Maintaining a healthful diet is easier said than done; even more so hard is maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle. The mere idea of vigilance and perseverance required each day for desired results to show overwhelms people even before they attempt the same. But, who said that one has to make drastic changes in their life to achieve health goals?
Instead of making significant changes at once, make smaller and simpler ones make everything more manageable and efficient. And, in case you do not know what those are, read the following healthy diet and lifestyle tips from registered dietitians to the end and give your life a healthy flip over time.
Contents
No Grocery Shopping Without A-List
Most people do not eat unhealthy food because they are hungry or craving something of the sort. Instead, because they have access to easy and tasty alternatives, therefore, to say that your grocery shopping plays a vital role in deciding how healthy or unhealthy you eat will not be wide of the mark.
Well, there are two ways one can go about handling impulse buying or getting things low on nutrients just because they seem tasty –
Always make a shopping list at least a day before grocery shopping to avoid confusion and tossing of unnecessary items in the cart.
Never go inside a supermarket hungry as it can blur your decision of eating healthy and lead to buying stuff on the pretext of their taste.
On a note of step further, research items before writing them down on the list. Check their nutritional benefits and find alternatives to things you know are not half as good for your health. Not to mention how you can also save some money while at it.
Eat Slow And Chew More
There is scientific backing that a person’s eating pace can influence their eating habits, including how much they eat, how likely they are to gain weight, their digestion, etc.
A study comparing individuals’ eating speed reveals that fast people are likely to eat more and have a greater BMI (body mass index) value than those who eat slow.
How much you eat or how quickly you feel full are all controlled by your hormones, which signals to your brain if or not you’re done. However, the time required for your brain to receive these messages is 20 minutes. So, eating slowly gives the brain time to comprehend that you’re full, helping you eat less and avoid weight gain.
What’s more, eating slowly also gives you time to chew each bite thoroughly and adequately, improving your digestion process, weight control, and metabolism.
Choose Whole Grains
I am switching from refined grains, whether white bread or white rice, and choosing whole grains instead is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.
While refined grains lead to health issues, whole grains reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancers, heart diseases, among other health benefits. Furthermore, they will also delight your taste buds and provide you with a good dose of fibers, minerals such as magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese, B vitamins, and much more.
For the first step, ensure that the label of any item you buy reads whole grains and not refined or a mixture of both.
Don’t Drink But Eat Your Fruits And Vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables both make for a great source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc. And, therefore, also have an irreplaceable and compulsory place in the diet of everyone who aims at eating healthy. However, it is also undeniable that it is much easier to put them in a blender and drink all that nutrition. But is it so?
Well, to begin with, consuming liquid calories does not curb your appetite as much as eating whole fruit or veggies does, hence increasing your calories intake.
Moreover, since most of the store-bought fruit juice and smoothies are nothing but concentrates, preservatives, and added sugar, they are not half as nutritious as the natural fruit.
While these are just two significant reasons not to drink your calories, several more overlooked benefits of chewing them down. Still, if you crave a smoothie, try making one at home instead of buying them from the supermarket.
Cook At Home And Get Prepped
There are various benefits of cooking a meal at home, including improved diet, reduced snack cravings, expenditure, stress, better weight control, etc.
But that’s just the broad aspect. More often than not, cooking at home also leaves you with healthy leftovers for the next meal. Alternatively, prepping a side dish on the weekend can help you manage the eating schedule for the rest of the week without having to worry about eating unhealthy or overdoing the calorie intake.
Get Active
To be physically active is as vital as eating nutritiously. Apart from helping you maintain a healthy and fit body, exercise also keeps you mentally fit with an improved mood and decreases feelings such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Not to mention how all these conditions are linked with binge eating and weight gain, working in loops.
However, to get active does not mean you must hit the gym, as even just 30 minutes/day of moderate to high-intensity exercise is enough. You may begin by taking short walks or just opting for the stairs on purpose, slowly guiding it into your routine.
Replace Unhealthy With Alternatives
A healthy lifestyle is all about choosing what’s suitable for your body and mind and not giving in to temptations.
Several aspects could make use of better alternative, but since discussing all is not an option, let us look at some significant everyday healthy eating tips that can significantly impact your overall health–
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- Choose baking or roasting instead of grilling or frying. Depending on how you cook, the composition of your food, including nutrient content, is disturbed, often giving rise to harmful compounds.
- Switch your go-to fast food restaurant to a healthier place to avoid eating unhealthy trans fats just for the taste.
- Replace all your sugary beverages with sugar-free alternatives, or have a cup of sparkling water to curb cravings.
- Always choose to eat fresh fruits and veggies instead of dried or frozen ones, especially the berries. One way to ensure you get all the benefits of what you eat is to choose seasonal fruits and vegetables bought fresh from a local store.
- For snacks, choose popcorn over chips. You may also choose to munch on items like salted dry fruits, seeds, etc.
- Choose greek yogurt over other dairy products such as sweetened or flavored yogurt at the supermarket to make sure you consume only healthy fats and proteins.
- Avoid using highly processed vegetable and seed oils such as canola, sunflower, cottonseed, soybean, palm oil, etc. Instead, choose healthy oils like virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil for all your cooking requirements.
- Drink your coffee black and not additionally flavored or with added sugar and other ingredients. It helps your body retain everything good that coffee offers instead of calories and health issues.
CONCLUSION
Since rushing into a healthy lifestyle all at once can do more harm than good, one must begin slowly. You may start by making an eating plan with portion size and calorie measurements for one meal per day and then slowly integrate more healthy foods into every meal.
Taking nutrition and dietetics expert’s advice as per requirements is also an excellent way to make sure you eat only nutrition-rich foods that are best for your body. Happy Scrolling!
