If there is one thing just about everyone has in common, it is the desire to be healthier. However, it can become confusing and overwhelming when you don’t know what to change, how to eat, or how much to eat. When in fact it is all a matter of small choices and simple habits you can change.
This report is going to give you some easy ways to start developing healthier eating habits, whether you are trying to lose weight, add more vegetables to your diet, or just be a healthier person in general.
1 – Make Small Changes
Eating healthier, whether you want to improve your overall wellness or to lose some weight, doesn’t have to be complicated. People often look at it as if it has to be a strict diet where you lose all the foods you love, are constantly hungry, and can never eat chocolate again. But it is actually much different.
Healthy eating is all about balance. When you are first starting a new healthy eating habit, don’t try to do too much, too quickly. Take it slow and make small changes, one at a time. While going cold turkey helps for some people, those with bad experiences sticking to a new healthy eating lifestyle might need to start a little slower.
Make One Healthy Change First
Instead of trying to overwhelm yourself with 20 different changes you need to make all at one time, make just one healthy change at a time. Don’t start on Monday – make the change today, right now. It doesn’t have to be big or life changing. Any little improvement you make in your health and your diet will make a difference. Over time, you can start changing more of your eating habits until you’re as healthy as you can be.
Try Some of These Simple Changes
Here are examples of some small healthy eating changes you can start making today:
- Start drinking more water
- Cut back on the soda
- Use half as much creamer in your coffee
- Have fruit as a snack instead of packaged chips or cookies
- Switch to whole grain bread
As you can see, these are not massive lifestyle changes, but simple things that lead you to a healthier lifestyle.
Make a List of the Changes You Want to Make
You can do these one at a time at your leisure, or make a list of when you want to introduce them. For example, you might start drinking more water this week, then next week cut out the extra soda you tend to have at night. The following week you can then replace your afternoon candy bar with fruit instead, and keep going until your day is filled with healthier choices.
2 – Decide on Your Healthy Diet
Once you have started to make small healthy changes, you also need to decide on the type of healthy diet you want to follow. This might require some experimenting and really analyzing your own tastes and what you think you can stick to. If you are trying to develop healthy eating habits just to lose weight, don’t think only about the weight loss. Think about something that has the potential to last a lifetime. That is one of the most important things you can do.
Think About Your Favorite Healthy Foods
No matter what your current healthy lifestyle is like, there are probably some things you eat that are on the healthier side. This is good to analyze first, because you can continue eating these foods on certain diets. This might be that you really enjoy fruit a lot, or your favorite comfort meal is chicken, rice, and broccoli. Make a list of your favorite healthy foods, and that is usually a good indication of the type of healthy eating lifestyle that will work best for you.
If you find that when you want to eat healthy, you go for a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, that is great. But it isn’t the best option on a low-carb diet, so perhaps that is not what works best for you. On the other hand, if you like veggies more than fruit, low-carb may be well suited to you. Do you love salad with olive oil? That happens to be perfect for the Mediterranean, clean eating, and many other diets.
Consider Your Preferences and Tastes
Along with your favorite healthy foods, you have to think even more about what your food preferences are. While not impossible, it is hard to do diets like Paleo and Keto when you are a vegetarian or vegan. This is important to think about when you are deciding the best healthy diet for you. Think about long-term goals, not just what you want to accomplish right now, and you will be much more successful with your healthy eating endeavors.
Don’t Ignore Your Past Mistakes with Food
Once you have considered what you like eating, think about what you don’t like eating. Consider all the times in the past you tried a trendy, crash diet, you attempted to eat a certain healthy food you just don’t like, or when you tried to develop healthy eating habits that never worked right. Make a list of what you think went wrong.
It might include requiring you to eat cabbage soup even though you hate cabbage, or that you were too hungry, or too fatigued to exercise. Think about all those mistakes, because it will help you decide on the best healthy lifestyle to follow now. Everyone is different, so don’t feel like you have to follow the same healthy eating method as someone else.
Try Journaling What You Eat Now
The last thing that can help you determine which direction to go with your healthy eating is to think about your diet as a whole. Not just the healthy foods you already listed, but really make notes of what you eat, and how you feel when you eat those foods. You might find that you are sensitive to dairy, so a diet without a lot of dairy would be perfect for you.
3 – Track Everything
By this point, you know what the healthy foods are that you are going to eat, and it is time to move on to those healthy habits you need to introduce. This should start with tracking what you eat. It is a common mistake when people think they are eating healthy, but might be going over their calories or carbs for the day, not paying attention to portion sizes, and snacking more than they realized. The best way to remedy this is by tracking your food.
Find Your Preferred Tracking Method
You first need to decide what method you want to use for tracking your food. Pen and paper is definitely an option, but this is only helpful for the most basic information. It does help when you are on the road and can keep the notebook in your purse or backpack, but is really only useful for the types of food you eat and calorie or carb counts, but not for other macros.
You want something that allows you to track the different macros – or macronutrients – like calories, fat, carbs, protein, sugar, and sodium. There are apps available to use online through your browser, with an app on your cell phone or tablet, or even through your fitness tracking device.
Some popular apps include:
- MyFitnessPal
- LoseIt
- SparkPeople
If you have a fitness tracking device like a FitBit, you can use that app to track your food as well. This is great if your main goal is to have a calorie deficit each day.
Practice Tracking Now
After deciding which method of tracking is best for you, start tracking everything right away. Practice using it now even before your official “diet” or healthy eating lifestyle begins. It helps to know what your regular, everyday diet is, so it is never too soon to start. It helps you understand the foods you eat that are good for you, and which areas you need to improve.
Remember that everything you eat or drink should be tracked, from the soda you had with lunch, to the dressing you put on your salad.
Measure and Weigh All Your Food
A big part of tracking your food is working on portion sizes. Do you know how much 3 ounces of chicken is? Are you aware of what a tablespoon of butter looks like? Over time, you might start recognizing proper portions, but for now, weigh and measure everything. Get measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a weight scale for the kitchen. Be vigilant about it, and it will be much easier to develop healthy eating habits.
Track Everything, Including the Bad Days
It is also essential that you track everything you eat, even on days when you have a cheat day, a treat, or you just didn’t follow your healthy eating at all. This is something to look back on, whether you are figuring out your cravings triggers, or trying to figure out how much your weight fluctuated from a certain treat or cheat meal. The point of tracking is to make you aware of what you are eating, so don’t just track your perfect days.
4 – Start Meal Planning and Prepping
The next important thing you should know about your healthy eating habits is that convenience can get in the way of making the right choices. How many times have you been on a diet, but you ended up grabbing a candy bar from the vending machine because you forgot to bring a healthy snack? Or how many days of the week do you skip breakfast and drive-thru somewhere for lunch because you ran out of time to bring breakfast?
These issues are exactly why meal planning and prepping is so important. It only requires spending a few hours on one of your days off from work to plan your meals for the week. You will be amazed by how much better you eat when everything is already prepped for you. This is one of the best healthy eating habits you can learn and start executing.
Start With Your Meal Plan
The first step to meal planning and prepping is the meal plan itself. This is when you write down everything you want to eat for meals and snacks. You can choose any time period that works best for you, whether it is the next few days, or a week or two of meals. If you have already started tracking your food, then you have a good idea of how much you can eat for the meals.
Be as specific and detailed as possible, listing the main courses, side dishes, drinks, dressings and sauces, snacks, and desserts. If you have everything you need at home, you will be much less inclined to eat out. Don’t forget to include food for your entire family, but try to stick to healthier choices so it is easier for you to stay on track. When you are meal planning, it is also a good idea to think of what can be used as leftovers. This makes it easier to cook one thing and prep multiple meals with it, plus it helps a lot with your food budget.
Next is the Grocery List
Once your meal plan is ready for the week, you can use that to create your grocery list. Go through each meal and snack, marking down ingredients you need that you don’t have already. Pay attention to the amounts as well. If you run out of something halfway through the week, you don’t want to be tempted to want something unhealthy just because it is easier.
It helps to have the list on your phone so that even if you forget your written list, you will have the digital version with you when you need it. When you are grocery shopping, make sure you are not hungry! This is when a lot of damage is done.
Prep as Much as You Can
Now that you have all your healthy foods and meal plans, it is time for the prepping stage. This is when you decide what can be cooked ahead of time, or at least prepped. Meal prepping doesn’t always mean making freezer meals for the week, though that is definitely something you can do. Sometimes, it is much more simply than that.
For example, if you got a head of lettuce to be used for salads, you can chop or shred it now, put it in a storage container, and place it in the refrigerator. When it comes time to make a salad, just grab what you need. This is much easier than having to rinse and chop your lettuce when you’re trying to make a quick meal.
