Wouldn’t it be nice if you could ditch the food rules, eat what you want, and still achieve a healthy weight? Well, it may be possible. That is, if you follow the 80/20 principle.
The 80/20 principle is a guideline that encourages individuals to eat healthy 80% of the time while leaving 20% leeway for those less healthy choices. This allows you to incorporate all the foods you love into an eating plan, even the worst of them, (Twinkies, anyone?) without feeling guilty. Although this sounds too good to be true, many nutrition experts have found that this concept has helped many individuals fight the battle of the bulge over time, yet knowing a little nutrition know-how and keeping yourself accountable is pretty much essential if you want this concept to guide you towards better health.
First, you have to realize that this principle is a general guideline and not a precise equation that should be used at every meal. Instead, it suggests that if an individual gives their best and eats as nutritionally as they can, successfully sticking to this plan 80% or more of the time will result in success. Or in other words, you don’t have to be a perfect eater to successfully reach your healthy living goals.
And that’s a good thing according to nutrition expert and author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips, Elisa Zied, MS, RD, CDN. Zied who says that “by giving people permission to indulge in small amounts of nutrient-poor but delicious foods like candy or cookies, they may feel less deprived and perhaps it will motivate them to try to include more healthful foods in their diet.”
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By Lisa Eirene from 110 Pounds and Counting
What I love about the holidays are the traditions. My mom loves to tell the story of holidays when as a child I stuck black olives on the tips of my fingers and ate them. I love the frenzy in the kitchen, my mom trying to get all the food done at the same time. I love the aromas of baked turkey and stuffing, the ritual of making sure each bite of pumpkin pie has whipped cream on it.
Any way you slice that pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving and Christmas are days of Gluttony. We can avoid it, we can restrict our food intake on that day and longingly watch our family indulge or we can go hog wild and just eat everything on that table.
There has to be something in between, right?
As a reformed obese girl who has had a lifetime of struggles eating, I am faced with this decision every year. See, I used to weigh over 250 pounds. In those days I didn’t care that I was ingesting over 5,000 calories in that one meal.
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Recently we reported on a study by HealthiNation that revealed that Americans have an overly optimistic view of their nutritional well being. While majority of adults (52%) think that they are doing all they can do to achieve a balanced nutritional diet, 76% of adults are not getting the minimum daily serving of fruits and vegetables as recommended by the USDA.
To help close the gap between that optimism and the sober reality, we caught up with Sharon Richter, RD, a registered dietitian who is passionate about helping people understand the impact diet and nutrition have on their overall health. Based in New York City, Richter hosts HealthiNation’s nutrition programs and has a private practice where she counsels clients about sports nutrition, weight loss/gain, eating disorders, and disease prevention for children, adolescents and adults.
“I recommend that people try to achieve balance,” said Richter. “If you eat healthy 80% of the time and ensure that you’re meeting all of your dietary needs, you can indulge a little bit during the other 20% of the time.”
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Heather is the author of Not a DIY Life, where she shares her journey of healthy living, parenting, faith and everything in between. After all, life is not a Do-It-Yourself project.
I’m not really a professional dieter, but I have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. I’ve tried several different “diets,” including a low-fat diet, Atkins, and South Beach. Even though I am losing weight currently, I am not on a diet in the same sense. I am on a journey of healthy living, and that includes learning moderation in all things.
When I was in college, I lost 50 lbs on a low-fat diet with lots of activity and exercise. During that time, I gave up bacon. Oh, how I missed bacon. But it wasn’t “low fat” so I thought that I “couldn’t” eat it. I did not eat bacon for SIX years.
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Alison Sweeney announced on her Twitter page March 14th that she is starting a Shape-Up Week, using the hashtag #shapeupweek, the specifics of which she outlines in her book, The Mommy Diet.
Shape-Up Week is a week of clean eating, consistent exercise, and no slip-ups. It doesn’t fall on a specific calendar day, it’s any week you feel as though you need one to get back on track and kickstart your results and motivation. Your Shape-Up Week can be any week you choose- it is just a week where you recommit to your goals, and stick to them for an entire week.
According to Ali’s website, “…the bottom line is that this week I am going to focus on my health and fitness. It’s not just like any other week, when I work at health and fitness but win some and lose some.This week I am 100% goal-oriented. No sweets, no treats, no excuses.”
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