Tips for Sticking to a Healthy Eating Plan

Whether you want to lose weight or just improve your health, a healthy eating plan is important. It doesn’t have to deprive you of flavour or comfort but it needs to be sensible. Read on for some advice for setting up a healthy eating plan that you’ll be able to stick to.

Strive for Variety

The best way to stick to a healthy eating plan is to make it enjoyable. If you eat steamed vegetables and broiled chicken for dinner every night, you’re going to have trouble sticking to your eating plan. Vary your protein sources, find ways to mix up your veggie intake, and you will have a better chance of being able to stick to it. There are a lot of healthy eating options. Look for variety in terms of food and ways to prepare the food.

Planning is Paramount

One of the surest ways to the drive thru is being hungry without a plan for what to eat. A key to a healthy eating plan is to actually plan in advance. Sit down weekly and put a healthy eating plan menu together and then shop. Go shopping with a list in hand and stick to the list.

Know what you’re eating for dinner, lunch, breakfast and snacks every day until you’re planning for the next food shopping trip. Plan what you’re going to buy BEFORE you shop.

Eliminating Temptation

Temptation happens when unhealthy foods are within your reach. Don’t buy them. Don’t go to places that will provide a lot of temptation until you’re sure you’re over your junk food cravings. Some find that this takes a while and for others it happens fairly quickly.

Know your weaknesses and make sure that you remind yourself that you have goals of healthy eating for good reasons. Whether it’s for your weight loss goals, to tackle cholesterol problems, because of blood sugar reasons, or you’re embarking on a healthier eating plan for another reason, temptation will be there. And if you do fall off the healthy food wagon, just get back on. If you’re eating healthfully the vast majority of the time, it’s okay to have a treat once in a while. The good news is that once you’ve eliminated some bad habits, it gets easier and the cravings diminish.

Change your Bad Habits

If you always eat dessert after a meal or you always snack in front of the TV at night, these may be hard habits to break. Start off small with better choices and with portion control. Eat a snack sized bag of potato chips for 100 calories instead of opening a large family sized bag. Transition to a bag of apples or grapes. Choose alternatives instead of deprivation and it’ll be easier to do.

While you’re adjusting to your new, healthy eating plan:

Find something else to do at night other than watching TV.  Change your shopping habits, change your bad habits, and plan ahead with variety in mind and you could dramatically improve your health and, if it’s your goal, your waistline as well.