In this 5 articles series, all within this post, we take a look at healthy eating, and in particular the habits you need to have and to avoid to maintain this program. We start off with a look at how to develop those habits then look at the bad healthy eating habits, like if is frosted mini wheats healthy to eat?. Also we continue on to positive habits, the right mental approach and how to start your day in the right healthy eating way.
How To Develop Good Healthy Eating Habits
The importance of good healthy eating habits cannot be stressed enough. It’s through eating quality foods that you get to enjoy numerous health benefits including mental sharpness, a strong and healthy heart, overall wellness and increased energy levels, You also end up wadding off diseases like heart attack, cancer du foie and diabetes. However, to successfully develop good healthy eating habits, you need to gradually change your existing eating habits and not impose strict dietary limitations that deprive you of the foods you love. In this post we’ll be providing you with a detailed action plan that explains how you can do just that in four simple steps.
Step 1 – Assess Your Current Diet
In order to start eating healthier, you don’t have to instantly drop all of your current eating habits. Instead, use your current diet as the platform for making future healthy changes. Simply conduct a diet assessment to identify which healthy eating habits you should maintain and which poor eating habits need to be dropped. Write the healthy eating habits you should maintain on one list and then write the poor eating habits you need to ditch on a separate list.
Step 2 – Eliminate Temptation
Are you in the habit of eating junk food and other unhealthy foods at home even when you’re not hungry? If so, you’re not alone. Many people engage in this unhealthy eating habit simply because they’re within close reach of such foods. Therefore, if you want to develop and stick to healthy eating habits, a good starting place would be clearing your pantry and refrigerator of any potentially tempting foods. Without these food items around, you’ll be able to make healthier choices because there won’t be any junk food to tempt you.
Step 3 – Make One Small Change to Your Diet Each Week
Trying to acquire healthy eating habits overnight is unrealistic. If you do so, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure because sooner or later, you’ll regress back to your old eating habits. So instead of trying to completely overhaul your diet, take it slowly by making one small and simply dietary change per week. Some examples of the weekly changes you could make include swapping diet soda for water, swapping chips for nuts or swapping your weekly pizza for a healthy, home cooked meal. Doing this will make the process of developing healthy eating habits more manageable and less stressful.
Step 4 – Stay Positive
To successfully adopt new healthy eating habits, you’ll need to be highly determined and 100% committed. One of the best ways to can fuel your commitment and determination is by staying positive. Stop thinking about what you have given up and instead focus on the positive aspects of healthy eating and the successes you’ve managed so far. This will give you the will to keep moving forward whenever you’re tempted to fall back to your former bad eating habits.
Summary
By incorporating these simple but effective tips into your lifestyle, you’ll find it so easy to transition into the process of healthy eating. So review all four tips right now, start taking action today and begin your healthy eating journey.
5 Bad Eating Habits To Avoid
Unhealthy eating habits not only expose you to chronic diseases but can also ruin the hard work put into a good workout at the gym. The unfortunate thing is that most people who engage in bad eating habits don’t know how much of a detrimental effect it’s having on their fitness. To help you make better food choices and get you on the right track to a leaner and healthier body, here are five bad eating habits that you need to avoid.
Habit 1 – Mindless Eating
One of the biggest secrets of healthy eating is to listen to your body. Learning to listen to your body helps you to only eat what’s necessary to satisfy your hunger and stop before you overindulge. Therefore, to become in-tune with your body’s needs, you need to drop the habit of mindless eating. If you’re not aware what you’re putting into your body, you’ll constantly overeat without even realizing.
To start eating mindfully, feel how satiated you are after each mouthful of food and stop eating as soon as you’re satisfied. This may seem difficult at first but the more you do it, the more connected you’ll become to your body’s hunger signals and the more natural it will feel.
Habit 2 – Unhealthy Snacking
Not only is snacking encouraged by nutrition experts, it’s also a great way to boost your healthy eating habits. When you snack in the right way, you won’t feel hungry between meals and you’ll supply your body with a wide range of health boosting nutrients. Unfortunately, most people don’t snack in the right way and indulge in processed snacks between their healthy meals. This then sabotages their healthy eating efforts and makes achieving their goals very difficult.
So how do you snack in the right way? Simply choose foods that are fresh and natural. Some of the many good healthy snacking options include fresh fruits, Greek yogurt, nuts and seeds.
Habit 3 – Drinking Diet Soda
Diet soda is something that many people believe to be a healthy drink because it contains zero sugar and so eliminates hundreds of calories while still allowing you to enjoy a sweet treat. However, diet sodas are actually loaded with artificial ingredients that damage your body in numerous ways and have been linked with an increased risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome and more.
The best way to ditch diet soda is to drink water instead. However, if you get bored with drinking water all the time, you can also mix up your intake and stay hydrated with coffee, fruit infused water, tea and smoothies.
Habit 4 – Eating Too Fast
If you’re a person who eats rapidly, either out of habit or because you don’t feel like you have the time to sit down and eat for leisure, you need to quit this bad habit. It takes around 30 minutes for hunger signals to respond to the foods you eat and send satiety signals to your brain. Therefore, if you eat too fast, you’re likely to eat much more than your body requires before your hunger signals respond to the foods. So slow down, savor each mouthful and take your time when eating.
Habit 5 – Not Getting Enough Sleep
Lack of sleep directly affects both your body and brain causing you to engage in unhealthy eating habits. Without enough sleep, your metabolism goes haywire and this will cause you to feel hungrier and crave unhealthy foods. Not getting enough sleep also negatively impacts the areas of your brain that are responsible for logic and reasoning, setting you up to make bad decisions when it comes to food. This combination of a dulled brain and increased hunger cravings makes you much more likely to break your healthy eating habits. By making sure you get a minimum of six hours quality sleep each night, you avoid these adverse effects and eating healthy becomes much easier.
Summary
Even if you have a strong intention to eat healthy, these five bad habits cause many people to slip up. So take another look at this list and make sure you aren’t currently falling victim to any of these negative eating habits to ease your healthy eating journey.
Top 5 Good Healthy Eating Habits
Are you aware that by simply making a few minor yet meaningful changes to your eating habits, you can live a longer life and enhance your health? Maintaining good eating habits is crucial for optimum health and will increase your energy levels, help you lose weight, enhance your mood and much more. Plus, it’s extremely easy to get started with healthy eating. Keep reading for five good habits that will allow you to start eating healthier today.
Habit 1 – Don’t Skip Breakfast
People often skip breakfast because they’re in a rush during the morning and have to dash out of the door. However, there’s a reason breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. A healthy and well-balanced breakfast will give you plenty of energy to carry out your daily tasks with relative ease and also remain in good spirits throughout the day. In addition, studies show that people who have a healthy breakfast actually lose more weight than individuals who have no breakfast because they are less likely to get tempted by unhealthy treats during the day. Plus, a healthy breakfast supplies your body with all the nutrients it needs after an extended period of fasting during sleep. So if you’re constantly skipping breakfast, make time for it every day and enjoy all the benefits it provides.
Habit 2 – Plan Your Weekly Grocery Shopping
If you fail to plan your weekly grocery shopping, it’s more than likely that you’ll run out of healthy foods before the week is over. Then when there’s nothing healthy to eat at home, you will order junk food or fill up on unhealthy foods that are loaded with calories. Therefore, if you are keen on achieving good eating habits, schedule in some time every week to plan and shop for healthy foods that will cover all of your meals for the full seven days.
Habit 3 – Keep Healthy Snacks On Hand
Healthy snacks are a fantastic tool that can keep you satiated between meals and stop you filling up on unhealthy processed treats. There are lots of quick and easy healthy snacks you can choose from with fresh fruits, Greek yogurt, nuts, smoothies and seeds all being excellent options. So choose some healthy snacks that you like and make sure you always have them close by for the times when hunger strikes.
Habit 4 – Drink Plenty Of Water
Drinking at least eight glasses of water per day has a number of health benefits. First, it stops you filling up on unhealthy sodas or other calorie laden beverages. Second, it keeps you fully hydrated which ensures your body performs optimally, increases your metabolism, boosts your energy levels, enhances your circulation and much more.
If you’re struggling to consume eight glasses of water per day, you can boost your intake with other healthy hydration options. Coffee, fruit infused water, tea are all great alternatives to water that contain zero calories, are completely natural and very hydrating.
Habit 5 – Mix Up Your Diet
Regardless of how healthy your diet is, you’ll quickly get bored with it if it consists of the same foods day in and day out. This in turn will cause you to deviate to unhealthy foods. To avoid this trap, make sure you mix up your diet and include a variety of healthy and tasty meals. When you do this, you’ll start to enjoy the process of healthy eating much more because every meal tastes different and offers you fresh new flavors. As a result, you’ll rarely be tempted by junk foods and find maintaining your healthy eating habits a lot easier.
Summary
These five habits may sound simple but they’re highly effective. So if you’re serious about improving your diet and boosting your health, act on them now for long term healthy eating success.
Top 5 Mental Habits That Help You Eat Healthy
In a bid to take up healthy eating, you’ve most likely already conducted research to find out which foods are good for your health and which ones you should avoid. However, even with all of this knowledge and your willingness to change, you’re still struggling to develop and maintain healthy eating habits. The reason for this is that any healthy eating knowledge is worthless without the right mindset. This post will discuss how you can get into the right frame of mind and start easily integrating healthy foods into your diet with five simple but effective mental habits.
Habit 1 – Set An Intention For The Day
Wake up each morning with one thought in mind – a healthy eating habit that you want to achieve by the end of the day. This can be anything from drinking eight glasses of water to replacing an unhealthy meal with a healthy one. When you practice doing this daily, you’ll find that your healthy eating habits become very easy to maintain. This then allows you to consistently add new healthy eating habits to your routine and drastically increase the quality of your diet.
Habit 2 – Focus On The Healthy Foods That You Love
Many people fear that by eating healthy foods, they’ll need to give up foods that they love. However, this does not have to be so because there are so many tasty, healthy, nutritious foods out there. By trying new recipes and experimenting with new healthy foods, you can easily find plenty of nutritious foods that you enjoy eating. When you find these foods, your whole focus towards healthy eating will shift. Instead of focusing negatively on all the things you’re missing out on, you’ll focus positively and look forward to all the delicious and healthy foods you get to consume. This will allow you to fully embrace healthy eating without any regrets.
Habit 3 – Think About The Benefits Of Healthy Eating
Healthy eating has so many benefits. These include an improved mood, enhanced energy levels, a stronger immune system and lower body fat levels. By always thinking about these benefits, you’ll be able to get the motivation you need to stick with healthy eating in the long run.
Habit 4 – Review Your Successes Regularly
One of the main reasons why people who have started healthy eating quit and fall back to an unhealthy diet is because they tend to focus heavily on the things that go wrong. While it may seem natural to focus on the negatives, giving yourself credit for all the things that go right is much more useful. When you celebrate your successes, no matter how small they are, you’ll become more positive about your healthy eating journey and more forgiving of the mistakes you make.
Habit 5 – Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can help you conquer bad eating habits. To become more mindful, start listening to your body and its hunger signals. At first this may seem difficult but the more you practice, the more aware you will become of your satiety levels while eating. This will ultimately allow you to eat just the right amount of food to satisfy your hunger without overindulging. You’ll also find that when you become fully mindful of what you’re eating, you’ll fully appreciate the flavor of the foods you eat and enjoy eating so much more.
Summary
If you’ve had little success with healthy eating so far, these five habits will make a huge difference. With the right mindset, improving your diet is a much smoother, enjoyable and more rewarding process. So implement these five habits today and take your diet to the next level.
Top 5 Morning Habits That Help You Eat Healthy
Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, it’s still important that you start your day in a healthy way. By focusing on healthy eating first thing in the morning, you’ll be much more likely to continue eating natural, nutritious foods for the rest of the day. In this post we’ll be focusing on that very topic and listing five top morning habits that will help you eat healthy.
Habit 1 – Drink A Large Glass Of Water As Soon As You Wake Up
As you’re sleeping, your body becomes slowly dehydrated because it goes without water or any other fluid for more than six hours. So to ensure that your body and brain operate optimally when you wake up, make sure you drink a large glass of water as soon as the day begins. This water will kick start your hydration and metabolism and also flush out toxins, allowing you to start the day full of energy.
Habit 2 – Eat A Light Nutritious Breakfast
Many people skip breakfast either because they’re in a rush or they believe doing this will support their weight loss efforts. However, doing this makes you prone to mid-morning hunger cravings which then increase your chances of indulging in unhealthy foods before lunch. Not eating breakfast also has a negative impact on your energy levels, concentration and mood.
So make sure you eat a light, nutritious breakfast every morning. Good healthy breakfast choices include fruit, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, omelets and smoothies. Doing this will provide you with the nutrition and energy you need to get going in the morning.
Habit 3 – Practice Eating Your Breakfast Mindfully
Eating your breakfast mindfully is a morning habit that will allow you to better recognize and respond to your body’s internal hunger signals. This then enables you to fine-tune the process of eating just the right amount that your body requires to get going. Mindful eating involves eating your breakfast slowly, focusing on every bite and paying attention to your body’s hunger signals. By doing this every morning, you’ll be much more receptive to how hungry you are and know exactly when to stop eating during every meal. Not only does this prevent you from gaining weight but it also allows you to enjoy the tastes and flavor of the foods you eat much more than if your mind is elsewhere.
Habit 4 – Focus On One Healthy Eating Habit For The Day
Healthy eating is a long term process and if you try to change too much too quickly, you’ll become overwhelmed and are likely to fail. So instead of trying to make drastic changes to your diet each day, simply focus on one healthy eating habit that you want to change that day and give it your full attention for five minutes. When you do this, you’ll set a strong intention for the day and because it’s a single habit, you won’t feel overwhelmed.
Habit 5 – Grab Some Healthy Snacks
Eating a snack whenever you feel hungry in between meals is a great way to satisfy your cravings and boost your energy levels. However, usually when we start to feel hungry in between meals, unhealthy processed foods are the only things within reach. By grabbing some healthy snacks and taking them with you every morning, you’ll avoid this problem and always have instant access to some quick, convenient, healthy foods. There are lots of healthy snacks you can choose from with fresh fruits, Greek yogurt, nuts and seeds just some of the many wonderful options available.
Summary
With these five morning habits, you can drastically increase your chances of healthy eating success. Once start practicing these habits every morning, you’ll find that it becomes much easier and more enjoyable to stay consistent with your healthy eating goals.
