Healthy Eating
Easy Tips for Planning a Healthy Diet and Sticking to It
Healthy eating is not about strict dietary
limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the
foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy,
and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the
conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone. It
seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for
you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. But by using these
simple tips, you can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a
tasty, varied, and healthy diet.
Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about
planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather
than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and
with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
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Simplify. Instead of
being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion
sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness.
This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding
foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh
ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more
delicious.
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Start slow
and make changes to your eating habits over time.
Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart.
Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on
your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of
different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from
butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit,
you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
- Focus on how you feel after eating.
This will help foster healthy new habits and tastes. The more healthy
food you eat, the better you’ll feel after a meal. The more junk food
you eat, the more likely you are to feel uncomfortable, nauseous, or
drained of energy.
- Every change you make to improve your diet matters.
You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate
foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel
good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t
let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.
Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.
Water. Water helps
flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet many people go
through life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches.
It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will
also help you make healthier food choices.
Exercise.
Find something active that you
like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy
greens, blueberries, or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.
Healthy eating tip 2: Moderation is key
People often think of healthy eating as an
all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is
moderation. But what is moderation? In essence, it means eating only as
much food as your body needs. You should feel satisfied at the end of a
meal, but not stuffed. Moderation is also about balance. Despite what
certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of
carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a
healthy body.
The goal of healthy eating is to develop a
diet that you can maintain for life, not just a few weeks or months, or
until you've hit your ideal weight. For most of us, that means eating
less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less of the
unhealthy stuff (refined sugar, saturated fat, for example) and
replacing it with the healthy (such as fresh fruit and vegetables). But
it doesn't mean eliminating the foods you love. Eating bacon for
breakfast once a week, for example, could be considered moderation if
you follow it with a healthy lunch and dinner—but not if you follow it
with a box of donuts and a sausage pizza. If you eat 100 calories of
chocolate one afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories from
your evening meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving
of fresh vegetables.
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Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.”
When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those
foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation.
If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by
reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. If the rest of your
diet is healthy, eating a burger and fries once a week probably won’t
have too much of a detrimental effect on your health. Eating junk food
just once a month will have even less of an impact. As you reduce your
intake of unhealthy foods, you may find yourself craving them less or
thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
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Think smaller portions.
Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants.
When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish
with a friend, and don't order supersized anything. At home, use smaller
plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms, and start small.
If you don't feel satisfied at the end of a meal, try adding more leafy
green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh fruit. Visual cues
can help with portion sizes–your serving of meat, fish, or chicken
should be the size of a deck of cards and half a cup of mashed potato,
rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light bulb.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate—it is also about how you
think about food. Healthy eating
habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about
food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between
meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
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Eat with others whenever possible.
Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional
benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy
eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to
mindless overeating.
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Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes.
Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our
meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of
our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
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Listen to your body.
Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see
if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before
you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell
your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
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Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day.
A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small,
healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large
meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
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Avoid eating at night.
Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until
breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple
dietary adjustment—eating only when you’re most active and giving your
digestive system a long break each day—may help to regulate weight.
After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat and calories so are best
avoided, anyway.
Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a
healthy diet. They are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means
they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Unfortunately, most people are falling short of the recommended daily
minimum of five servings of fruit and vegetables. In fact, most of us
need to double the amount we currently eat.
Try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables
every day and with every meal—the brighter the better. Colorful, deeply
colored fruits and vegetables contain higher concentrations of
vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—and different colors provide
different benefits, so eat a variety. Aim for a minimum of five portions
each day. Try adding berries to breakfast cereals, eating fruit as a
healthy dessert, and snacking on vegetables such as carrots, snow peas,
or cherry tomatoes instead of processed snack foods.
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Greens. Branch out
beyond bright and dark green lettuce. Kale, mustard greens, broccoli,
and Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options—all packed with
calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K.
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Sweet vegetables.
Naturally sweet vegetables—such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes,
yams, onions, and squash—add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce
your cravings for other sweets.
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Fruit. Fruit is a
tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos
offer vitamin C, and so on.
- Healthy eating tip 5: Eat more healthy carbs and whole grains
Choose healthy carbohydrates and fiber
sources, especially whole grains, for long lasting energy. In addition
to being delicious and satisfying, whole grains are rich in
phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect against coronary
heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Studies have shown people
who eat more whole grains tend to have a healthier heart.
A quick definition of healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs
Healthy carbs (sometimes
known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and
vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full
longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.
Unhealthy carbs (or bad
carbs) are foods such as white flour, refined sugar, and white rice that
have been stripped of all bran, fiber, and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs
digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.
Tips for eating more healthy carbs
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Include a variety of whole grains in your healthy diet, including whole wheat, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and barley. Experiment with different grains to find your favorites.
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Make sure you're really getting whole grains.
Be aware that the words stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or bran
can be deceptive. Look for the words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat”
at the beginning of the ingredient list. In the U.S., Canada, and some
other countries, check for the Whole Grain Stamps that distinguish
between partial whole grain and 100% whole grain.
