Establishing Healthy Habits in 2022
Saying no to extreme diets and yes to a healthier relationship with food.
Starting the new year is always beneficial for creating new and heathy habits to fuel your body. Music Editor Gabriella Fernandez introduces the best ways to achieve those goals.
Celebrating the new year usually means making New Year’s resolutions, and while some of these can be very rewarding,others are harmful and unrealistic, especially regarding weight loss.
Our generation has a very warped sense of healthiness and weight loss/ maintenance. It isn’t uncommon for young people, especially girls, to stop eating regular portions of food, or stop eating in general, just to shed a couple of pounds.
Physical trainer and health advocate Ms. Belinda Rodriguez had a few things to say on the matter.
“When attempting to lose weight, don’t skip a meal,” Rodriguez said.
You need to fuel your body with healthy food choices and the right size portions. If you skip a meal, your brain will signal the body that it is going into ‘starvation mode’ and hold on to excess fat, that is the last thing we want.
— Ms. Belinda Rodriguez
Skipping meals is one of the biggest misconceptions in weight loss, and while it may seem like the simplest and fastest option, it is very harmful in the long run as Rodriguez mentioned.
Similarly, extreme dieting such as juice diets, the South Beach diet, and the raw food diet to name a few. This can also be harmful to your body and provides short- term results at most.
“I do not believe in dieting, ” Rodriguez said. ” I believe in living a healthy lifestyle. Diets come and go and are easy to disregard or follow. Depriving and cutting out foods that you love is a very easy way to set yourself up for bringing back bad food habits.”
Junior Isabella Gomez has tried her share of diets. Her experience with extreme dieting was not. positive one. .
Every year I aim to lose weight but I always seem to gain back what I lose. Dieting and extreme exercise has never allowed me to maintain a healthy lifestyle because I always seem to burn out very quickly. — Junior Isabella Gomez
Gomez personally experienced the temporary results aforementioned by Rodriguez, and strengthened the fact that these fad diets harm your body and leave you feeling burnt out. Since she stopped participating in these extreme diets and started listening to her body, Isabella shared that she has become much more confident in herself and feels the healthiest she has felt in a long time.
Losing weight the right way can take some time, so it is important to stay motivated and not fall back into unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits. Rodriguez shared that the number one thing that you could do to stay motivated is to have a realistic goal, and remind yourself of it everyday. Along with this, it is important to recognize progress you may have made and congratulate yourself on moving forward with your goal, without practicing any harmful behaviors.
This new year, try to make realistic resolutions, and aim to help instead of harm yourself by practicing healthy habits such as eating full and nutritious meals and exercising the mind and the body. Remember, you only get one life and it is best to live it the healthiest way possible.
Gabriella Fernandez is currently a senior. She partakes in many clubs at OLLA and is a member of the varsity volleyball team. In her free time, she enjoys...
Stephania Lopez was on the Grotto News staff from 2019 t0 2022. She was the creative director of the 2021-2022 publication of the renowned literary art...
