Forming healthier eating habits
isn’t always as easy as deciding to make the change. Though you may want to eat
healthier, it’s likely that you are still searching for the eating habits that
work best for you. With some time, patience, and a few changes to your diet,
you’ll be able to start eating and feeling healthier. The following 10 tips are
simple ways to improve your diet today recommended
by award winning physician Dr. Jan
McBarron.
1. Create Meal Plans
Meal plans help you pick and choose what you will eat for the rest of the week. By making these decisions ahead of time, you’ll already know what to eat each day. This will save you time and money, all the while ensuring you eat the healthy food you’ve planned out at the beginning of the week.
2. Eat Fruits and Vegetables
This tip may seem overly simple for some, but it bears repeating. Without the nutrients and vitamins in fruits and vegetables, your body isn’t getting its essential nutrients. When shopping for fruits and veggies, remember to “eat the rainbow”. The more naturally colorful foods you add to your diet the better.
3. Shake off the Salt
Love adding salt to your meals? While this seasoning staple may seem like a necessity, the truth is that the added sodium isn’t necessary. The body only needs around 1,500 milligrams of the stuff a day. Kick your sodium habit by limiting the amount of salt you use on your food.
4. Use Dates as a Sweetener
If you’re really hoping to kickstart your healthy diet, consider avoiding sugar altogether. Using dates as a sweetener will make it easy to ditch processed sugar without saying goodbye to sweets forever. In addition to being a natural alternative, dates are high in potassium and won’t sabotage your blood sugar.
5. Don’t Overeat
Overeating can result in health complications. Eating slower makes it easy to assess when you’ve had your fill of a meal. Moreover, following the rule of eating until you’re 80% full will help you to eat until you’re satisfied without overeating.
Overeating can result in health complications. Eating slower makes it easy to assess when you’ve had your fill of a meal. Moreover, following the rule of eating until you’re 80% full will help you to eat until you’re satisfied without overeating.
6. Schedule Cheat Days
Even if you aren’t sticking to a strict diet, eating healthier overall means that you have to cut out certain foods. While you can swear off pizza and sweet desserts for the majority of the time, you don’t need to force yourself to stay away forever. With cheat days, you can allow yourself a treat once in a while. This cheat meal essentially works as a motivator to encourage you to eat healthier and a reward for making progress.
7. Leave the Peels On
While many people have gotten into the habit of removing peels from their fruits and vegetables, Dr. Jan McBarron agrees that leaving many of these peels on is infinitely healthier. These skins are abundant in nutrients and, in some cases, are just as if not more nutritious than the food inside. Whether you eat your vegetables and fruits whole or you add in the peels separately, making it a point to consume the outside will allow you to benefit from the healthiest parts of these foods.
8. Eat Foods High in Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Foods like tofu, salmon, walnuts, flax seeds, and tuna contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Dr. Jan McBarron shares that adding these foods to your diet will improve your immune system. Similarly, these foods are anti-inflammatory, so they help to boost heart health as well.
9. Eat Like a Vegetarian
While becoming a vegetarian is a great way to eat healthier, this isn’t a decision for you to take lightly. Instead of committing to a completely new lifestyle overnight, try eating like a vegetarian for a few meals out of the week. This way, you’ll be supplementing your diet with a few all-vegetable meals and reaping the benefits of eating those nutritious veggies.
10. Cook at Home
Going out to eat can be particularly tempting. As you may be more inclined to cook a healthier meal with the nutritious items you have in your kitchen, dining out may pose too strong of a temptation. Do your best to cook most of your meals at home as you work on eating as healthy as possible.
Making progress with your eating habits takes patience. Though you may not see dramatic change overnight, give it some time. Keep these 10 strategies in mind as you endeavor to live a healthier life.
