Leading a healthy lifestyle is a challenge. It requires time and effort. People often feel it’s beyond their reach and that it’s even impractical.
Busy lifestyles take a toll on our energy levels, so there’s little incentive to skip the convenient junk food and replace it with healthier eating habits.
- It's hart to let go of the junk food as it's readily available - and let's not kid ourselves - it tastes great.
- Others restrict themselves to a limited range of what they consider healthy food – kale, kale and more kale! But a boring diet is a struggle to maintain long-term.
Here are Seven Tips and Tricks that Will Help You Enjoy a Nutritious Diet.
Eating nutritious, wholesome food and enjoying it is not an unreasonable goal.
1. Change your mindset.
Associations that often come with a balanced diet include:
- It’s expensive.
- It’s time consuming.
- The taste is bland.
If you keep these notions at the forefront of your mind, you’ll never be motivated enough to change your lifestyle.
Think for a moment – is all of that actually true? Or, are we simply accustomed to believing so.
We have many interesting and delicious options that are healthy. Nature has blessed us with a huge variety of wholesome, exciting and delicious foods.
2. Be in the know.
Educate yourself. What is healthy food?
Learn which food groups you should eat more of, which ones you should eat less of and which ones you should avoid altogether.
Investigating the damaging effects of unhealthy food on your body is a motivating factor in itself to make the switch to fresher options.
Also read: Here's how to start enjoying exercise.
Research what’s available in your community.
- Where can you buy wholesome, fresh ingredients?
- Are there any pre-prepared or healthy dining alternatives in your area?
The internet is a powerful tool. You’ll be surprised at the options available to you with just a bit of effort to find them.
3. Desensitize your taste for the unhealthy.
Let’s state the obvious
. Unhealthy food tastes great. We become addicted to it because when we first taste something great, we’ll eat more and more of it until other foods pale in comparison.
Train yourself to appreciate the natural flavors of wholesome food, while gradually phasing out tastes from unhealthy options, and you’ll stop craving them.
The easiest way to appreciate healthy food is to take a moment after every bite and feel what the food does to your body. When you are done eating, you should feel more energized than before. If you feel like you need to rest after a meal - you either ate too much or you ate poor quality food.
4. Know yourself.
If you’ve experienced difficulties in resisting the deep-fried, sugary delights available everywhere, then guess what? You’re normal. Those foods are designed to hook out sugar-thirsty souls.
Don’t shock your system with a sudden, extreme diet adjustment. Pace yourself and know your limits.
Quitting your favorite, less-than-wholesome foods all in one go poses a greater risk of failure.
If you crave unhealthy food - fries for example - go ahead, satisfy the urge and eat some - just make sure not to take the jumbo pack. Depriving yourself of what you desire will only hurt you in the long run.
Instead, take steps you know you can confidently handle. Reduce unhealthy options in appropriate measures for your own body.
Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself though. You can do it!
Also read: Meditation to Stop Craving Chocolate and 6 ways to stop craving chocolate.
5. Be adventurous.
Eating healthy food doesn’t mean boiled, tasteless and repetitive food on your plate day after day.
Try new flavors. Experiment with different ingredients. Investigate other ways of preparing a dish. Break free from pre-instilled notions of how food is prepared.
6. Mix and match.
Sometimes we need a bit of trickery to make progress, because when it comes to food, we’ve all got a trace of that child-like quality of turning our noses up at the green gunk on out plates.
Trick your mind into enjoying the healthier options on the menu by paring them with better tasting (albeit less healthy) options in moderate portions.
Gradually and subtly cut out the unhealthy accompaniments, and your brain won’t know the difference!
7. Variety is the spice of life.
A healthy diet ticks all the boxes on the nutrition chart.
When you’ve done your research into what constitutes healthy food, you’ll see that the options are endless. You don’t have to stick to the same food continually.
Design a weekly meal plan that contains a variety of foodstuffs, and alter your meal plan regularly.
Your body will love you for filling it with wholesome, revitalizing fare that will keep it in prime condition, and your mind will be at ease knowing that you’re leading a healthier, more positive way of life.
Learn to enjoy healthy food with this meditation mp3. Bon appetit!
Armed with a new attitude and with practical information, you can make a sustainable lifestyle change to eating and enjoying healthy food.
