Healthy Eating Habits
Getting the balance right and taking control of your nutrition can make you feel amazing. Though eating healthy is not always that easy to get that balance right.
Healthy eating takes planning, preparation, and implementation into your daily routine.
Fortunately, there are many ways to make the most of your new healthy eating habits and successfully make them part of your lifestyle routinely.
When you create healthy eating habits you are ensuring you are getting the best out of your life and ensuring you are maintaining:
- a healthy heart,
- supports muscles,
- boosts immunity,
- helps achieve and maintain a healthy weight,
- helps keep skin, teeth, and eyes healthy
- may help you to live longer.
As mentioned on https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/resources-publications/benefits-of-healthy-eating.html
Below are some of my tips on how to maintain your motivation in order to achieve healthy eating habits.
Keep it Interesting
We all know that when you are enjoying the activity or task the easier it is to maintain.
This is because enjoyment can provide motivation and make your experience more pleasurable, which in turn can increase your chances of continuing with the activity.
For example, if you enjoy running or walking a walk around the neighbourhood, you are more likely to continue than if you dislike them.
An example is if you enjoy healthy food and find creative and exciting ways to prepare them, you are more likely to continue eating healthily than if you dislike the food and find it difficult to stick to the diet.
Enjoyment can be a sense of accomplishment, which can further motivate you to continue with an activity or task. Seeing improvements and feeling the benefits will more likely give you the motivation to continue to achieve your goals.
Finding enjoyable ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight loss goals can increase the likelihood of your long-term success.
Positive Mindset
Ditch the excuses and start with a positive mindset.
Mindset is a massive part of achieving and maintaining anything you set out to do.
Creating a positive mindset may take some time to adjust and become second nature in your daily routine but trust the process as everything takes time to become a habit.
Get Inspired
When you are inspired you are more likely to give it a go and also maintain your healthy eating habits.
Find areas of healthy eating that you take interest in and focus on those areas to help keep and maintain your interest.
Clear out the junk
Get rid of all the tempting and unhealthy foods around you.
Like they say – out of sight, out of mind.
If you don’t have anything near you when the cravings hit or are less likely to consume unhealthy junk foods.
Load up on the Good Stuff
Go through your pantry, fridge, and freezer and remove all the unhealthy foods and drinks you have.
Replace them with healthy, nutritious but still delicious foods and snacks to make this process and journey a pleasant one that you can still enjoy.
Make Healthy Snacks
Most snacks you find at the supermarket are full of sugar and processed ingredients even though they are marketed as healthy.
To ensure you are getting the most out of healthy eating, get into the habit of making healthy homemade snacks that you love and enjoy.
Remember to make them easy, and quick and find recipes that you can make double batches of that you can portion and freeze.
List 5 Meals that Excite You
When you keep the motivation and excitement alive you have more chance of carrying on your healthy eating habits.
If you need inspiration, you can always search for recipes that you find interesting and sound delicious and try them out.
You can also create a recipe book or journal to store all your recipes and inspirations in to continue your healthy eating habits.
Move your body
There’s something about getting out in the fresh air and completing a workout that makes you feel great for achieving and in turn helps to keep your healthy eating habits on track as you don’t want to ruin all your hard work from your walk or workout.
You can try my 10 minute workouts from the comfort of your loungeroom and better yet without any equipment. Perfect for busy mums and families!
You can also sign up below for your very own ebook delivered straight to your inbox.
Set Realistic Goals
Setting realistic goals means that you are likely to see yourself achieve them and feel great in the process which then motivates you to keep going to achieve the next.
If you have a long-term goal, try and break this down into a set of smaller goals with set timeframes.
Knowing how to go about how to set your goals, create timeframes and how to assess and evaluate your goals can be the difference to successfully achieving them.
You can read more about Goals and the power they play for success in your life here.
Reward Your Achievements
To coincide with your goals, when you have achieved your goal you set out, reward yourself, but ensure your reward is in line with your goals and healthy eating habits.
This helps maintain your motivation and increases your chances of moving on and achieving your next goal.
Try New Recipes
If you are getting a little bored with your usual meal plan, make it a little more exciting by throwing a new recipe into your week.
Trying new recipes can help spark motivation and excitement to help make this process a little easier and more exciting.
Setbacks and Learning to Forgive Yourself
Remember you are not going to be perfect 100% of the time and it’s okay that you make mistakes. Knowing how to move on and get back on track without delay will be key.
The quicker you learn and move on, the easier and the less of an impact it will cause.
Remember that setbacks are a natural part of the process, and they do not define your progress or success.
Keep a Food Diary or Journal
Keeping a Food Diary or Journal can have positive benefits including a way to assess and evaluate your daily or weekly healthy eating habits and identify any areas or times that may need adjusting.
Research shows that for people focused on losing weight and creating healthier habits in their lives, incorporating tools like keeping a food diary or journal can be an effective tool to help change behavior and create good habits.
Accountability Partner
Having a friend or support partner can help make this process and journey a little more enjoyable and can help your motivation as you can both cheer each other on.
Also knowing that you don’t want to let your support partner down can have more of an impact to keep you going on those days you don’t feel like it.
Have a Healthy Snack in your Handbag
A helpful tip is to always carry a healthy snack with you in your handbag to ensure when hunger strikes you are always prepared and ensure your healthy eating habits stay on track.
This could be a healthy protein bar, a snack you have made at home packed full of protein, or a simple piece of fruit to tie you over to stop you from eating something unhealthy.
Keep a Water Bottle on You
Water and Hydration are so important for all of us no matter what goals you have.
Ensuring you have your water bottle on you at all times can ensure you keep up your water intake and achieve your recommended daily intake.
Ensure you incorporate hydration into your Healthy Eating Habits in order to achieve this important goal each and every day.
Balance
Balance is achieving health in all aspects of life including, physical, mental, emotional, work, and relationships.
Balance gives you the flexibility to enjoy life to the fullest without having to pass up opportunities such as eating perfectly healthy 100% of the time without allowing yourself to enjoy a sweet treat in moderation.
Let’s face it, to aim for this is just not realistic nor would it be a life of enjoyment.
Learning how to balance your lifestyle and healthy eating habits is difficult and a skill that takes time and practice but is well worth the effort.
You can read more on my 13 tips to stay motivated for a Healthy Balanced Lifestyle here.
Final Thoughts
Creating healthy eating habits should be an important part of everyone’s life.
Eating well, staying active, and continuing to look after every aspect of your life to ensure you keep enjoying this wonderful life you have should be a focus and goal for every day.
Living a healthy balanced lifestyle is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and the ones you love.
I hope these Healthy Eating Habits have inspired you to start your journey or have given you the motivation to keep going.
You got this!
Amy xx
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