Ten Easy Healthy Eating Habits to Adopt in 2017

We can either have good habits or bad habits that influence us in our day to day life. It really is up to us to figure out how to incorporate healthy eating habits into our lives on a daily basis.

It helps to think of healthy eating habits as a choice we get to make and not as something that we are forced to do. We have the power and freedom to choose the life we will lead from today forward. As we start to learn how to make healthier choices we will begin to see several times a day where we can put our knowledge and freedom to choose into practice. This should make you feel more empowered and less inhibited. Good health is not just our genes or our environment but it is something we can actively seek out and achieve.

Here are some easy ways to get good health habits on your daily radar:

1. Add something new to your diet. Sometimes we think that dieting is all about taking something out of your diet and that can definitely be a consideration. In fact, I started my journey from an elimination diet first. However, if you try to add something new to your diet every day, you will not feel as though you are missing anything. Try a new fruit or vegetable that you have never tried before. Then you will notice as you add more and more healthy items to your diet that you have less and less room for the unhealthy items.

2. Eat a good breakfast that will help fuel you until lunch. Partaking in a good breakfast high in fiber and incorporating whole grains will keep you full and fit for the entire day. I like to have a green smoothie with a couple of cups of spinach. Then I add to that a banana, ¼ cup of pineapple, 5-6 frozen strawberries, ¼ cup of mango, 1 Tbsp flaxseed, ½ scoop of vegan pea protein. Then I top it off with water. This is quick, cool, refreshing and filling.

3. Snack yourself to healthy. Often times, we look to decrease our intake of calories and forget that the point of staying healthy is not to starve ourselves

but to nourish ourselves. Snacking in-between meals (healthy snacking of course) is fine if you need to. I had to snack when I first switched from a SAD diet to a vegan diet because I was not used to eating the amount of food that my body required. As you adjust to eating healthier and are able to eat a large amount of vegan food at each meal, you can cut down on the snacking. When you first start out don’t sabotage yourself by not eating enough and then starving yourself into an unhealthy binge.

4. Increase your fluid Intake. For some people, water in it’s simplest form is not the most palatable beverage on the planet. Try different variations of liquid beverages until you find the one that is right for you. Sometimes simply adding fruits such as orange, lemon, or lime to your water will give you the added flavor you desire. Even green tea with natural Splenda added to it can make the difference. Remember you are learning and what some people may not approve of may just be the thing that keeps you moving forward on your journey to a better lifestyle.

5. Mix it up a little bit. If you get bored with salad, feel free to be creative. Creating a different salad for every day of the week is easy when you mix it up a little bit. Adding things like salsa and vegan crumbles, Gardein chick’n strips, garbanzo beans and anything else you can think of can give the standard salad a much needed pick-me-up. Apples, oranges, and grapes are wonderful additions to a tossed salad that add a little pop of sweetness. When I first started eating salads everyday I used to put in a handful of dates. It helped me not use salad dressing because the dates really sweetened up the meal.

6. Watch the clock. Be aware of time management when it comes to healthy eating habits. Once you have finished dinner, have whatever snack or cup of tea that you desire shortly thereafter. It's even ok to have coffee or soda, every once in a while, if that is going to be the thing that makes or breaks your diet, but be sure not to have anything at all too close to bedtime.

7. A little preparation goes a long way. By preparing a few simple items on a Sunday afternoon, you can make your healthy eating habits a breeze. Overnight oats can be made ahead of time and eaten for breakfast on the go during the week. Making garbanzo beans “tuna” salad and adding tomato, lettuce, and fat-free mayo can be lunch two to three times per week. This will help you resist the urge to buy something “quick” on the run. It is healthy and you prepared it. You save time, money, and eat healthy all at the same time.

8. Do not deprive yourself. Everyone craves a treat once in a while so do not deprive yourself. Just be picky about what you choose. Denying yourself will only make you eat the whole pie instead of just a piece. Cacao nibs are a healthy treat that offers mood boosters and important vitamins and minerals. It does not hurt that it tastes great too. Also nice cream is a staple of the vegan “treat.”

9. Incorporate exercise into your healthy eating habits. While exercise is not a healthy eating habit, one without the other just will not work as well. Exercise does not have to be something you dive into at full speed. Starting off slowly, perhaps walking with a friend, is all the momentum you will need to get and keep this healthy habit in place. I had the goal of moving 30 minutes a day at first. It did not matter how fast I went as long as it was 30 minutes a day. Somedays I was not able to do this all at once and I broke it into manageable segments. That is fine. Do what you have to do to reach your goals.

10. Grab a partner. Sometimes when we set off to do something alone, we find it hard to keep motivated. Incorporating a healthy eating habit partner into your plan will allow you to have someone you have to be accountable to as well. I chose someone that I did not want to disappoint, my son. So whenever I felt like quitting I talked to him and he kept me going. I think I also kept him going to as he was away at college at the time. We took pictures of our meals and sent them to each other. We logged our exercises and we talked a lot to keep one another encouraged.

By incorporating these 10 healthy eating habits into your daily routine, you will see how fast these habits become second nature.

There are a lot of tips here to help you get started. If it still seems overwhelming then just pick a few and start with those and add more as you feel comfortable. The trick is to do something. The race is always won one step at a time but you have to start first.

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