Healthy eating, like any habit, can take time and dedication to incorporate into your life. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not always a perfect process or transition. As motivated as you might feel to make changes, attempting to be too aggressive with your eating habits too soon can make your goals feel unachievable, which may derail your progress.
Healthy eating isn’t about eliminating entire food groups, being hungry all the time, or depriving yourself of the foods you crave. Rather, it’s about making consistent dietary choices that help you feel more energized, improve your focus, boost your mood, and positively change the way you see yourself.
Photo by Nathan Cowley on Pexels
In this article, we’ll be covering several different strategies you can use to keep yourself on track and continue to make healthy food choices.
Incorporating Healthy Eating Into Your Lifestyle
When incorporating healthy eating into your lifestyle, it’s okay to start slow. This may all be new to you, and it’s likely to take some time to get used to the changes. Below are some tips that might be useful as you learn how to make healthy eating a consistent part of your lifestyle.
1. Avoid skipping breakfast
When you were a kid, you probably heard that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. As it turns out, it’s true. Breakfast helps get your metabolism running and gives you energy to start your day. If you don’t eat breakfast, you may overeat throughout the day and experience fatigue or energy crashes.
However, it’s not just about eating something, but rather about eating something healthy that’ll give you energy. Instead of going for frozen waffles, sugary cereal, or pastries, try omelets with veggies, whole grain waffles, or yogurt and granola.
2. Develop a routine
Establishing a consistent eating schedule can help regulate your hunger levels and prevent careless snacking or overeating. Consider meal prepping ahead of time so that you have healthy meals available when you’re tempted to go get fast food after a late night of work.
When you eat at the same time every day, you prepare your body’s metabolism to be engaged at optimal levels all day long and promote healthier digestion of the foods you eat.
3. Plan ahead
When life gets busy and you’re in a time crunch, it can be easy to grab convenient but often unhealthy snacks and meals. Whether you pack a lunch or snacks to take on the go or meal prep every Sunday night, planning for the unexpected can help ensure that you always have access to healthy food choices when you’re hungry.
4. Exercise
Research has found that having an exercise routine might help reduce cravings for unhealthy foods. Exercise can include numerous physical activities and movements ranging from yoga to walks in the park to weightlifting at the gym.
When you feel good about your body and understand the impact of the foods you eat on how you feel, you may be more motivated to get outside or in the gym to get moving.
5. Pack your lunch
Whether you’re headed to work, class, or a project site, bringing along a packed lunch can help you make healthy eating choices. You can choose exactly what goes in your lunchbox instead of wondering what you’re eating from a restaurant.
Not only does packing your lunch help ensure that you’re eating healthy foods, but it can also save you money that you may have otherwise spent on eating out.
6. Engage in mindful eating
If you tend to eat food without much thought, you could benefit from trying mindful eating, which involves enjoying snacks and meals using all of your senses at once. When you eat mindfully, you’ll often eat more slowly because you’re savoring each bite and listening to your body’s cues that signal when you’re no longer hungry.
Mindful eating not only prevents overeating but can enhance the experience, making food even more enjoyable.
7. Practice portion control
Eating portions that are too big can lead to weight gain and negative health outcomes. One solution is portion control, which involves paying attention to the amount of food you’re consuming and avoiding eating more than your body needs to have enough energy to function.
Appropriate portion sizes can vary depending on what you’re eating, how active you are, whether you have health goals to reach, and more.
8. Surround yourself with support
The people you spend time with can greatly influence your eating habits, making it important to choose wisely. Surrounding yourself with friends, family, and mentors who share similar healthy eating goals can increase your chances of success. These individuals can encourage and motivate you when it’s hard and hold you accountable to your goals.
Photo by Nathan Cowley on Pexels
Finding Support For Eating Concerns
Sometimes, unhealthy eating habits are the result of an underlying disorder that needs attention. Unhealthy eating habits, like purging after meals, binge eating, or avoiding food altogether can derail your goals, health, and self-esteem. These issues often need to be addressed with a professional as they could be signs of an eating disorder.
You can learn more about the causes and treatment for concerns like binge eating disorder and more by accessing online resources.
A Healthy, Happy You
The path to healthy eating may be long and challenging, but many worthwhile pursuits are. The longer you persevere and push through obstacles like temptation, the easier the process can become.
By adopting habits that you know you can stick to, establishing a supportive network around you, and planning for life’s curveballs, you can work toward becoming the healthiest, happiest version of yourself.
This post was developed via a partnership with BetterHelp.
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