"Don’t believe what you think" ~Rene Descartes; National Nutrition Month Guest Blog Series (part 2/3)
Continuing with our theme of honoring National Nutrition Month, we will be sharing part two of our guest blog series by our dietetic intern, Jill Murphy. In the first section, Jill covered food preference development. In part 2 of the series, Jill will discuss steps that are a crucial part of making behavioral and lifestyle changes. Check out the full post below!
Cognitive Behavior Theories (CBT)
CBT tells us that each interaction we have forms our behaviors. When the idea of making healthy lifestyle and nutrition changes, many emotions can surface at a rapid rate. Fear, frustration, dread, sadness, guilt, and possibly even anger just to name a few. Our thoughts are shaped through previous learned encounters with food, exercise, and lifestyle choices.
Behavior modifications are not easy, especially if you looking to make long-term lifestyle changes. One of the best tools to help in this journey is CBT. Including a little self-reflection throughout the process of making changes can make some of the transitions a little smoother. Nutrition behavior modifications can be challenging to say the least. There are numerous situations that shape our food choices. A few of them could be memories we have made, cultures we have grown up in, and even foods we have been taught to use on a regular basis. Making change is always difficult, so working with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and/or a therapist who can help you utilize this tool could make all the difference.
We hope you enjoyed part two of this three part guest blog series by our dietetic intern, Jill Murphy, and would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have on this topic of behavior changes! Stay tuned for part 3 of this blog series later this week with some fantastic recipes from a range of cultural backgrounds.
** Blog post written by: Jill Murphy (Dietetic Intern)**
Wishing you all a happy and healthy week!
-Ricci-Lee Hotz, MS, RDN
A Taste of Health, LLC
Denver's Dancing Dietitian
"Improving quality of life one bite at a time"