Heart Healthy Food Choices Do Matter
Have you ever been tempted to do the right thing? Probably not, but if you’ve ever abandoned a heart healthy food choice for a delicious calorie crammed alternative you’ve been tempted. Your choice of a heart healthy food alternative over a rich and delicious dessert exerts a lot of stress. This stress seems to intensify each time you are offered a slice of your favorite dessert. It always feels like a fight when you try to do the right thing. To choose a heart healthy food when tempted by a high fat, salt saturated, and calorie clustered food requires superhuman power. The secret to this power is learning how to say no. Learning how to say no is easy, and will reduce your stress when you use the proper tool.
A personal eating policy is the best tool to use, when you want to do the right thing for your heart. Because your choices do matter, a commitment to your personal eating policy is crucial to your success. Your healthy heart diet policy is more than a battle of wits and guts or mind over menu. It is your survival strategy in the enemy territory of FSS (fats, salts, and sweets). Certain visual triggers can intensify your stress, especially when you feel yourself being seduced by your memory of great tastes. Here is where you need more than your “game-face” for success. Many of us have heard that prior planning prevents poor performance. The good news is that prior planning works very well. To know and stick with your personal eating policy can save you from defeat and regret. Since you live the results and not the resolutions of your plans, making the right choice about heart healthy food is easier when you have a personal eating policy.
Your personalized eating policy is always strengthened when combined with self-control. Self-control means to live within boundaries. Just as a map shows the limits of territories and boundaries, your food map should have clearly defined limits and boundaries. This means that you need to plan more than just what foods you can eat, but also how much of these foods you can eat. We recommend that you optimize your personal eating policy with three distinct boundaries. First, know what you can and cannot eat. The second boundary requires that you know what you can eat in place of what you cannot eat. For instance, if your plan calls for no butter, politely ask for an alternative like olive oil. Finally, know in advance the desired plate size, portion size, and serving size for the foods you choose to eat. Remember that mealtime is neither the time nor the place to compete with the young and dietary reckless at the table. These renegades take pride in erecting great pyramids on their plates and take the “have more” offer to the extreme. Stick with your plan. Take charge of your heart healthy food choices. Your heart has worked hard for you, now return the favor. Do the right thing.
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