junk food addicts, but a lot of this advice will also strike a chord with anyone who knows they aren't eating enough of the right foods and too much of the wrong foods. The brilliant thing about her approach is that she's divided the process of changing your habits into small enough pieces that they're manageable. In her roundup post for 31 Days to a Better Diet, she says

"But you don’t have to change everything at once. Instead you could make regular small changes. Tackling your diet one habit at a time. And if you approach dietary change in this way, over the days and the months you will be changing the way you eat in a practical and sustainable way.

I've been a fan of Kathryn's blog for a long time, so I was following along during August to see which tips really struck me. On day three, she encouraged people to notice Which Food Groups Don't You Eat? Yes, that would be me, hardly ever eating any fruit.

I did feel good about myself on day four when she advised Build Up a Stock of Plastic Containers. Of course the plastic containers are so you can prepare and store healthy eating options. No shortage of plastic containers at my house, check!

A great tip came on day ten, when Kathryn reminds us to Include Vegetables in Every Meal. Of course everyone knows vegetables are packed with nutrients and usually low in calories (or kilojoules, as they're called in Australia.) But how many people are conscious of trying to include a vegetable in every meal?

Day sixteen was a guest post from Lucy of Nourish Me, and her tip is Something New Each Week. The importance of variety in a healthful diet is a theme that runs through the entire series.

It's a topic after my own heart on day seventeen, when Kathryn asks us to check How Many Types of Sugar are in Your food? Kathryn lists all the words that can be used for sugar on today's food labels.

Good advice for many people comes on day twenty-one, when the advice is Retry a Vegetable You Don't Like.

There's another guest post on day 26 when Shauna from Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl writes about a new way to approach high calorie foods in a post called Tricks and Treats. I loved Shauna's description of how she prioritizes and minimizes those foods to help her stick to her weight loss plan.

As the series was wrapping up, there was a recommendation to Try Some Legumes on day twenty-eight, and notice How Big Are Your Plates on day twenty-nine.

Those are some of the posts that reached through the computer and slapped me across the forehead. Check Kathryn's entire list of 31 Days to a Better Diet, and see where your own diet could use a tune-up.

Kalyn Denny writes about food and at BlogHer.com and shares her passion for cooking at Kalyn's Kitchen.

BlogHer - Improve Your Eating Habits with "31 Days to a Better Diet" - Comments

Agreed!

Yes to doing it gradually

Improve Your Eating Habits with "31 Days to a Better Diet"