My Top 10 Eating Tips
2 years agoExperts agree that one of the best ways to ensure a longer, healthier life is to eat well, keep your weight in check, and eat the right foods for your body. While it’s easy to give in to poor eating habits, it’s actually quite easy to eat healthfully, when you pare it down to a few rules. Following are my top 10 healthy eating tips.
1. Eat a variety of nutrient rich foods. Don’t be afraid to mix it up. You need nutrients from all kinds of fruits, veggies, whole grains, dairy products, and lean meats. Your body needs over 40 kinds of nutrients and it’s impossible to get those all from one food.
2.Enjoy a lot of whole grains, veggies, and fruits. These are the items you should be eating the most of every day, and most Americans rarely get their daily allowance. Try to incorporate them in every meal and snack.
3. Maintain a healthy weight. Your target weight should consider all things – your age, gender, height, and heredity. Regular exercise is needed to maintain your ideal weight, as is eating properly. Being overweight causes more health issues in Americans than just about any other cause, so try as hard as you can to maintain your personal healthy weight. If you’re still struggling with it, a registered dietician and fitness professionals are available to help.
4. Eat moderate portions. When you keep your portion sizes reasonable, it’s easy to eat the foods that you like. It becomes a problem when you start piling them on your plate and eating more than you should. Pay attention to the nutrition labels on the sides of packages – often, a serving is less than what you think. Educating yourself about the caloric content in the foods you like and often eat is also a good decision. You may be surprised and how calorie laden some food actually is.
5. Eat regular meals. When you skip a meal, it can lead to insatiable hunger, and you’re more likely to overeat when you finally do sit down at a meal. It also becomes easier to forget good nutrition when you’re very hungry. Small snacks between meals can help to curb your appetite.
6.Reduce, but don’t eliminate, certain foods. Eating is one of the great pleasures in life. You’re more likely to stick to a diet and maintain a healthy weight if you still eat the foods you like, but cut back on them and eat in moderation. When we feel deprived of something, we’re more likely to want it and will abandon a healthy diet when we’re presented with it. Altering some of your higher fat foods can also help. For example, if you like fried chicken, try baking it instead. That way, you can still enjoy a food you like, but without the huge cost of the added calories.
7. Balance your food choices over time. When eating a meal that is high in fat or calories, or is low on veggies of fruits, make your next meal include those things to balance this out. All meals are not going to be perfect, but if you try to plan your meal choices accordingly, you’ll maintain a healthy diet.
8. Know your diet pitfalls. Most of us are not very aware of what we eat on a normal, daily basis. You can start by writing down in a food journal what you eat and observing over time. Then check your list against the rest of these tips, and make adjustments accordingly. You may find that you’re eating way too much fattening foods, or not getting in enough lean protein. Whatever the case, you now have a clearer picture of the items you need to eliminate or add more often.
9. Make changes gradually. You’re more likely to stick with a healthy diet when you alter things slowly and get used to them. For example, if you always drink full fat milk, start drinking 1 percent instead, and gradually introduce skim to your diet. You’re more likely to like skim when you’ve adjusted to the flavor of less fat in your milk.
10. Foods are not good or bad. It helps not to look at food that way. Most people like foods that are considered unhealthy for them, that’s normal. So don’t berate yourself for eating you favorite foods, just remember to eat moderate proportions.
So there they are…the top 10 eating habits to live by. Print this out if you can, and refer to it often. These, combined with regular exercise and trips to the gym, will help you maintain a healthy weight for you entire life. The more you ingrain these habits into your lifestyle, the more normal it becomes to do them naturally!
