How to Stick to a Healthy Diet – 7 Powerful Steps
Table of Contents
Introduction
Healthy diet is the top tier priority for having a balanced healthy life. Also, in contrast, maintaining and sticking to a healthy diet and being consistent can seem like a challenge, especially with the availability of tempting unhealthy food available at the tip of our fingers today.
Read this full article to know how to stick to a healthy diet and be consistent with it.
1.Plan Your Diet
Planning your meals in advance can help you make healthier choices and stick to it. Make a weekly meal plan and grocery list, and stick to it when shopping.
Including a variety of nutrient-rich foods-such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, omega, vitamins and whole grains which can enhance your diet and make it healthy. Make a diet plan-time of consuming your meal, the breaks in between and the amount to be consumed.
2.Prepare Your Own Meals for Healthy Diet
Start preparing your own meals if you want to control over what goes into your food. Eating outside can be inconvenient in terms of health- because you don’t have any idea about the amount of ingredients used, the freshness of the ingredients, the spices used and the cooking environment, which may be at times-dangerous.
Cooking at home can be healthy as you can choose the amount of salt, oil, fats, protein intake, healthy ingredients and control the amount of added fats, sugars, and salt, which cannot be controlled while eating outside.
3. Practise Mindful Eating
I’ve seen people eating in a hurry, eating while watching tv, scrolling through social media while eating. These eating habits are referred to as ‘Mindless Eating’.
Mindful eating is when you put all your focus on eating. You are not distracted by anything, and whatever you consume actually has a good impact on your body.
4. The 80/20 Rule
Your food does not seem healthy if you have healthy meals all the time. Healthy is when you have a balance between your cravings or desires and the discipline.
Do not confuse what I am talking about here. All I’m saying is that there must be a balance between the junk and the healthy. No person can eat and crave healthy meals all the time.
Imagine going to a party and not having any of the food because they have more calories or are unhealthy- you stand by the person eating, and all you’re doing is staring at people having the food.
This backfires you. You start losing control of your eating and at a point in life, you won’t be able to control and maintain your diet- all because you were too busy eating healthy that you stopped listening to what you crave, and your desires.
5. Find Healthy Alternatives to Your Favourite Food
This is really an efficient method to control your cravings- finding healthy alternatives to your favourite foods.
For example if you love chicken burger and want to have a healthy alternative, you can go for homemade chicken sandwich, which is baked, not fried; has natural ingredients instead of high sodium and saturated fat; lean towards protein and gives vitamins from spinach.
Again, there are many alternatives to many unhealthy foods-
| Cravings | Try this instead |
| Potato Chips | Veggie Crisp Chips |
| Movie Theater Popcorn | Homemade Popcorn |
| Peporoni Pizza | Pita With Roasted Veggies |
| Ice Cream | So Sugar Added Frozen Yoghurt |
| Fried Chicken | Roasted Chicken |
| Chocolate Milkshake | Cherry Smoothie with Chocolate |
| Soda | Sparkling water with your favourite fruit |
6. Practise Portion Control
Practising portion control is an essential part of maintaining your healthy body. Even eating excessive amount of healthy food can lead to weight gain.
To ensure proper diet, use a measuring cup, a weighting machine or you can use your hand to measure the appropriate amount of foods yor have to consume according to your body requirements.
7. Stay Hydrated
Drinking water is crucial for maintaining a healthy diet. You can crave food if you are not hydrated, specially those which are rich in fats.
It can prevent overeating, improve digestion, and helps you prevent breakouts and makes your skin clear too. Drink atleast 3 ltrs of water daily, and minimise the consumption of sugar and soda.
