Doctors and nutritionist often say to eat healthy and to eat nourishing foods. Choosing healthy foods can be a lifestyle choice and not a quick fix. It is a long-term commitment towards living a healthy and fulfilling life. The question becomes, what does eating healthy really mean? Let’s look at a few ideas.
Since eating habits can be a lifestyle choice instead of a fad that lasts one to two weeks, these ideas work better if not implemented all at once. I suggest that you start with the first one and then pick others from the list that interest you the most.
Healthy Eating
- Allow yourself to be on a journey
- Time to learn, experiment and try new ideas
- Permission and time to create new habits
- Provide grace, it is not all or nothing
- Cook as often as you can
- Oversee ingredients, know what goes into the meal
- Eat out less often, eat at home more often
- Use stocked items to build a meal with fresh ingredients
- Practice meal prepping
- Plan one meal, repeat
- Develop favorite healthy recipes to fall back on
- Use seasonal fruits and vegetables
- Read labels
- 5 ingredients or less, can pronounce or know the ingredients
- Be aware of sugar, seed oils, and salt
- Make selections based on ingredients not advertisements
- Stock freezer and pantry
- Frozen fruits and vegetables
- Canned meats (tuna, salmon)
- Beans, olives, quinoa
- Eat fewer highly processed foods
- Real whole foods in natural forms (baked potatoes instead of potato chips or French fries, fresh fruit salad instead of a fruit salad made with cool whip, mayo, marshmallows, etc.)
- Slightly processed foods such as oatmeal, frozen vegetables are ok
- Vegetables and hummus can replace chips and dip
Which healthy eating idea interests you? Using a coach can be a great support and help to clarify what does eating healthy really mean.