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Try mixing grains as a first step to switching to whole grains.
If whole grains like brown rice and whole wheat pasta don’t sound good
at first, start by mixing what you normally use with the whole grains.
You can gradually increase the whole grain to 100%.
Avoid: Refined foods such as breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
How to loss your weight or to diet:
3 Day Military Diet Review
Are you thinking about trying the Military Diet? Maybe you’ve heard the
quick weight loss promises and seen the popularity of the diet on Facebook and
Pinterest. But is it really possible to lose up to 10 pounds per week or 30
pounds per month? You bet it is. Let’s do a quick review of the
Military Diet.
People are skeptical about diets that promise rapid weight loss because they
sound too good to be true. There’s no magic fairy dust behind the Military
Diet, just stick with it and see for yourself.
The Military Diet is aimed at people who want to lose weight fast. Instant
results motivate dieters, giving them a better chance of sticking with it and
losing even more weight. It’s three days of your life on the Military Diet,
what do you have to lose except unwanted pounds?
The Military Diet is the only diet review that
includes vanilla ice cream
The Military Diet is great for over eaters and binge eaters. Because the
portions on the Military Diet are so clear, you can’t overeat if you stick to
the diet. And with meals that incorporate salt, sugar, and bread, there’s no
feeling of deprivation. The Military Diet Review is the only diet review you’ll
ever read that tells you it’s okay to eat Vanilla Haagen Dazs ice cream
everyday.
Weight loss on the Military Diet is not just water weight
Dieting makes you lose fat, not water. When you kick start weight loss on
the Military Diet, sometimes people claim it’s just water weight you lose. This
is one of the biggest weight loss myths on the internet. So how did the myth
originate? If your current diet is really unhealthy and you eat tons of salt
and drink soda, you retain water naturally. When you start eating a healthier
diet and drinking actual water, you flush some of that excess water out of your
system. So naturally a change of diet can cause you to lose some water, but
calorie deficit dieting makes you lose fat, not water.
You won’t gain weight back on the Military Diet
You can’t eat just grapefruit and saltines everyday for eternity, but the
good news is that you don’t have to. Once you lose 10 pounds, you only gain it
back because you eat more calories than you burn off. The average woman can eat
2000 calories a day without gaining weight. That’s a pretty generous calorie
allowance. The average 14 inch Pizza hut pizza has 2400 hundred calories. Add a
liter of Coke and you’re up to 2800 calories. So if you eat a pizza for dinner
every night, you certainly will gain weight back. Two big Macs have 1100
calories, so if you eat a Big Mac for lunch and dinner, have a Denny’s Grand
Slam for breakfast and throw in a few donuts, you will also gain back any
weight you lost too. But if you’re eating 2000 calories or less per day, you
cannot gain the weight back. That is a mathematical fact.
You won’t go into Starvation mode on
the Military Diet
Another top internet myth is that
dieting causes the body to go into Starvation mode. You’re not actually starving
yourself on the Military Diet so you can’t go into starvation mode. To go into
so-called starvation mode, you need to eat less than 1000 calories per day for
a continual period of weeks or months. The Military Diet offers at least 1000
calories per day and it’s only for three days a week. Forms of intermittent
fasting, like the Military Diet, actually increase your metabolic rate instead
of lowering it. The body burns fat as fuel and your muscles turn into fat
burning machines.
Yes, you might feel hungry sometimes
on the Military Diet
Hunger is just a feeling that comes
and goes, not a dangerous state of being
Portions on the Military Diet are
probably smaller than what you’re used to, especially if you’re overweight. So
yes, you will feel hungry sometimes. But you will lose weight. Remember, hunger
is just a feeling we’ve all grown too accustomed to satisfying. The Military
Diet is a great reboot for your body.
The Military Diet is inexpensive and
easy to shop for
You probably have at least half of
what you need for the Military Diet in your home already. There’s no potions to
buy off the internet, so special secret ingredients. You can find everything
you need for the Military Diet at your local grocery story.
10 Proven Ways to Lose 3 Pounds a Week Without Dieting
You don’t have to go on a crash diet
in order to lose weight at a fast pace. There are plenty of healthy methods to
losing weight, and employing any of the strategies below should yield you an impressive
amount of weight loss.
There’s no need to do all ten at
once, simply start with the one that resonates with you and implement those
changes into your life until it seems effortless. It’s not about making the
right choice, but making a choice and then making it right by sticking with it
and not giving up if things don’t drastically change overnight. So pick one out
and get started!
1. Eat 3 Meals Plus 2 Snacks
If you tend to skip breakfast, or
have a tendency to overdo it at lunch or dinner, switching to 3 meals a day
with two snacks will make all the difference. Time your snacks so that they see
you through from breakfast to lunch, and from lunch to dinner. Resist the urge
to eat after you’ve had dinner, as this can not only disrupt your sleep, but
can be a problem for your digestive system as well.
