Food, glorious food. It plays a crucial role in many aspects of our lives, influencing our health and image with huge impacts. However, itโs important not to forget that eating can change our moods, enhance social occasions, and generally make us happier people. While itโs great that youโve used January as the perfect time to embrace healthier habits, retaining a sense of enjoyment is vital. Otherwise, you will inevitably give it up within a few short weeks.
Many people worry that the two ideas are mutually exclusive, but that neednโt be the case. As with anything in life, finding the right balance is everything. Here are 10 simple, practical tips that will enable you to maintain your New Year health kick.
1. Grow Your Own Produceย ย
When you buy fresh foods from the supermarket, they often go bad within a matter of days. This can encourage you to choose alternatives simply in a bid to reduce your waste. But when you have an endless supply growing in the garden or on the kitchen side, the healthy route becomes more natural.
There are many guides to growing fruit and veg both online and in books. Meanwhile, creating cute planters will enable you to brighten up the home while producing herbs. With those key ingredients at hand, creating sauces without resorting to pre-made sauces will feel easier than ever. Frankly, youโd be amazed at how much sugar is hidden in many of those jars.
Above all else, fresh foods are far better tasting than those that have been transported to the store and then your home.
2. Invest In A Crock Pot
Most people find that eating healthy homemade meals is just as enjoyable as the quick cheat meals. The main hurdle, however, comes from the process of preparing those recipes. We live in a hectic world, and spending hours in the kitchen simply doesnโt fit around our schedules. With the right kitchen gadgets, it is possible to enjoy the best of both worlds.
Crock Pots are a particularly good time-saver. They allow you to prepare meals either in the morning or night before and then allow those meals to cook throughout the day while you do other things. With so many great recipes available at Country Living, life never felt so easy. This route will often save money too.
There are plenty of other kitchen gadgets and tools that enable you to reduce the time spent completing those cooking tasks. From now on, your focus can stay with enjoying the food rather than preparing it.
3. Change Cooking Oils
When cooking healthy meals, the ingredients used arenโt the only influential factor to consider. In truth, your decisions over cooking oils and similar features can make a world of difference. When you make smarter choices here, youโll feel far less guilty about the cheat choices like a bowl of fries.
Swapping to the low-calorie sprays is a good option. Alternatively, using avocado oil and similar products can bring an extra taste to meals while aiding your health too. Just be careful not to make the wrong choices as USA Today found that coconut oil isnโt as good as people once thought. In fact, it could cause more damage than good.
Meanwhile, using an air fryer than a deep fat fryer can make cheat meals far less damaging. Better still, youโll find that youโll be able to truly taste the ingredients.
4. Upgrade The Taste Of Your Water
Increased levels of water consumption are crucial for any health plan. In truth, you should view two liters as a daily minimum. And you will probably find that it could be anywhere between three to five depending on location and activities. While we all appreciate the benefits that drinking more water can bring, it doesnโt change the fact that it can feel a little boring.
Soda streams are an option to make water more fun. However, most find that non-carbonated mineral water does the trick in the best way. Unfortunately, buying dozens of bottles each week is expensive and can harm the environment. Water purifiers from Big Berkey at Live Healthy soon solve this problem. This is easily one of the best steps you can take for increased health.
Drinking more water will aid your body in many ways. Drink a glass in the morning to kickstart your metabolism, and have another before meals to help control portion sizes. Combine this with switching to black coffees and green teas to drink yourself healthy without losing your sanity.
5. Seek Nutritional Supplements
Fuelling your body with all the nutrients it needs can be tough work. Thankfully, foods arenโt the only way to do it. Taking multivitamins and tablets can give you the nutritional boost needed to keep your body performing as it should. This is without the need to eat foods you dislike.
Those with an active lifestyle can think about using protein shakes and supplements to fuel workouts and recoveries. Not only is this one of the best way to maximize results in the gym, but itโs an easy way of having a daily treat. After all, most of those products are available in great tasting flavors such as vanilla, cookies, and chocolate.
On a separate note, taking this route can be beneficial for portion control and gradually shrinking your stomach in a positive manner.ย ย
6. Go Nuts For Nuts
Nuts are a complicated factor to consider. They do contain a lot of calories and fat, albeit good fats, and must not be eaten in excess. As such, many people ignore them altogether. When consumed in healthy amounts, though, they can enhance your health and make you live longer.
There are many types of nuts on the market, and all have their pros and cons. A handful of walnuts each day can bring many rewards. Use them as a snack rather than heading straight to the cookie jar, and you should notice a major difference.ย ย
Or if you want to treat yourself, create candied maple walnuts or other tasty goods. Itโs still going to provide more benefits than working your way through the Twinkies and potato chips.
