Starting on a journey to live a healthier life and eat healthier can be overwhelming. However, it is absolutely possible to start making healthier choices and living a healthier life! These 11 tips to eat healthier are a great place for you to start on this journey.
Why eat healthier?
There are SO many reasons that everyone should strive to eat healthier. But here’s a few of those reasons:
- Healthier diets lead to increased and better nutrients that help provide you with more energy.
- Healthier food helps boost your mood and feel better about yourself.
- Eating a healthy diet can help lead to losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight.
- Eating healthy leads to better short term and long term health including a decreased chance of heart diseases and diabetes.
Now that you know why it’s so important to eat healthy let’s get into the tips for how to eat healthier:
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Tip 1) Pace yourself
The first tip for eating healthier is to learn how to pace yourself when you are eating.
There is a delay between your brain and your stomach. Which means that even if you physically are full you can still end up eating more food before your brain realizes that you are full.
So eating your food at a moderate pace will allow your brain time to realize that you are full so you can stop eating!
Tip 2) Create and stick to a grocery list
Grocery lists are so important for making sure that you are stocking your fridge and pantry with healthy food that will help you stick to your healthier lifestyle.
I personally use an app (OurGroceries) but if you prefer to use pen and paper then get a grocery shopping list that magnetic like this one so that you can stick them to the fridge and keep a running list.
Tip 3) Avoid all the courses
Apps, drinks, entree, and dessert. That all ads up quickly!
Avoiding having every single course is a pretty easy and simple way to have a healthier diet! I like to personally pick 2. And it’s not always entree + 1 of the others. At a lot of restaurants my favorite food is appetizers so I’ll order an appetizer when every one else orders their entree.
Tip 4) Make sure you are drinking lots of water
Adding more water into your life is one of the easiest tips for having a healthier life.
If you are struggling to drink enough water then I recommend getting a tracking water bottle. They have times of the day marked on them so that you can remember to drink enough water every couple of hours.
Tip 5) Make healthy substitutes
Making small switches and substituting in healthier food options.
A few ideas for how to do this are:
- Switch regular pasta for spaghetti squash of wheat pasta.
- Switch rice for cauliflower rice.
- Switch dairy milks for almond milk.
- Switch standard cooking oils for cocnut oil.
Tip 6) Find alternatives to fast food favorites
This is a two part tip!
Part 1: find healthier menu items at your favorite fast food places. Sometimes (like on road trips) it’s really difficult to avoid eating fast food so having healthier options will help you maintain a healthier diet.
Part 2: find healthier food options for when you are in a rush. Finding things like drive through smoothie places will help you avoid going to fast food and eating unhealthy food.
Tip 7) Don’t drink your calories
Pop, coffee, alcohol, and juice can all have way more calories than you realize!
Those yummy Starbucks drinks can quickly add up to 800+ calories for one single drink! And having a couple cans of pop during the day can quickly add up to 500 calories.
Plus those drinks don’t usually have very many healthy nutrients for your body.
Tip 8) Find healthy snacks that you enjoy
Having healthy snacks in your home will help you avoid accidental snacking on bad foods.
This includes finding snacks that you like for when you are on the run but also snacks that will satisfy different cravings. If you have a serious sweet tooth then find some healthier snacks that will satisfy that craving. Same idea if you are someone who tends to crave salty snacks.
Tip 9) Be aware of hidden unhealthy foods
Unhealthy elements of your diet can sneak up on you without you even realizing.
Switching your salad dressing at the restaurant can accidentally lead to you eating more unhealthy foods and calories than you intended.
Sauces and condiments are two of the least healthy things that can sneak into your diet. Another way is through adding creamers to your coffee.
Unhealthy food can also sneak into your diet through small bites. “Trying” other people’s foods or just taking 1 bite of the cake in your fridge can quickly add up to a lot more bad food than you realize.
Tip 10) Learn to cook healthy meals that you truly like
Learning how to cook healthy meals is one of the best tips you can implement for healthier meals.
If this is a new adventure for you then try cooking one new healthy meal a week. Then once you have tried it keep a log of what the meal was and if you liked it and what changes you would make to it next time.
Eventually you will end up with a lot of healthy meals that you know how to cook that you can easily choose from when determining your meal plans.
Tip 11) Plan your meals in advance
The final tip (for now) for eating healthier is to plan your meals in advance.
Get a meal plan board and each Sunday morning before you get groceries for the week plan your meals for the week. Including trying to pick the restaurants for the week so that you can research healthy food options at the restaurants.
Bonus: by sticking to a meal plan when you’re grocery shopping you’ll end up wasting less food and spending less money.
For more tips on living a healthier life then check out:
Go ahead and share these helpful tips:
Very interesting ! I’m trying to lose weight but I’m struggling a lot with snack, I don’t think I can go through the day without a little snack to cheer me up, so an healthier alternative sounds really nice !
Hi!
I am so glad that this post helped a bit. Best of luck with your healthy journey!
These are such helpful and easy to apply tips! Thanks for sharing.