You’ll find that many diet programs
have you getting into the idea of eating multiple meals per day and smaller
sizes at each, but really it’s just a matter of being strategic and making sure
that you don’t run into a situation where you’re super hungry and haven’t
planned out your next meal or snack and then grab anything just to appease your
stomach.
2. Hydration Therapy (Drink More
Water)
It’s easy to get dehydrated, and
many of us are and don’t even realize it. Simply drinking more water has been
shown to be an effective means of weight loss for many, as it can curb your
hunger, and many times the signal for thirst is confused for hunger, so keeping
a bottle of water nearby can be very helpful.
It’s also going to help your body
flush toxins and other waste from your system, keeping your liver and your
kidneys properly engaged. Being well hydrated also means you’ll have improved
digestion, as your digestive organs suffer as well from a state of dehydration.
3. Get a
Fitness Tracker
Getting an
objective look at how much or how little you move per day can be the wake up
call needed to spur on more activity. Today’s fitness trackers can record all
sorts of data, including how many steps you take, how many stairs you take, and
even how well you’re sleeping at night. this information is graphed and
presented to you in easy to understand charts so that you can easily determine
how good of a day or week you’ve had. You get instant gratification from trying
to outdo your best performance, and some of the trackers out there actually
make it into a game, translating your data into how high up a mountain you
would have climbed.
4. Fill Your
Plate with Superfoods
Check out
our list of superfoods and start adding more and more of them to your daily
meals. They are all designed to give your body all of the vitamins, minerals,
and other nutrients it needs, while keeping your fat and calories down so that
you can feel energized and light, rather than sluggish and heavy. The upside to
eating these types of foods is that they’re helping you live a longer, happier
life, as well as the short term benefit of a slimmer waistline and increased
energy. The neat trick of filling your plate with good foods is that they’re
bumping bad foods out of the picture.
5. Start
Playing a Sport
It’s hard to
get the motivation to exercise and get active, and getting involved in a sport
makes it more fun, and also adds some accountability if you play a team sport
or find a buddy to play with. It can be most any sport really, but of course
you’ll want to pick one that has you moving around a lot if you plan on losing
3 pounds a week until you reach your goal weight. When you have a race coming
up, or a game coming up, it’s easier to motivate yourself to get practicing or
get training, rather than just finding the individual motivation to go for a
run or to go to the gym.
6. Cut Out
Sugar
Cutting out
sugar can be hard for many because it is so prevalent in our society. Many
sugary candies are labeled fat free, which is technically true, except that the
body turns that excess sugar into fat, so in essence sugar is making you fat,
and is also wreaking havoc on your blood glucose levels, which can lead to
complications if left unchecked. You don’t have to go completely off sugar
forever, but going cold turkey is the best way to eradicate it from your life, lose weight effectively, and kick any cravings you have. Once
you reach the weight you want you can reintroduce it into your diet in small
amounts if you find that you even want it anymore.
7. Walk One Hour
Every Day
If you
change nothing else in your lifestyle and simply start walking for an hour per
day, you’ll see your weight reach its natural healthy level in no time at all.
This doesn’t have to be a brisk walk either, you can simply go at a relaxing
pace, but be sure you go for an hour. Take your walk outdoors in the sunshine
for best results, although a treadmill can be used on rainy days. This is a
great time to listen to audiobooks, or your favorite tunes to feel good, get
your body moving, all in a low impact exercise that’s the most natural in the
world.
8. Start
Doing Yoga
Yoga is a
great exercise for those that want to increase the mobility in their life,
achieve an inner state of joy, and also to work up a sweat. You are stretching
out the body, increasing flexibility, and allowing it to perform better, all in
one activity. You can start off with whichever poses you find that you’re able
to do, and work your way up to more complicated ones. It’s something you can
practice just about anywhere, and the combination of stretching, strength
training, and cardio is sure to help you shed the pounds. The nice part about
yoga is that it’s very natural, so you’re not forcing the body to do things it
wasn’t meant to do.
9. Cut Off
Junk Food and Fast Food
It’s really
hard to get rid of the junk food that surrounds us each day, but breaking this
habit can do wonders for your health and wellbeing and is sure to show
dividends when you do your weekly weigh-in. Not only is there no nutritional
benefit from eating junk food, hence the name, but it also makes you feel
lethargic and makes you less likely to engage in any sort of exercise. By
cooking yourself real food you are able to have quality control over what is
going into your body, and you’ll be cutting out things like trans fat,
partially hydrogenated oils, MSG, and other nasties that can really make a mess
of your internal organs, and the way you feel overall.
10. Build
Lean Muscle
Building
lean muscle is a way to increase your metabolism so you’re burning more
calories each day, which in essence will help you lose the pounds. Be aware
that when you start shifting your body structure so that it has less fat, and
more muscle, you might not see much of a difference on the scale. When losing
pounds you want to make sure that you’re tracking the right pounds, as a pound
of muscle gained in exchange for losing a pound of fat will make a huge
difference to your health, while showing no change on the scale. Get a scale
that also measures your body fat percentage so that you can get an accurate
reading on the progress you’re making.
