Dr Ryno Tope: The struggle with food and how to solve it

Dr Ryno Tope

Most believe knowing WHAT to eat is the most important factor when it comes to diet.

If that were true simply having a list of everything you should consume and all of the foods to avoid would be enough to yield incredible results.

If just knowing the best foods required to create health were enough, we wouldn't see worldwide obesity rates climbing at such a rapid pace.

The fact is New Zealand sits near the top of the chart when looking at obesity rates, but worse, the signs are that the rates are increasing further!

How can this be?

We have access to more information than ever before. Sure, some of it is conflicting and confusing, but everyone knows you shouldn't drink 24 cans of cola and that you should eat your vegetables.

Maybe the problem is time? No question we have less and less of it...

People are generally busier than ever before and making time to eat nutritious food can take a back seat; especially when quick, easy, tasty (nutrient poor) choices are readily available.

The REAL ANSWER is WHY.

Why do you care? Why would eating healthy, nutritious food be important to you?

This same question can be asked in every single area of your life.

Truth be told, the areas of your life in which you have developed great success are likely areas where you have already answered this question.

Consciously or unconsciously, you have taken the required actions because you are motivated in some way to do so.

The same is true if you are struggling with food. You need to start with why...

Why do you want to lose weight?
Why do you want to change your diet?
What do you want for your life?
How long do you want to live?
What do you want the quality of your life to be?
Is there something in your life you deeply desire to accomplish?
Would being healthier allow you to more fully experience it?
Would better health improve your family life?

These are some of the vital questions you will need to begin answering long before your list of WHAT to eat will ever be fully implemented and become your new normal.

So, get a notebook, journal or piece of paper and write down this question:
Why do I want to ________________.

Fill in the blank with any goal you have been struggling with and begin writing down some clues to your answer. With enough time and thought you will begin to clarify the people, experiences and dreams that are most important to you.

With that knowledge, what to eat and how to do it are simple tasks anyone can learn and finally begin to yield extraordinary results.

Dr Ryno Tope has worked as a chiropractor for the past five years in Hawke's Bay and has opened a practice in Hastings called Structural Chiropractic. It is a practice that focuses on Structural Correction.
¦Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz