You’ve probably seen lots of information on TV and on the internet about maintaining a healthy body. Most people will tell you that it’s all about eating healthy, getting plenty of exercise and cutting out bad habits from your life. It sounds easy enough, but in reality, it’s extremely difficult to do these things without a bit of external help.
But something like adopting a healthier diet can be something you do on your own without the need for an expensive service. In this post, we’re going to talk about some practical ways to help you and your family switch to a healthier lifestyle that will protect and improve your health.
Understand the benefits of a healthy diet
The first thing you should do is understand the benefits of eating healthily. This may sound strange to some people, but there are plenty of people out there that don’t understand what the benefits of eating healthily are.
- Reduced risk of obesity – Obesity is just another way to say that you’re very overweight with a high body fat percentage. It’s one of the most common problems in the western world and is usually measured by checking your body mass index, also known as BMI. By switching to a healthy diet, you’re less likely to be overweight which reduces the risk of obesity and its health-related effects such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancer.
- Building healthy habits – A healthy diet can be a stepping stone to more healthy habits. Since changing your diet doesn’t require much effort, it can easily be done at home and you don’t need to strain yourself to adopt a healthier diet. It can lead to you exercising more often because you have more energy, and it can also teach your kids better eating habits that they’ll maintain in the future.
- Managing diabetes – One of the best ways to manage diabetes is to switch to a healthy diet that limits carbohydrate count. It’s also a great way to create balanced meals that contain all the essential nutrients you need.
- Losing weight – A healthy diet is a great way to lose weight and get fit. If you’re starting to put on a lot of weight as of late, then simply eating more healthy foods and cutting out junk and empty calories can be a good way to slim down.
- Stronger and healthier body – Healthy diets are full of great nutrients that help our bodies grow stronger and healthier. This can greatly improve your wellbeing and will help you out of a groggy and tired mood.
- Improved mood – Speaking of mood, a healthy diet is actually a great way to reduce stress, combat fatigue and generally improve your mental wellbeing. It’s a surprisingly effective cure-all for many mood-related conditions that you might be facing.
- More energy – And lastly, a healthy diet can help you feel more energetic. If you always find yourself tired, then switching to healthy snacks and meals can fill you with energy to combat fatigue and help you get through a long day with ease.
As you can see, there are plenty of great benefits to adopting a healthier diet. It can truly change the way you approach life and will drastically improve your wellbeing. Once you understand the benefits of a healthy diet, you’ll be far more inclined to adopt it as part of your lifestyle.
Making small and stable changes to your diet
One of the most practical ways to help your family adopt a healthier diet is to make small and stable changes. If you try to make a massive overhaul of how your family eats at home, then you’re going to be met with a lot of resistance. You need to ease your family into a healthy lifestyle instead of forcing it upon them, and here are a few points to keep in mind.
Always have variety
Eating healthily isn’t about having a salad in every meal. Just like any other foods, you’re going to get bored if you keep eating the same things. That’s why it’s important to look at topics such as muesli vs oatmeal to see which one might be better for breakfast. Switch it up, add different toppings and make it interesting. The same counts for salads as well. People usually think salad involves lots of lettuce and other boring vegetables, but salads can include a whole medley of different colourful vegetables, protein and even fruit.
Replacing liquid calories
Liquid calories from sparkling drinks and fruit juices can be surprisingly high. Try and replace them with natural low-calorie alternatives such as black coffee, water, green tea and fruit teas from bags. Bottled fruit tea tends to be loaded with sugar and is a far cry from tea bags that have been infused with different fruits.
Controlling portions
Portion control is a huge part of adopting a healthier diet. Many people try to cut out unhealthy things such as fried foods entirely from their diet. However, keeping them in is fine as long as you’re willing to control your portions so you have a balanced plate. Try to cut down on the amount of food you put on each plate and consider counting calories and nutrients to see how much you should be serving.
Try liquid nutrients
If you don’t have time to eat loads of vegetables, then you might want to consider looking at a guide to juicing. Juicing allows you to get all of the nutrients from vegetables and fruits but in liquid form. It’s a great alternative to regular drinks and is a lot more interesting than just water.
Gradually moving to more vegetables
A small change you can make for your family is adding more vegetables to their diet. It’s a good idea to dress up vegetables in various ways, such as having stuffed peppers or adding them to pies.
Eat more often but in smaller portions
People that adopt a healthier diet often find they go hungry more quickly. This is perfectly fine and you should try to eat more often instead of eating larger portions. Small and consistent eating is great for your metabolism and will keep you fuller for longer.
Keep snacking in mind
You should try out a couple of healthy snack ideas instead of reaching for a bag of chips or sweets. Snacking is something we can’t avoid, so if we’re going to snack it should at least be healthy.
Try new foods
Variety is important if you want to maintain a healthy diet. Don’t hesitate to try new foods as a way to add them to your repertoire of ingredients and recipes you use.
If you have small kids, get them involved in cooking
Convincing children to adopt a healthier diet can be difficult unless you ease them into it at a young age. However, you can also get them involved in the cooking process and explain what nutrients are and how they affect the body. This will help make it easier for your children to adopt a healthier diet with you.
Drinking more water
Lastly, let’s not forget the benefits of drinking more water. Water is cheap, it helps you feel more full and it flushes your system. Everyone should be drinking more water, especially if they want to develop healthier eating habits.
Treats are perfectly fine too
Keep in mind that a healthy diet doesn’t mean you can’t have treats. Eating something sweet or indulging now and then is perfectly fine and you shouldn’t feel bad or ashamed for treating yourself. Just make sure you do it in moderation and that you don’t develop a habit of rewarding yourself with sweet treats because you ate healthily for a day!
You should also teach your kids that it’s perfectly fine to eat treats and snacks occasionally. Don’t be too overbearing with your kids and deny them access to sweets entirely, but do keep an eye on how much they eat and try to make it a tiny portion of their overall diet compared to healthier foods. It’s also fine to go out and eat something unhealthy such as pizza or even takeout food. Just make sure it doesn’t become a habit!
Skinny and diet doesn’t mean good
We should also mention that diet foods aren’t necessarily better than non-diet foods. Just because something has “healthy” or “diet” on the label, it doesn’t mean that it’s actually better for you. As an example, there are lots of low-fat foods that are actually much higher in sugar content because manufacturers need to keep the taste consistent. It’s also not uncommon to eat more of a “healthy” food because we’re tricked into thinking it’s lower in calories.
There are lots of small marketing tricks in the food industry that people fall for all the time. Just make sure you learn more about nutrients and calories, then read labels to find out exactly what’s inside the food you eat.
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