Tips for Prepping
Here are some different things you can do when it comes to prepping meals and snacks for the week:
- Put snacks in snack-size baggies so you can grab and go
- Make some freezer meals, labeling them for the day of the week
- Chop all veggies and fruits, putting them into storage containers
- out pasta or rice for the meals they go with
- Prepare salads ahead of time, leaving off the dressing
- Cook a whole chicken, separating into containers for different meals
5 – Try These Healthy Eating Hacks
Developing healthy eating habits can sometimes be overwhelming when you’re stuck trying to figure out what you should eat and how much, but often times it just comes down to the smallest daily habits you are doing or not doing. Small, simple changes can make a drastic difference in your health, nutrition, and your weight management. Here are some simple hacks that help you develop new healthy eating habits that aren’t difficult:
Eat at the Table Only
You have probably heard this before, but it is definitely worth repeating. Stop eating in front of the TV or at your desk. This is only distracting you and might cause you to overeat. Make a habit of eating at the dinner table or the table in your company breakroom during your lunch. Make a habit of turning your meal into an event where you focus only on what you are eating, appreciating the food, and being more mindful about meals. Reduce all other distractions any time you eat anything, even just a light snack.
Drink Water Before Your Meals
While there are some studies that say you shouldn’t drink anything during a meal, there is nothing wrong with drinking something before you start eating. When you are hungry and about to eat a meal or snack, try to drink a full
glass of water.
This is going to fill you up, plus it lets you know if you are truly hungry, or just bored. Even if it’s a treat or a cheat meal, you can reduce how much you eat by filling up with water first. Plus, it’s a great way to increase your daily water intake, which is always important.
Eat the Healthiest Thing First
For every meal you eat, look at the healthiest thing on your plate and eat that first. This might be a side salad next to a lasagna, the vegetable side with your chicken and mashed potatoes, or a piece of fruit you were having with cheese. Once the healthiest thing is eaten, you can then decide if you want the other options on your plate.
The point isn’t to starve yourself, but to understand exactly how hungry you are. Sometimes, those added side dishes weren’t necessary to be satiated, and you can reduce how much you eat by starting with the healthy portion of any meal or snack.
Try Eating Slower
Make time for your meals, turning it into a mindful experience. This means not eating when you feel rushed, as if you need to eat your entire meal in a matter of minutes. Why is speed important? Because it keeps your body from letting you know when it is full. This is why when you indulge in a large meal, you feel sick a few minutes later. You actually ate more than what you needed to feel full, but you ate so fast, you didn’t give your stomach time to catch up. Eat slower, taking breaks in between bites, and stop eating when you’re full.
Go for Color and Variety
A good healthy eating habit to start comes when you are putting your meals together. An easy way to make sure it is a balanced meal is to look for color and variety in its presentation. If you are having chicken and potatoes, both are the same pale color. Adding color in the form of bright vegetables or a side salad adds more health and balance, simply by looking for something with more color.
6 – Stop Depriving Yourself
Eating healthy isn’t hard, but sometimes your mind can play tricks on you. If you start depriving yourself, eating nothing but chicken and broccoli for dinner every night, it won’t be too long before you feel like you are missing out. This is hard on your mental health and often leads to binges that are extremely unhealthy. To stop this nasty cycle, you need to give yourself a break and allow the occasional treat.
Why Depriving Yourself Can Be Dangerous
If you have been on a crash diet before, you are probably already aware of the cycle. It starts with a lot of high hopes, planning your meals, and doing great for the first few days. Then something happens to shift your mindset. Suddenly, you find it unfair you have to eat a certain way, while your friends or co-workers get to eat whatever they want. You remember all those times you had so much fun indulging in sweets or salty snacks, and it is hard to stop the mindset once it begins.
This doesn’t just lead to an occasional treat, but to a full-out binge. You eat 2 or 3 times what you would have eaten had you not been depriving yourself. This is what happens when you are too strict and feel like you are missing out on something. The solution? Allow treats, but be smart about it.
How to Stop This Cycle
The best thing you can do is give yourself occasional treats. It is best not to think of them as “cheats”, because then they are connected with a negative thought. Instead, give yourself certain days, desserts, or meals when you can be a little more laid back with your choices, whether you go out to breakfast with a friend and order your favorite meal, or you go over your calories one day to allow for a piece of birthday cake.
Making Your Treats Healthier
Treating yourself doesn’t have to mean gaining 5 lbs overnight, so if you are concerned about that or the resulting 3-day binge it might cause, just be smart about it. Have something that is a treat to you, but doesn’t require breaking your cycle of healthy eating. This can be anything from making a reduced-sugar cheesecake to enjoying your favorite fried chicken, but having mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes.
Starting a healthier lifestyle with the right eating habits is easy once you learn these simple methods and you stick with them. Give yourself a break, take it slow, and change just one habit at a time. This is the trick to long-term success.
