Poor food choices and a lack of getting up and moving is leading to obesity becoming one of the greatest health issues in modern society. The problem with any diet, is that they do not teach people the difference between good and bad eating habits.
In my opinion, this is one of the main reasons why diets fail to help people make long-term changes to their eating habits and lifestyle. We must see food as fuel for our body. If we put the right food in, we will be rewarded with energy, good health and a great life. Putting crap fuel (bad food, bad drinks and bad air) into our body will cause us to struggle and we’ll never be able to perform to our full potential.
According to a survey conducted by the International Food and Information Council, 77% of Americans are trying to lose weight. I am a firm believer that in order to create consistency with your eating habits, you not only have to stop dieting and following restrictive food rules, but you also have to shift the way you build your eating habits so they best support you for the long-term.
In this blog I want to focus on the LONGEVITY benefits of a proper diet and healthy life choices and how it will affect your well-being a couple years down the road.
A healthy, balanced diet consists of a variety of different foods that give your body all the nutrients it needs to function at its best. A great diet is not about eliminating delicious foods and eating boring stuff. Instead, a healthy diet is based on eating really fresh, unprocessed foods. I believe most people have got the message that dieting is bad, but many still participate in diet-related behaviors.
Healthy behaviors should be seen as small changes that occur over time. Instead of following rules about good or bad foods, we should focus on how to balance all foods we want in our diet. The small steps will allow us to make changes that work well for our different lifestyles.
If you are someone who is looking to improve your diet, I believe it is more important to add great foods rather than just eliminate bad foods. If you want to make a lasting change in your life, (be it food or anything else) you must replace bad habits with good ones. Simply stopping or eliminating a bad habit leads to a void that will most often be filled again by the same things you are trying to eliminate.
Building a new eating habit starts with a sometimes massive behavioral change, which also brings up the question: Am I really ready to make a change at this point of my life? Everything we do, feel, and think relates to our well-being. In my opinion, wellness is considered a way of living, an integration of the body, mind, and soul. It’s not just about your looks, but your health as well: overindulging in unhealthy habits can endanger your life in more ways than one, and avoiding this situation is a must.
Discover the practices that will support you to stop dieting and find balance. These three reframes around how you think about food and the role of nutrition in your life are key to creating a long-lasting, supportive, and balanced way of nourishing yourself. If you're ready to let go of diets, you also have to focus on integrating new practices into your life that support you with nourishing yourself and finding the right balance.
All the new habits and goals we get so excited about starting soon, can slowly become harder to sustain and could be easily broken. There’s no shame in admitting, I am also a victim of that! This is completely understandable. With so much going on, it’s easy to regress back into old habits — sometimes without even realizing it. But old habits aren’t getting us where we want to go in business or in our newly developed fitness lifestyle.
Choosing minimally processed, real foods that provide maximal nutritional benefits is the main idea behind the switch to clean eating lifestyle focused on longevity. My biggest advice is to start slow and small, with one or two products you heavily consume already and then see how that goes and start implementing it with other product categories. The main goal is to consume foods that are as close to their natural state as possible.
With the increase in demand, the availability for natural and organic products of all types has also increased so it shouldn’t be hard to find substitute foods and drinks for what you already have been consuming.
Things such as “Low-sugar”, “No Artificial”, and “zero calories” should do the work in getting your attention, but make sure you read the labels and be aware if the packages are lying or not. One of my favorite parts of the whole process is to search and get to know more about products that fit into my fit lifestyle and are on the same page as me in terms of longevity in what I do. I might be a professional swimmer now and somehow be ‘forced’ into watching my diet and what goes into my body, but I know for a fact that one day when I don’t swim anymore I will still be very worried and concerned about my health.
Luckily the availability for low-sugar natural products has been on the rise and I have been able to refuel and replenish my body with the right amount of calories, vitamins and electrolytes while staying on track of my lifestyle goals. Products such as Hydra Guard Sports Drink are available on the market and online and they help me on a daily basis with my training routine.
With the increase in demand, the availability for natural and organic products of all types has also increased so it shouldn’t be hard to find substitute foods and drinks for what you already have been consuming. Things such as “Low-sugar”, “No Artificial”, and “zero calories” should do the work in getting your attention, but make sure you read the labels and be aware if the packages are lying or not.
One of my favorite parts of the whole process is to search and get to know more about products that fit into my fit lifestyle and are on the same page as me in terms of longevity in what I do. I might be a professional swimmer now and somehow be ‘forced’ into watching my diet and what goes into my body, but I know for a fact that one day when I don’t swim anymore I will still be very worried and concerned about my health.
Luckily the availability for low-sugar natural products has been on the rise and I have been able to refuel and replenish my body with the right amount of calories, vitamins and electrolytes while staying on track of my lifestyle goals. Products such as Hydra Guard Sports Drink are available on the market and online and they help me on a daily basis with my training routine.
Paul Millsap, 4x NBA All-Star and Hydra-Guard Partner has always made his nutrition and health a priority, which reflects his elite performance and extremely successful career in the NBA. Paul’s ability to maintain playing at the highest level has been nothing short of amazing. It's a professional career that every athlete strives for.
The key for longevity in any athlete’s career is to take care of their bodies first and that's something that Paul has obviously done very well. Hydra-Guard Sports Drink caught Paul’s attention in early 2019, when he officially partnered with them in efforts to bring the brands healthy benefits more readily available to more households across the country.
"Being a professional athlete naturally encourages me and my family to live a healthy lifestyle. Hydra-Guard Sports Drink raises the bar to unprecedented heights with its beverage innovation. It’s packed with electrolytes, and being an all natural sports drink with low sugars is a game changer, this product is changing the industry," says Paul.