7. Get Creative
When incorporating a new healthy eating plan, thereโs a strong chance that youโll look to extend it to the whole family. It becomes cheaper, practical, and emotionally easier when you each have the support of the entire household. If you have young kids, making faces and fun designs encourages them to embrace healthy eating. But those creative instincts can help adults too.
You wonโt want to make faces with your food. Still, a creative approach can help you lose the bread to turn bacon sandwiches into tasty and far healthier “bacon sushi.” Substituting pizzas for jacket potato pizzas or finding other ways to reduce bread and pasta intake will work wonders.
Aesthetically pleasing food always tastes nicer. You only need to visit a restaurant to realize this. Alternatively, you can turn eating into a social occasion by bringing ingredients to the table and building your own. That way, you all get to please individual taste buds too.
8. Prepare Your Lunches
Eating well at home is relatively easy as long as you donโt stock the cupboards with naughty goods. The real challenges come when you are out and about. As a busy worker, taking the quick and easy option on your lunch break can be the downfall. Whether itโs a Starbucks coffee and cake or a McDonaldโs Big Mac meal doesnโt matter. Those decisions are undoing all the good work elsewhere.
Preparing your lunches will remove those distractions and temptations. Lunch prep at Sweet Peas and Saffron will get your creative juices flowing. Meanwhile, cooking leftovers when making your evening meal can have a huge impact when trying to avoid the dangers of work lunches.
This habit will also save money at a rapid rate. In turn, this should enable you to buy even better ingredients, meaning your meals will taste better than ever.ย ย
9. Switch Cocktails For Mocktailsย
Adopting a healthy lifestyle shouldnโt stop you from having the odd treat. However, moderation is key. While itโs important to maintain a good social life, alcohol neednโt always be the option. Besides, when you leave getting tipsy for the best nights, youโll learn to enjoy those moments more.
When hosting a party at home, creating some mocktails can be a fantastic solution. Youโll often find that the calories consumed are fewer. Moreover, most people find that their general consumption falls. Even so, you can still have a brilliant time with friends and family.
Perhaps most importantly, not getting drunk puts you in control. From avoiding naughty foods while drinking to preventing the hangover, those benefits are huge. On a separate note, being sober allows you to keep a closer eye on the home.ย
10. Donโt Punish Yourself
Even with these tips, you will inevitably make mistakes from time to time. This could be due to celebrations, stress, or a host of other factors. As long as those wobbles wonโt derail your progress, they can actually be a key factor for sustainability. Finding that balance suddenly feels like a realistic goal.
17 comments
I have been working SO hard at eating healthy this year and I love all of your helpful ideas. I should totally go buy some nuts to munch on as snacks.
You have some great suggestions. Slow cooking is a nice and easy way to make some really tasty dishes and not have to stand in the kitchen for ages.
I like this! And I am a huge fan of nuts. I always have some nearby if hunger strikes. I try to never worry about what I eat so long as I can fit into my pants.
Yes, yes, and yes for the crock pot! It has helped me with my eating habits since I got one and totally saves time. Good luck to everyone for their healthy resolutions this year!
These are definitely some great ideas! My crockpot is probably one of my favorite things to use. And I am very committed to eating healthier this year so these are some great tips.
Totally agree on not punishing ourselves. Life changing to start eating healthy and moving more. Sometimes it is three steps forward and one step back. Never give up.
Food is my downfall in maintaining my fitness goal. I always drink water, that’s my main beverage and lemon is enough to upgrade it.
We are planning to grow more of our own produce this year. I have a black thumb, but my mom lives with me and she can actually garden. I bought her all sorts of indoor gardening stuff so she can get started early this year.
I think we do pretty good on balancing the food. We don’t eat much red meat, not even weekly usually, but sometimes there’s just nothing better than a juicy hamburger or rib-eye steak. I wish I could have a garden but our backyard is so shady. I do a few containers.
We are all about smoothies in our house. The kids love them as a quick breakfast on the go and I love to mix up my protein shakes. Great way to sneak in some healthy veggies like kale, beets and spinach without the kids knowing.
I try really hard to eat healthily and by and large we do. My problem is dessert. I loooove dessert.
These are some great tips, I love the idea of growing your own produce! That is such a great idea.
Giving yourself a cheat day works for me! Also, seeing what you can swap out.
Totally love your tips here! Small changes or swaps really can make a difference in our health. Now, I really wish I could have my own crockpot again ๐
I enjoyed reading this! What great ideas, and they are all doable, so accountability should be easier ๐
I should be eating more greens and snacking on nuts instead of those high sugar high sodium snacks. I have promised myself that I will be eating healthy starting this year. I know it will be difficult, but there is no other time to start changing my lifestyle than now. Thank you for these awesome tips.
I’ve been doing a couple of these, such a eating more nuts. My crock pot died on me so I’ve got to get a new one and I want a bigger one this time.