Tips To Achieving Healthier Eating Habits
Are you happy with your diet and overall eating habits? Do you feel energized and focused throughout your day? Do you feel healthy?
Making the switch to having a healthier diet can be daunting, especially if you are used to eating a certain way your whole life. So, you should begin by trying to make some smaller changes to your diet at first. It’s more manageable to change just one thing, rather than do a complete overhaul.
One of the keys to having a healthier diet includes eating more fresh produce like fruits and veggies. These are scientifically proven to give us a wide variety of health benefits, like reducing your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases while keeping your body healthy.
In general, you will want to eat the right amount of calories for how active your lifestyle is so you can balance the energy you consume with the energy that you burn each day. If you go off balance and start to consume more than your body needs, this results in putting on weight since the unused energy will be stored in the body as fat. The opposite is true as well, if you do not eat or drink enough, you will lose weight.
It’s also important to eat a wide variety of foods to ensure that your body is getting a balanced diet and you are getting all of the nutrients that you need. In general, it’s recommended that men have 2500 calories per day and women should have around 2000 per day.
Here are a few tips to help make healthier eating habits.
Increase your fiber intake, drink more water, make sure to consume the right amount of vitamin b12, eat greens first over fatty foods.
Plan ahead / meal prep
Find staple protein of foods you really enjoy and then get creative with recipes around that
Plan your meals around a higher fiber intake.
Consuming starchy carbohydrates should make up a third of what you consume. These include potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals. You should pick higher fiber or whole grain varieties, like whole-wheat pasta, brown rice or potatoes with the skin on.
These will contain much more fiber than the white or refined starchy carbs and will also help you feel fuller for longer. Include one starchy food per main meal. Some might think that starchy foods are fattening but they actually have fewer calories than fat.
Drink plenty of water.
Getting enough water each day is vital for your health, and is an easy enough habit to change on the day to day. There are many studies that show drinking water can help increase weight loss and help promote weight maintenance. It can even increase the calories you burn, slightly.
Drinking water before meals can help reduce your appetite and food intake as well. With that being said, it’s important to substitute water for other beverages such as soda or fruit juice that are high in sugar. This simple switch can drastically reduce your consumption of sugar and calories.
Consume the right amount of Vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 is an essential component for having good health. Many people can get the right amounts by consuming a diet that includes animal products, however, those who are eating a plant-based diet can only get their B12 from fortified foods or from supplements.
Vitamin B12 is a water soluble vitamin responsible for proper red blood cell formation, neurological function and DNA synthesis. A deficiency in B12 can lead to anemia and neurological and psychiatric symptoms.
Individuals most at risk of Vitamin B12 deficiency can include older adults, those on a vegan diet and people with an increased B12 requirement due to certain health conditions.
Foods that contain a good level of B12 can include animal products like clams beef, eggs, chicken breast and low-fat yogurt. These foods should be consumed in moderation as part of a healthy diet.
Some vegan sources of B12 include fortified plant milks and cereals, nutritional yeast, tofu and dairy-free yoghurt.
Start your meal with greens.
One great way to make sure that you eat your green vegetables is to eat them right at the beginning of a meal. By doing this, you will likely be hungry enough to eat all of your leafy greens while you are still hungry. This can have a ripple effect that causes you to eat less, sometimes unhealthy, components of your meal later on.
It could also lead you to eat fewer calories overall, which can help with weight loss. In addition, eating veggies before a meal rich in carbs is shown to have beneficial effects on blood sugar levels.
It helps slow down the speed that carbs are absorbed into your bloodstream, and it can benefit long and short-term blood sugar control in individuals with diabetes.
Plan ahead.
When grocery shopping, it’s important to make sure you follow these two strategies: make your shopping list ahead of time and never go grocery shopping while you are hungry.
When you don’t know exactly what you need to buy, you are more at risk for impulse buying. And if you are shopping while hungry, you will tend to throw in some quick, unhealthy snacks into your shopping cart.
This is why the best thing you can do is plan ahead and write down a list of what you need beforehand. By going to the grocery store and sticking to your list, you will buy healthier items, plus you will save money.
Choose a staple protein.
Choosing a staple protein that you like, as well as increasing your protein intake, has many benefits. It makes planning easier when you are meal prepping your meals for the week, as you can take the one ingredient and make many recipes out of it.
Protein is also known as the king of nutrients since it has a lot of benefits for the body. It has the ability to affect our hunger and satiety hormones, and it is considered to be the most filling of the macronutrients.
Eating high amounts of protein lowered the levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, more than a high-carb meal would. Protein also helps you maintain muscle mass and can also slightly increase the amount of calories you burn. Protein is important in avoiding the loss of muscle which can happen during weight loss and as you get older.
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How to use:
Move your body - creating a healthy lifestyle makes it easier to incorporate healthy foods. Try adding in a workout 1-3x a week and make sure to support your recovery days with nutrient-rich foods and immune support drinks.
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