Easy Tips for Planning a Healthy Diet & Sticking to It
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition
philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the
foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy,
stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all
of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using
them in a way that works for you. You can expand your range of healthy
food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty,
healthy diet.
Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet
as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic
change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you
will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
- Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
- Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
- Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.
Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.
Water. Water helps flush our
systems of waste products and toxins, yet many people go through life
dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches. It’s common to
mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you
make healthier food choices.
Exercise. Find
something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like
you would add healthy greens, blueberries, or salmon. The benefits of
lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate
you to make healthy food choices a habit.
Healthy eating tip 2: Moderation is key
People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing
proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation.
But what is moderation? How much is a moderate amount? That really
depends on you and your overall eating habits. The goal of healthy
eating is to develop a diet that you can maintain for life, not just a
few weeks or months, or until you've hit your ideal weight. So try to
think of moderation in terms of balance. Despite what certain fad diets
would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein,
fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.
For most of us, moderation or balance means eating
less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less of the
unhealthy stuff (unrefined sugar, saturated fat, for example) and more
of the healthy (such as fresh fruit and vegetables). But it doesn't mean
eliminating the foods you love. Eating bacon for breakfast once a week,
for example, could be considered moderation if you follow it with a
healthy lunch and dinner–but not if you follow it with a box of donuts
and a sausage pizza. If you eat 100 calories of chocolate one
afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories from your evening
meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving of fresh
vegetables.
- Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
- Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend, and don't order super-sized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms, and start small. If you don't feel satisfied at the end of a meal, try adding more leafy green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh fruit. Visual cues can help with portion sizes–your serving of meat, fish, or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards, a slice of bread should be the size of a CD case, and half a cup of mashed potato, rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light bulb.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate—it is also about how you think
about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important
to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just
something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the
kids.
- Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
- Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
- Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
- Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jump-start your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
- Avoid eating at night. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple dietary adjustment—eating only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long break each day—may help to regulate weight. After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat and calories so are best avoided, anyway.
