“How do you eat so healthy all the time?” is quite a popular question. The truth is, I absolutely love what I eat and therefore it doesn’t feel like a diet. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! If you don’t like what you’re eating, you won’t stick to it, you’ll be irritable and miserable. Living a healthy lifestyle includes prioritizing your mental health. Of course you’ll have to make sacrifices; if eating healthy were that easy, 60% of America’s adult population wouldn't be overweight.
Often it’s the eating healthy part that is the hardest for people. You can go to the gym 7 days a week, but you won’t make much progress if your nutrition is lagging behind. Many people associate negativity and living in a constant state of hunger with eating healthy. I can argue that could not be further from the truth. Eating whole, nutritious foods makes your body function optimally, your skin clearer, your energy levels will rise, you’ll be happier, you’ll be more motivated, you’ll just feel so so good.
Change is not easy, but start by making one small change a week and soon you’ll become the healthiest version of yourself; you’ll retrain your taste buds and begin to crave nutrient-dense foods, I promise! Here are my biggest tips on how to consistently eat healthy:
MEAL PREP. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Need I say more? Meal prep saves you from making bad nutritional decisions and makes eating (almost too) convenient. Visit BLOG to read about all the benefits of meal prep.
DON’T BUY JUNK FOOD. Simply don’t buy it. If you don’t have it laying around, it won’t be easily accessible, and therefore you won’t consume it.
TRACK YOUR FOOD INTAKE. Unless you’ve tracked before, I promise you don’t know what’s all in the things you consume. Weighing your food sounds tedious and inconvenient (and sometimes you’re not wrong), but this has made the biggest difference in my health and fitness journey. Educate yourself on what makes up the food you eat, because I guarantee you will be mind-blown. Your body deserves nothing but the best!
CONTROL YOUR PORTION SIZES. Related to tracking your food intake, take the time to read nutrition labels and see what one serving size really is. It’s so easy to overeat prepackaged, processed snacks, so be careful!
LIMIT EATING OUT. Restaurants use tons of oils and salt to make their food taste as good as it does. Since oil is pure fat, restaurant meals are very calorically dense.
DON’T DRINK YOUR CALORIES. If you drink soda, stop. If you add a heaping spoonful of sugar to your coffee, stop. Drinking simple sugars found in beverages really does no good for your body, so why consume it?
FIND FOODS YOU LOVE. Again, you won’t be successful if you are forcing yourself to eat foods you really don’t like. It’s important to be open minded and not afraid to try new things! It’s said our taste buds change every 7 years, so who knows, maybe you actually love brussel sprouts now!
EAT YOUR GREENS. I can honestly say that I’ve never been eating more food in my life than I do currently and I also am in the best shape I have ever been. Eating healthy does not mean eating less. If anything, it means eating more. Loading up on vegetables will add massive volume to your meals leaving you feeling very satisfied.
DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF. When you allow yourself to get really hungry, you will be more likely to eat too fast which leads to a delayed feeling of fullness which leads to overeating. You’re also more likely to make bad food decisions if you’re starving.
OPT FOR SUGARFREE. Things like syrups, dressings, and other flavorings usually all come in sugar free options and it’s a great way to add some lower-calorie sweetness to your foods.
When making food decisions day to day, start focusing on what is best for your body. When you start thinking in terms of what will make you feel good in the long run instead of what will give you the most instant gratification, you will begin to establish a very healthy, sustainable way of life.
Mandi.