Best Ways to Simplify Healthy Eating
By now everyone is aware of the advantages of incorporating a healthy diet into their everyday activities, but it is easier said than done. You are told to eat more fruits and vegetables, cut out refined sugar, and avoid fat.
However…
The modern age of food makes it difficult to keep up. There is also so much information online that you aren’t sure what is and isn’t the right way to eat.
Most people just tend to overcomplicate things, which makes it harder to maintain a healthy diet in the long run. Simplifying your eating habits just means creating a routine that is easy to stick with and doesn’t add more stress to your life. These few methods are easy and will simplify any eating plan.
Shop Smarter
Grocery stores all use the same layout when designing shelves and aisles. Everything around the sides of the shop is healthy food options, while everything in the middle is processed items. The first way to simplify your eating habits is just to stick to the outskirts of your favorite grocery store. There you will find fresh produce and organic food like whole meat, fish, dairy, and raw and frozen vegetables.
Shopping smart also extends a bit further. Everyone has heard of the war on fat. Marketing tells you to avoid high-fat food items at all costs. The main issue with this is that to make an item low-fat, tons of sugar must be added to make it taste good.
Anytime you opt for low-fat yogurt or cream cheese, you can guarantee that there will be more sugar than anything else. The truth is that fat is very good for you, but there are good and bad fats to watch out for. You also need to consume these items in moderation, which leads to the next method.
Moderation for Everything
No matter what you eat, if you consume too much of it, you will either gain weight or cause adverse effects to your health. The best way to maintain a healthy eating regime is to keep everything you eat down to a minimum and only eat to fuel your body. You want to eat so that you can live, and not live just so that you can eat.
If you crave a piece of chocolate or that bowl of ice cream after dinner, there is no reason why you cannot enjoy that treat while staying healthy. Bad eating starts when you have more than just that one piece or you finish the whole ice cream tub. If you allow yourself to still enjoy the foods you love while keeping moderation in mind, you are more likely to maintain a healthy eating plan that is sustainable over the long term.
Cook at Home
Although fast food tastes amazing, it is often filled with saturated fat, hidden sugars, and loads of carbohydrates. These items are what make food taste good and keep you going back for more. The problem is that even when you eat chicken from KFC, you aren’t getting a healthy meal. To avoid this, take up cooking all of your meals yourself. This dentist who does expert orthodontics in Vienna adds that fast food can also harm your dental health because of its high sugar content.
You don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen brainstorming ideas and then cooking all day. The simpler the meal, the easier it becomes to make it a healthy daily habit. If you have never tried it before, you can use a meal planning app to get some good ideas for quick meals that will take less than 15 minutes to prepare.
Meal planning is also beneficial when you lead a busy life. It takes the thinking out of what to make every day.
Learn Food Swapping
Another effective way to simplify your eating is to learn what bad foods can be swapped with healthier alternatives. For instance, you don’t have to sacrifice your morning sugary yogurt if you use a full cream plain flavor with some organic maple syrup. Look for egg or vegetable noodles instead of wheat noodles that are packed with sugar and sodium.
Even that chocolate you have to have every night can be switched up. Just choosing dark chocolate with about 70% cocoa is enough to see benefits. There is less sugar than milk chocolate and some brands even taste naturally sweet already. Switch your daily chips for a handful of nuts and you will even feel fuller which will help with overeating.
There is no hard and fast rule about eating healthy. The best methods are the ones that are simple enough to incorporate into your life so that you can make healthy eating a lifelong routine.
Last Updated on July 4, 2023
