5 Easy Steps to Healthier Eating
Provided by Pro 38 Lifestyle
As the holiday season rolls around we all start to think about eating healthier. Sometimes the thought is as far as we get in the process. Some of us lack the motivation to move beyond just thinking we could make better choices in our diet and others simply don’t know where to begin. So for those of you who lack motivation take comfort in the fact that thinking about the problem is a first step in the right direction. For those of you who lack the knowledge of how to begin the process read on.
Purge your pantry – Get rid of unhealthy foods in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. If you are worried about the waste, donate non-perishables to charity. So many of us eat junk food when we are tired and stressed out. If you feel exhausted you are less likely to go for the “bad food” if you have to get in your car and drive to the store and buy it.
Keep fruits and vegetables close by – Stock your refrigerator with fresh fruits and vegetables that you enjoy eating. If you don’t know what you might like try buying small quantities of a variety of fruits and vegetables. Have a tasting session and see what appeals to you. Avoid dried fruit as it has high sugar content and it is easy to overeat. Frozen fruit or canned fruit is also a good choice as it keeps for a long time and can be blended into smoothies or pureed and spooned over something else. Frozen vegetables are great too because they stay fresh and can be ready to eat in a just a few minutes. Prepackaged salads are a bit expensive but they do save time in preparation. You can add tuna, shrimp or chicken to them and have a healthy meal in no time at all.
Stock your pantry with quick healthy meals – It is so much easier and quicker to stop for fast food instead of taking time to prepare a healthy meal. You can get around this problem by stocking your pantry with the ingredients for quick throw together meals. Buy low-fat soups, canned beans, tuna, pasta and tomato-based sauces for quick meals. Nowadays there are also many frozen entrees that are healthy and taste good.
Use cooking sprays and broths instead of butter – We don’t realize how many calories we add to our meals by sautéing in butter or margarine. There are quite a variety of cooking sprays available on the market today. You can find canola oil, olive oil, and some flavored sprays also. There are even sprays to use for baking so you don’t have to grease the pan with butter. Broth is also an option that many people don’t think of. At your grocery store you will find chicken, fish, beef and vegetable broth.
Keep desserts in single size servings – Studies have shown that when people serve themselves ice cream they tend to underestimate how much ice cream they have taken. The grocery stores are full of single size servings of ice cream, puddings, cookies, pies, cake and every other dessert you can imagine. If you have budget constraints which most of do these days, then consider packaging desserts into individual serving sizes as soon as you bring them home or take them out of the oven.
As you can see it is not so difficult to change your eating habits for the better. Even though fast unhealthy food is readily available, we are lucky in that fast healthy food is out there too. Groceries are full of single-serve desserts, pre-packaged salads and pre-cut fruits and vegetables.
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