The Best Nutrition Plan: One You Stick With

The onslaught of diet advice is never-ending. Year's ago we were asked to follow the Cabbage Soup Diet or the Scarsdale Diet. Today it's all about Keto and Whole 30. Evergreen nutrition plans like the Mediterranean Diet are still on the 'recommended' list of many physicians. And while group programs like Weight Watchers may have evolved into online apps, they still strike a chord with many people.

Fortunately, more nutritional experts are offering advice like, "Everyone is different. Do what works for you."

Perhaps this newly-tolerant attitude is a reaction to online communities that have a tendency to shame those who don't follow their programs. Or perhaps there's a popular groundswell of people who are standing up for themselves as they negotiate their way through wellness and body positivity.

Customize and Adjust

If you try a high-protein or a gluten-free program and it just isn't for you, don't sweat it. If your all-organic, vegan lifestyle turned out to be to be more hard work than anticipated, you didn't fail. It just wasn't your thing. Most healthcare professionals know that weight loss is difficult, but maintenance is much harder. Living and eating in a healthy way forever can be an elusive goal. It requires a plan that can be sustained over the long haul. No one is advising eating nothing but candy bars and grapefruit (even if you were able to). A healthy diet has to be balanced, colorful, as unprocessed as possible, and provide an appropriate mix of protein, fats and carbohydrates.

If your nursing specialty involves endocrinology, bariatric procedures, or nutritional counseling, you know that getting to health is as much an emotional task as it is physical, and punishing regimes just don't work. Or maybe you're working on maintaining your own health, which can be challenging if you're on the road doing travel nursing. Either way, the ability to customize and adjust is essential.

Michael Pollan, well-known food writer, summed up healthy nutrition in 8 words: "Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly Plants"

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