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2021 Refresh: What's a time-restricted diet? Exploring simple options to help you eat healthier

Most resolutions don't last an entire year. But there are things you can do when it comes to healthy eating that can give you a quick 'detox.'

CLEVELAND — Whether you admit it or not, most people have some sort of diet in mind when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. But sticking to a new eating plan usually doesn't make it through an entire year -- or even a month. In our "2021 Refresh" series, we asked a couple experts what are some simple things we can do to just kickstart healthy eating?

“I think the trend that I'm seeing is like a complete overhaul,” says Cleveland Clinic Dietician, Kristin Kirkpatrick.

Every January, millions of people vow to lose weight or eat healthy. How long does it last? Research shows it’s 66 days on average.

So, how can we start small?

“Number one, January is a great time to really encompass that kind of dry January mentality," Kirkpatrick says. "Even if it's just a week, if you go a week without having any alcoholic beverages, typically you can go two weeks three weeks.”

She says also try to eat foods with three ingredients or less and you'll automatically ditch the majority of processed foods.

“I also think frequency of eating is an easy thing to change and a huge detoxing mechanism, so if you think about the fact that if you take in a time-restricted eating approach and you say, 'OK, this week I’m only going to eat eight hours every day and there's nothing outside of that time, nothing outside of that window.”

Studies show time-restricted eating jumpstarts weight loss, helps lower cholesterol and improves type 2 diabetes.

“The best diet out there is the one you will stay on long-term, and that's different for everyone. I wouldn't do well on a ketogenic diet, but a lot of my patients do. I think if you're looking in more general terms, a Mediterranean diet is always a really great approach because it does encompass still being able to have fats, still being able to have animal proteins in the form of chicken or fish and then it has a lot of other things like obviously fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds.”

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