Embarking on the journey to healthier eating can be both exciting and daunting. Whether you’re looking to shed a few pounds, boost your energy levels, or simply improve your overall well-being, much of the results you seek come down to your diet, so changing how you are eating is a crucial component for transforming your body and improving your health. However, this is also the most challenging aspect of losing weight or changing one’s body. Most people think it’s the exercise, but greatly underestimate the challenge of controlling what you eat all day, every day. Today we’ll explore practical tips and strategies to help you get started on eating healthier, the key to navigating this process of change, and how to sustain this long-term.
I suppose you could say that one of the benefits of being obsessed with “being skinny” for a large part of my life is that it has made me incredibly disciplined. Like I said before, it takes a lot of control to restrict oneself all day, every day, indefinitely. I have done some crazy, and in hindsight, foolish dieting approaches. In my teen years I would avoid eating as long as possible, I would eat one very small meal in the middle of the day and that was it. As I got older and continued diet after workout program after supplement or diet pill, I did everything from low-fat to low-carb to multiple workouts a day to things as crazy as trying to live on 500 calories a day. Again, I was obsessed with being skinny, so much so, I was willing to suffer to such extremes.
This taught me a few things. One, is that when you want something bad enough you will take drastic measures to achieve it. Two, I am very, very disciplined when I am determined to achieve something. Three, none of the above are sustainable, nor are they good for you, and they actually destroy your metabolism in the process. This last one is the most important. This is why so many people don’t stick with their “diets” long-term and why so many end up in what I call the start-stop cycle of insanity. It wasn’t until about 7 years ago that I finally discovered got off this crazy roller coaster of dieting and obsessing. How, you might ask? I shifted my focus to feeling better and getting healthy and I got very clear on the deep reasons why I wanted this. So, before you embark on another “diet” of any sort, I highly recommend doing these two things first. All that said, let’s get into today’s topic.
1. Understand the Basics of a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet is all about balance, variety, and moderation. Here are the core components:
- Fruits and Vegetables: Aim for a colorful plate. Fruits and veggies are packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They will help you feel satiated longer, they help hydrate you, and they have cleansing and detoxifying benefits.
- Whole Grains: Choose whole grains over refined grains; complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates. Options include brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat bread, and oats. Look for things that have high fiber content and where protein is the second highest macronutrient on the label.
- Lean Protein: Incorporate a variety of protein sources such as beans, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry, and lean meat. For example, get the leanest ground beef or beef cuts you can find. When it comes to pork, pork tenderloin and canadian bacon over regular bacon are your best options.
- Beneficial Fats: Opt for fat sources such as avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, and avoid trans fats and excessive saturated fats. Most of the oils many of us use, like vegetable oil, which is just soybean oil, or canola oil are not good, they are highly inflammatory, and should be avoided. Replace these with avocado oil, olive oil, or coconut oil. Ideally find oils that go through the minimum amount of processing possible. Similarly, when it comes to butter vs. margarine, opt for butter, as margarine is highly processed and most of it is based in vegetable or canola oils.
- Hydration: Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Limit sugary drinks and opt for herbal teas or infused water for variety. You should be drinking a minimum of 100 ounces of water per day, up to a gallon, depending on your weight.
2. Start Small and Set Realistic Goals
Rome was not built in a day, friends, and neither will your healthy lifestyle be. We tend to try and change all the things at once, which only sets us up for failure. You are making internal changes as much as external changes, which takes time. Instead of trying to change all your habits and behaviors at once, make smaller, incremental change, over time. Set small, achievable goals:
- Gradual Changes: Start by adding an extra serving of vegetables to your meals or swapping out a sugary snack for a piece of fruit.
- Weekly Goals: Each week, aim to improve one aspect of your diet. For example, focus on eating a healthy breakfast every day for a week before moving on to another goal.
- Track Your Progress: Keep a food journal to track your eating habits and progress. This can help you identify patterns and areas for improvement.
3. Plan and Prepare Your Meals
This is the secret sauce when it comes to starting and maintaining healthy eating. Planning and preparation are essential, plus it will make your day-to-day so much easier!
- Meal Planning: Set aside time each week to plan your meals for the week. When I miss my weekly meal planning, everything is more chaotic and it’s harder to stay on track. Choose a day each week, preferably the day of or before your weekly grocery shopping to do your weekly meal plan. This doesn’t have to be crazy complicated. For example, I focus mainly on planning dinners for the week, since breakfast and lunch tend to be a smaller list of things and I often use dinner leftovers as lunches.
- Meal Preparation: Choose a day that you have time to do some prep for the week ahead. Cook and package/measure the meals that you won’t have time to during the week. For example, my kids love pancakes and I sometimes eat them for breakfast, so I will make a large batch of them on a Sunday morning and refrigerate or freeze them for the week ahead. This way all I have to do in the morning is pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. I will do the same thing for Sunday dinner. For example, if I am planning to include chicken breast in my lunches that week, I will make a chicken breast dinner for Sunday night, cooking extra chicken breasts, so I have them for my lunches. Batch cooking saves tons of time during the week while also setting you up for success so you have on-plan food ready to go ahead of time.
- Healthy Snacking: Keep healthy snacks like nuts, fruits, and yogurt on hand to avoid the temptation of junk food. I also highly recommend getting rid of anything that isn’t on-plan and don’t keep any of it in the house, especially items you know you cannot resist. We all have them! Mine is Cheez-its!
- Grocery Shopping: Make a shopping list and stick to it. Avoid shopping when you’re hungry to prevent impulse buys of unhealthy items.
4. Mindful Eating Practices
Being mindful of what and how you eat can significantly impact your dietary habits:
- Listen to Your Body: Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re satiated. Avoid eating out of boredom or stress. As you get more consistent with eating the foods outlined here and ensuring you are hydrated, you will get better at distinguishing hunger from thirst or from stress or boredom. Tip for the evenings (when we tend to want to munch out of boredom) grab fruit or veggies, or a protein source when you feel hungry. If you don’t want to eat either of these you’re likely not truly hungry but bored. If this is the case, skip it.
- Savor Your Food: Take the time to enjoy your meals. Chew slowly and appreciate the flavors and textures.
- Avoid Distractions: Try to eat without distractions like TV, smartphones, or while working/multi-tasking. Take a few minutes to sit and eat your meal or snack. This helps you stay present and aware of your eating.
5. Stay Informed and Flexible
Staying informed about nutrition can help you make better choices:
- Educate Yourself: Read up on nutrition and healthy eating from credible sources. Knowledge is power when it comes to making informed food choices.
- Be Flexible: Allow yourself some flexibility. It’s okay to indulge occasionally as long as it doesn’t become a regular habit.
- Stick with it: There will be setbacks, you will have off days or times when you can’t resist that donut or ice cream cone, or whatever it is. It’s ok! When you are consistent with this these things are not going to ruin your progress. However, our minds often tell us it will and we fall into the all or nothing trap and tell ourselves we have blown it, so might as well go off track with all the rest of our food that day. This can quickly get out of control and turn into the rest of the week or even month. Instead, when you encounter these setbacks or slip ups, dust off and get back on track with the next meal.
Remember, this is a marathon instead of a sprint. You are creating a healthy lifestyle – it’s a way of life now. Be patient with yourself and celebrate your progress, no matter how small. Every healthy choice you make brings you one step closer to a healthier, happier you.
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