Weight loss is achieved through consuming a high quality diet that contains healthy foods. This sort of diet is not normal to most who live in Western nations, as most are conditioned to eat a typical Western diet from cradle to death. The typical Western diet was popularised in the United States of America, and comprises of highly refined and processed foods manufactured and sold by large corporations that dominate the market. This model has subsequently been adopted in other Western countries, with many of the same large corporations involved in these countries’ food industries. Such a system of feeding the population supplies large amounts of nutrient poor food, that is cheap to produce and tends to have a long shelf life. This generate large profits for the food companies, but is highly detrimental to the health of the populations. Consumption of such a diet leads to the spread of Western lifestyle diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and obesity.
The idea of change is often more painful that the actual implementation of such changes. Overcoming this fear of implementing change is therefore important before real progress can be made.
Abandoning such a diet and its associated lifestyle habits is a necessary step in the road to health. However, such change is not mentally easy because often the Western lifestyle will have been followed from childhood and many of the habits, behaviours, foods and drink will be an integral part of that person’s life. The less processed foods will appear alien to those who have never adopted a high quality diet, and for this reason a certain air of reticence and doubt can be felt as changes are made. This is perfectly natural and is common during any period of transition. Humans are naturally drawn to the familiar, which is why we associate with and take on the ideas of those around us that are like us. Fear of the unknown is a huge stumbling block for society and many political books have been written in order to explain how changes can be implemented in society under a backdrop of humans that resist change. Overcoming this fear of change and accepting new habits and foods is therefore a pivotal step in body composition improvements.
The rate of change is less important than the direction. Changes should always improve the quality of the diet. The Kaizen method shows that many small changes over time can lead to significant progress when the changes are summed.
However, the good news is that the fear of change can often be greater than the actual change itself. Individuals may envisage that adopting an entirely new diet is harder than it is. While the taste of the less processed foods of a healthy diet are certainly less sweet that those that compose a Western diet, over a short period of time taste bud will adapt to the new flavours. Many of the foods in a healthy diet have very enjoyable tastes, but a transition away from the monotone sweet tastes of the Western diet is required before they can be savoured. As new foods are adopted and health returns, body fat levels will decrease and energy levels with increase, and this will provide impetus to make further changes. Such positive feedback should be harnessed or even celebrated as it can become a driving force in further progress. The rate of change is an individual thing with some preferring rapid change and others a gentle transition. However, as long as changes made improve the quality of the diet, the actual rate is less important.
RdB
