There are endless amounts of tips to create healthy eating habits on the internet and in magazines. You could read for hours and find different opinions, facts, and lists stating which are best. Why is that? Because being healthy is important and giving more help than less help is preferred!
We believe in health and want each person to eat well in order to live well. Little changes daily can create habits that will benefit you forever!
Here are our 7 tips to create healthy eating habits:
1. Keep A Food Journal
For a lot of people, it’s thinking they know how much they’re eating but underestimating the quantity that gets them in trouble. That’s why keeping a food journal can keep you right on track and not have you guessing or trying to remember all that you ate in one day.
There are plenty of apps like MyFitnessPal and MyPlate that help you log your calories as you eat throughout the day. They are simple to use and help you lose weight by allotting you a specific number of calories to eat based on your weight goals.
The apps not only track calories, but macronutrients like carbs, sugars, and fats to help you stay within your daily goal for each category.
2. Drink Water
Drinking enough water throughout the day can help you feel fuller and stifle those cravings for chips and pretzels. Cravings for salty foods often mean that you’re simply thirsty.
The key here is drinking water–not soda or juice. Water is essential for your body’s function and drinking enough water is key to metabolism (and everything else) running smoothly.
Avoiding sugary drinks also helps you keep your calories down, along with your sodium and sugar levels. Healthy drinking is just as important as healthy eating.
3. Make Sure to Eat Breakfast
Breakfast has been deemed the most important meal of the day by many researchers and nutritionists.
Various studies have reported that eating a healthy, well-balanced breakfast help reduce obesity in children, type 2 diabetes, and encourages weight-loss in adults. One study found that 80% of people who lost 30 pounds ate breakfast every day.
Eating a healthy, filling breakfast will keep you fuller for longer and help you eat less calories at lunch time. It will also reduce snacking in between meals, which adds calories to your day.
4. Portion Control
Healthy eating habits don’t end with making the right nutritional choices. Eating the correct amount of food is equally as important what you eat.
Portion control means that you to eat until you’re satisfied, not until you’re stuffed. When you’re at home, only cook what you need to eat and no extras because they’ll most likely get eaten. When you’re at a restaurant, cut more meal in half and ask for a to-go box before you eat so that the temptation to eat more is removed (literally).
Here is an idea of what your plate should look like at each meal.
More than half of your plate should be fruits and veggies, with about a quarter plate of grains and the last quarter being protein.
As a side note, do not starve yourself. If you end up needing more than half of your meal at a restaurant to feel satisfied, then eat it. These are simply ideas of how to resist the temptation to over eat.
5. Read the Labels
Knowing what is in your food before you eat it is the best way to approach a healthy diet. Strolling through the grocery store and mindlessly adding frozen foods and pre-made soups to your cart is only doing you damage.
Reading labels in one of the best tips to create healthy eating habits. Realizing how many servings, calories, cholesterol, etc are in your food can be a rude, but necessary, awakening.
You can better choose what your bring home and be inspired to make your own homemade dishes and get creative.
6. Eat Less Sodium
Hand in hand with reading the labels, knowing how much salt is in your food and eating less of it will keep your blood pressure down and your arteries clearer. Sodium is a sneaky preservative found in high amounts in many frozen items at the grocery store.
Learn More About How to Eat Less Sodium
Sodium not only hurts your heart, but it can retain water in your body making you feel bloated and gain water weight. Keep in the recommended amount of 2,300 mg a day and you will feel better and less bloated.
7. Don’t Buy Junk Food
If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. That simple. When temptations like cookies, chocolate, ice cream, and other treats are in your house you’ll be tempted to eat it far more than if it wasn’t there at all.
Sure, you can have treats once a day in a moderate amount, but unless you have a high amount of self-control, most people can’t stop at just a little bit. Once they start, there’s no stopping that cookie train.
Replace junk food in the house with naturally sweet foods like fruit and find substitutes for salty foods, such as KIND bars or individually wrapped dark chocolate squares. If it’s not in a bag, but wrapped and separated, it is much easier to control yourself.
There are plenty more tips to create healthy eating habits, but these were the ones that studies have shown work well for most people. Eating healthy is a lifetime commitment that can make a huge, positive impact on your life.
Healthy eating lends to healthy living and a healthier body.
Resources
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/healthy-eating-habits
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/15-smart-healthy-alternatives-junk-food#slide-2