When you’re trying to lose weight, more than any exercise routine you may start with, the first thing you need to look into is the quality of your diet. While we may not always have the time to visit the gym or even go for a walk, we still need to eat every day, so gradually substituting some foods for healthier options can have a great impact on your weight loss journey. Eventually, you’ll find yourself adopting better diet habits that will stay with you and make you feel much better overall.
Buy Organic Foods
One of the first and easiest habits to get into is substituting your fruits and vegetables with those of organic origin. Not only are you going to get the nutritional benefits of naturally-grown products, their taste will be so much better too.
Don’t even get me started on how much juicier my home-grown lemons are compared to the practically dry ones I get at the local greengrocer’s. You might be thinking buying organic is too expensive, but the benefits outweigh the cost, and you could even start your own organic vegetable garden at home with just a little bit of space and a few pots.
Eat More Soluble Fiber-Rich Foods
It’s also good to increase the fiber in your diet. Instead of eating refined or processed foods, you should eat food rich in soluble fiber since it reduces your appetite and helps you feel “full” for longer. Some examples of this type of foods include sweet potatoes, apricots, oranges, Brussel sprouts, legumes and oatmeal.
At first you may feel a little different with the extra fiber, but this will soon pass and your body will work better and more efficiently. You’ll have more energy and feel like an entirely new person.
Consume More Of The Essentials
You should also increase your input of protein, minerals and vitamins. To do this it is good to eat more fruits and vegetables, and have less red meat and more fish and chicken. These meats have less calories and fat and still contain a lot of protein, with chicken providing the most out of the three.
Reduce Your Junk Food Intake
One of the most important parts of changing your diet is to significantly reduce your junk food intake. You don’t need to eliminate it completely from your diet, since allowing ourselves a guilty-pleasure snack here and there is part of a healthy mind-body balance.
However, foods like candy, chips, popcorn, ice cream, milk shakes and soda are things that are not only calorie dense, but also contribute to health issues such as the development of diabetes. You can substitute them with fruits and vegetable snacks instead. In my case, I love cereal crackers with low-fat cream cheese and seeds sprinkled on top. They’re delicious and super quick to prepare.
Instead of sodas you can have organic juice (most commercial juices contain too much sugar), or even fruit smoothies with water or milk, which are much better options than downing a whole soda can and filling your stomach with gas and sugar, and zero nutritional value.
Top 10 Healthy Eating Habits
To put it simple, a healthy diet involves:
- More home-cooked food and less eating out.
- More fresh fruit as snacks.
- More fresh vegetables as snacks and with meals.
- More beans as sides or in stews.
- More dense chewy bread, less refined white breads and bread snacks.
- More fish, skinless chicken/turkey, and less red meat.
- Smaller servings of red meat, larger servings of vegetables.
- Eating low fat dairy foods.
- Adding less fat in the form of butter, mayo, sour cream, to the food on your plate. This is a huge source of excessive calories.
- Stocking up with healthy snack foods to keep hunger at bay. If you fill up with healthy nutritious calories, you won’t want the junk foods that hunger makes you eat.
Keeping fit does not just depend on exercising; diet also plays an important part in improving your health and body shape. Remember that looking after your health and staying fit is an investment in yourself and something that you shouldn’t neglect, otherwise you’ll likely end up regretting your unhealthy diet habits in the future.
Diet is a part of staying fit that does not take any time and you will reap the benefits throughout your life once you incorporate healthier habits into your lifestyle. With these few points you can make huge strides towards staying fit and healthy, so you can achieve your goals.
